A tale of three elections.

Byline: Rafia Zakaria

THE decade is coughing its last, it seems in a particularly glum mood. Protests rage across India as Modi's republic tries to excise citizenship rights from Muslims. Wars continue to rage in India-held Kashmir, Syria, portions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Millions are dying on the shores of the Mediterranean as they try to reach whichever European nation possible in search of a better life, and even more are dying in the Sahara trying to get to the shores where they can undertake the dangerous voyage. That it is a perilous and unforgiving world is obvious.

It is also a rapidly changing world; two elections that have taken place this year, and one more that will take place next year, will together redefine the way the world has been for many decades prior. The most recent of these three elections took place this past Thursday in the UK. After three years of being stuck on Brexit and unable to leave the EU with the given deal, the British people finally delivered the British Conservative party a huge mandate ensuring that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the top man in Britain for the first half of the next decade.

Two that have taken place this year, and one more, will together redefine the world.

It is a momentous occasion. PM Johnson will undoubtedly ensure (as he has promised) a swift and succinct exit from the EU. With Brexit will come a more complex set of mechanisms that determine travel to the UK. While Pakistanis may not be particularly affected by that (it is already difficult enough to obtain visas to the UK) British Pakistanis will see some consequences. Mr Johnson has made critical remarks comparing Muslim women who wear burkas to 'letter-boxes'. The London attacks that took place on 7/7 in the first decade of the millennium and ensuing ones such as that on London Bridge a couple of years ago, along with the arrests of hundreds of 'terror operatives' of various affiliations have undoubtedly provided fodder for his Islamophobic views. Beyond just that, Mr Johnson's books one a novel titled Seventy-two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors (whose content can be easily guessed at) and another a historical account of Rome and his political and historical views (he included a special section on the 'rise of Islamism') all point to a man who is deeply anti-Islam. British Muslims are likely to bear the brunt of this belief that is likely to be echoed in the policies the Johnson administration, that now has an absolute...