The Queen and Abu Hamza

The Queen and Abu Hamza

Author

Institution

Introduction

The British monarchy has been one of the most controversial institutions. It goes without saying that it comes with fascinating procession. However, the British monarchy has undergone a series of changes triggered by bloody revolutions and political coup d’état, as well as constitutional maneuvers that have gradually and effectively shifted or changed the locus of power to the parliament and the Lords of Commons. However, a recent occurrence has brought sharp focus on the British Monarch. Queen Elizabeth was reported as having voiced her concerns pertaining to the fact that Abu Hamza, an Islamism extremist was allowed to continue preaching his hate speech in the United Kingdom (Norton-Taylor & Hopkins, 2012). In essence, the queen asked former Home Secretary to give an explanation on why the Islamic extremist was not arrested whereas he had broken certain laws (Norton-Taylor & Hopkins, 2012). Abu is known to have been carrying out radical activities, was extremely anti-British and usually branded Britain a lavatory.

Of course, it is not  surprising  that the queen was concerned as to why Abu was not yet arrested and tried especially considering that he had been convicted a few years earlier for 7 years for preaching racial hatred and murder (Whitehead & Marsden, 2012). After all, many people had this question in mind. In addition, the queen gets every other intelligence report sent to her irrespective of the palace in which she is living (Whitehead & Marsden, 2012).

This, however, has triggered questions pertaining to the role of the queen, or the monarchy at large. It is evident that the powers and the roles of the monarchy have been diminished in the recent times. The queen went against tradition and interfered with matters pertaining to the operations of the government, thereby undermining her position as the queen. While this may be interpreted as the queen being in touch with her people, it is evident that her powers have considerably reduced. The days when the privacy of the monarchy was an incredible thing in the eyes of the Britons seem to be nearing their end if they have not already done so. This, however, does not in any way underline the end of the monarchy.

Scholars have noted various fascinating aspects pertaining that separate the various forms of monarchies. They note that, in nations that are run by military tyrants or autocrats the protests quickly escalate into demands revolving around the removal of the tyrant. This is the case for Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. This, however,  is not the case in nations or  countries that are governed by monarchs. For example, in Jordan and Morocco, the protests have mainly concentrated on political, social and economic reforms rather than demands for the royal families’ removal. As much as there exists no guarantee as to the impossibility of such protests escalating to such demands as is the case in Bahrain, it goes .............