The murder of Bijan Ebrahimi: Demonising child abusers means inevitable violence

As yesterday's report in the Independent indicated, the killing of Bijan Ebrahimi was not just an ordinary homicide. His vigilante neighbours who murdered him had no doubt that it was OK to destroy the life of a paedophile. Beaten up after he took pictures of the youth who vandalised his flowers, Ebrahimi complained to the police last July. When a crowd taunted him with shouts of "paedo, paedo", he was the one arrested, not those who insulted him. Wrongly detained, he was brutally murdered two days after his release. In an act of quasi-ritual slaughter, this victim of Britain's fascination with the menace of paedophilia was burnt to death.

Reading between the lines it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that far too many believe that the main problem with this tragic episode was that Ebrahimi was actually "innocent" and had not taken any indecent pictures of anyone. Questions are now asked about who is to blame for the lynching of this man. Some will point the finger at those who were responsible for circulating a "baseless" rumour. Others have condemned the residents of his community for unhesitatingly assuming the worst about their neighbour. The police face serious questions for ignoring Ebrahimi's plea for help and for arresting him while a crowd was hurling insults and vilifying him as a paedophile.

source: Article 'The murder of Bijan Ebrahimi: Demonising child abusers means inevitable violence' by Frank Furedi (sociologist); www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-murder-of-bijan-ebrahimi-demonising-child-abusers-means-inevitable-violence-8911715.html; The Independent; 29 October 2013