“Sir Iqbal is regarded as a moderate and his comments were the latest in a long line of similar statements from mainstream Islamic leaders. These have in turn provoked outbursts of Islamophobia from sections of the gay community, with some activists at the Gay Pride parade last year berating Muslim marchers as ‘suicide bombers’ and a gay magazine categorising Islam as a ‘barmy doctrine’.”
A reasonably balanced article from Ben Hoyle in the Times, 7 January 2005
Supporters of Omar Deghayes and six other British detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay have called a demonstration to demand that the US authorities release them and shut down its network of secret detention centres. The march will take place on Saturday 21 January in London.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Omar and the other detainees have launched a court challenge aimed at forcing the British government to do more to help free them. Omar’s family came to Britain in the early 1980s as refugees from Libya. His father, a trade union activist and lawyer, was murdered by Colonel Gadaffi’s regime.
Demand justice for the British residents in Guantánamo Bay, Saturday 21 January. Assemble 12 noon, Tothill Street, central London, nearest tube St James’s Park.
Go to www.save-omar.org.uk for more information.
“… racism has continued into the 21st century – though today it typically justifies itself on ‘cultural’ grounds rather than crude biological claims. This continued existence of racism points to just how fundamental it is to the capitalist system. And some racist ideologies are more obviously generated by capitalism than others.
“Take anti-Muslim racism – also known as Islamophobia. We have seen an upsurge of such prejudice, often given a liberal gloss, over the last four years. It’s not hard to fathom why. It is basically the ideology used to justify the ‘war on terror’, which is itself part of the imperialist project of the US state to dominate the globe.
“We can compare the treatment of Muslims today with the treatment of Jews in the early 20th century. They were seen as an alien presence in European cities – a competitive threat to indigenous workers at home, and, in the crazed ideology of anti-Semites, a threat to the nation from without thanks to their supposed control of powerful institutions.
“It’s not just the hardened racists of the BNP who are targeting Muslims. So are the government and the establishment, in their own particular way. Instead of examining the real reasons for terrorism, which would lead to them having to denounce their own policies, they look to a ‘group’ explanation. There must be something wrong with Muslims, they say. The problem is ‘Muslim terrorism’. And Muslim, here, is essentially a racial category, as anyone who has been stopped and searched for ‘looking Muslim’ will tell you.
“You can see the way this leads to renewed racism just by contrasting the current approach to the response to the last bombings in London, in 1999. When BNP supporter David Copeland bombed Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho, there was no demand on the ‘white community’, or even the BNP, to apologise. But today Muslims have to come out again and again to show the world how sorry they are for the 7 July bombings, under threat of being seen as an enemy within if they don’t condemn louder than anyone else.
“So, beneath official talk of multiculturalism and opposition to racism is, in fact, the creation of racial prejudice and stereotyping because those responsible for the system cannot admit to its fundamental faults.”
Kerri Parke and Kevin Ovenden in Socialist Worker, 7 January 2006
Peace campaigners condemned a court ruling yesterday allowing the extradition of a British-born terror suspect to the US, where he risks an unfair trial and even torture.
District Judge Timothy Workman ruled at Bow Street magistrates court that Yorkshire-born Haroon Rashid Aswat, who is accused of trying to set up al-Qaida training camps in the state of Oregon between 1999 and 2000, can be extradited to the US.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has up to two months to approve the extradition of Mr Aswat, who denies the charges. His lawyers have expressed grave concern that he could end up in the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention centre if extradited.
Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs chairman John McDonnell said that he was “appalled” by the court’s decision and agreed that “no-one can be sure that this British-born man will receive a fair trial in the US.”
Morning Star, 6 January 2006
“… the anti-semitic cabal running the MCB has announced that as the Holocaust Memorial Trust has not given in to their blackmailing, it will continue its boycott”.
Western Resistance, 5 January 2006
Ah yes, this would be the same “anti-semitic cabal” who, explaining why the MCB would not be supporting Holocaust Memorial Day last year, wrote:
“The Nazi Holocaust was a truly evil and abhorrent crime and we stand together with our fellow British Jews in their sense of pain and anguish. None of us must ever forget how the Holocaust began. We must remember it began with a hatred that dehumanised an entire people, that fostered state brutality, made second class citizens of honest, innocent people because of their religion and ethnic identity. Those who were vilified and seen as a threat could be subjected to group punishment, dispossession and impoverishment while the rest of the world stood idly by, washing its hands of despair and suffering….”
MCB statement, 24 January 2005
For an example of the views of those opposing MCB participation in Holocaust Memorial Day in its present form, see the comments by Osama Saeed of MAB. Rolled Up Trousers, 19 December 2005
Immigration campaigners accused Migration Watch chairman Andrew Green of “verging on the point of racism” yesterday after he called for harsh restrictions on arranged marriages.
The rightwinger said that the minimum age for admission to Britain for marriage should be raised from 18 to 21, with action taken to restrict the number of children born to foreign mothers. Regarding potential spouses who were born in a “particular country” or whose parents were born there, the minimum age for both parties should be raised to 24 if the other suitor came from that country, he claimed.
“We’ve seen the problems that can come from failure to integrate and we’ve got to look at this problem frankly and openly”, declared Mr Green, before trying to link immigration and terrorism. Asked if he was referring to the July 7 terror attacks on London, he replied: “What else has got to happen before we look seriously at the real problems of integration?”
Immigration Advisory Service director of operations Michael Pickett pointed out that Mr Green’s views appear to be incredibly bigoted. “When he refers to a ‘particular country’, he is referring to the Indian subcontinent, not to countries such as Russia and the Ukraine”, Mr Pickett noted.
“To make a connection between the July 7 terrorist attacks on London and arranged marriages is ludicrous”, a claim for which there is “not a single scrap of evidence”, he said. “The reason the bombers were able to go unnoticed is that they were fully integrated. It is a crap argument, once again verging on fantasy.”
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants chief executive Habib Rahman said that it sounded as if Migration Watch was arguing that restrictions should be put on the right of British nationals to marry the person of their choice.
“Migration Watch’s claims do not seem to be underpinned by any systematic evidence”, he added. “For example, migration to Britain takes place from all over the world, so we cannot see any evidence of any special connection between arranged marriages and the rate of births to foreign mothers or the ability to integrate successfully with British society.”
“In the end, migrants’ integration should be measured by the values they hold, not their customs”, insisted Mr Rahman. “Participation in our society and attachment to principles of law-abiding and democratic behaviour should be the measures, not a marriage custom.”
Morning Star, 5 January 2005
For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 5 January 2006
Migration Watch’s “findings” are enthusiastically endorsed by the fascists: “According to immigration think tank, MigrationWatch ‘chain migration’, mainly through bringing partners from overseas, produces even higher proportions of such births for communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, thus intensifying the formation of ghettos and setting back integration for a generation.”
Peace campaigners accused the Blair government of complicity in the US “barbarities” at Guantánamo Bay yesterday and demanded the release or trial of British detainees held there.
Families and supporters of British residents held in Guantánamo Bay for the past three years without charge or trial demanded that they be either released or repatriated to face trial in Britain. The Save Omar Deghayes Campaign delivered giant postcards, depicting Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Speak No Evil monkeys, to their respective offices to highlight their demand.
Today is the deadline for a High Court response to demands for a judicial review of the British government’s refusal to represent these men on the grounds that the refugees are not British citizens.
Morning Star, 5 January 2006
In fact the Nazis are so taken with Browne’s anti-PC diatribe The Retreat of Reason that they’re selling it through their online bookshop.
BNP news report, 5 January 2006
Mind you, the BNP’s press officer Phil Edwards is rather less enthusiastic, though he does have a personal axe to grind here:
“When I read Anthony Browne’s earlier book ‘Do we need Mass Immigration?’ (Published by Civitas in 2002) I was struck by how so much of it seemed to be cribbed from my writings, broadcasts and newspaper and radio interviews from around 1997 onwards.”
Letters in the Metro (London) 5 January 2006:
The head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, says homosexuality is “immoral” and risks “damaging society”. Unfortunately, this shows all too well that following Islam is incompatible with living in a tolerant and free society. Britain has to decide which of these two paths is the most important, or the divisions that we are increasingly experiencing will surely continue to get worse.
Tim Jones, London W2
Although I am no great gay rights activist, despite being of that persuasion myself, I couldn’t ignore the moronic and hypocritical ramblings of Sir Iqbal Sacranie. His bigoted and prejudiced comments were a bit rich coming from a religion that has advocated violence and terror on one hand, while bleating about acceptance and tolerance on the other.
Steven King, Manchester
“Everyone in a democracy has the right to argue for their views and engage in public debate. But there is no equality when it comes to how the British government treats those who want to give physical support to Israel and those who want to do the same for the Palestinians. Such double standards feed resentment in Britain’s Muslim community at the government’s failure to recognise its legitimate grievances, as highlighted in yesterday’s report by the thinktank Demos.
“In recent months the media have reported on the recruitment of British Jews to fight in the Israeli army, now in its 40th year of occupation of Palestinian territory in defiance of international law and UN resolutions. Some are intending to emigrate; others to return to Britain after serving in the Israeli army. But we have not had a word of concern from the British government.
“In the Muslim community, however, the question is widely raised as to how British citizens can travel to another country and fight in its army of illegal occupation without any repercussions. Would that be the case if, say, a young Muslim or Briton of Palestinian origin travelled to the occupied Palestinian territories – let alone occupied Iraq – to protect his or her homeland or co-religionists? Of course not: such volunteers could expect to be arrested under this government’s anti-terrorism legislation as soon as they returned.”
Ismail Patel in the Guardian, 5 November 2006
No doubt Melanie Phillips will rally to the defence of British citizens who go to Israel to join the IDF and oppress the Palestinians. But then, I was forgetting, Phillips has stated emphatically that “British Jews do not serve in the Israeli army“.