Yusuf Smith replies to Nick Cohen’s paean to Maryam Namazie. Not all communists are Stalinists or Islamophobes, though, Yusuf. And I think you can rest secure in the knowledge that the WPI will never seize state power in Iran, at least not with their present politics.
Category Archives: UK
Nick Cohen boosts Maryam Namazie
“A week ago, at a reception in one of London’s dowdier hotels, Maryam Namazie received a cheque and a certificate stating that she was Secularist of the Year 2005. The audience from the National Secular Society cheered, but no one else noticed.”
Nick Cohen in the Observer, 16 October 2005
Oh, I don’t know. Islamophobia Watch picked up on it. Cohen observes that “Maryam Namazie’s obscurity remains baffling. She ought to be a liberal poster girl” (sic). Perhaps Namazie’s obscurity is not unconnected with the fact that she’s a member of the central and political committees of a barking far-left sect, the Worker Communist Party of Iran (WPI), whose hysterical Islamophobia, while it obviously appeals to a fellow bigot like Cohen, would repel any principled liberal.
As for the so-called “Sharia courts” in Canada to which Cohen’s article refers, details can be found in the Canada section of this site. What was in fact proposed was to allow Muslims the same right to faith-based civil arbitration that had been available to Catholics and Jews in Ontario since 1991. The WPI’s response to the proposal was:
“The struggle to establish Islamic tribunals in Canada, like similar efforts to enforce the hijab in public institutions and schools in France, is not merely a cultural effort to pursue cultural rights. Both the aims of and the forces behind these efforts are political. These attempts are part and parcel of one of the most reactionary global phenomena in recent history, i.e. the movement of political Islam.”
The Ontario proposal provoked a racist backlash throughout Canada against Muslims and their supposed barbaric religious practices, which it was claimed had no place in a civilised Western society. And it was another WPI central committee member, Homa Arjomand, who played a leading role in encouraging this upsurge of Islamophobia. For her trouble, she became the “poster girl” of the most hardline right-wingers, receiving plaudits from the likes of Front Page Magazine.
It can’t be long before Cohen and the WPI go the whole hog and join their friends in GALHA – with whom they have co-operated closely in the anti-Qaradawi campaign – in promoting an anti-Muslim agenda that is indistinguishable from the vile propaganda of the racist Right.
Why Muslims reject ‘British’ values
As ministers accuse Muslims of failing to integrate into mainstream society, a leading black intellectual and anti-racist campaigner calls on Tony Blair’s government to face up to the reality of continued racism in Britain.
A. Sivanandan writes in the Observer, 16 October 2005
‘Stealth’ Islamists recruit students
“An Islamic organisation facing a ban under terrorism laws has launched a campaign to recruit university students using an anti-racist front organisation. An undercover Sunday Times investigation has established that the party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has been recruiting under the name Stop Islamophobia at University College London (UCL), the School of African and Oriental Studies, Luton University and other institutions.”
Another episode in the anti-Hizb witch-hunt, in this case inspired by the ridiculous and discredited Glees report.
For Hizb reply, see here.
Double standards on free speech
“In times of war on terror, the risk is that free speech will be the first casualty. The tension between free speech and the safety of the population is a genuine one. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, has just modified part of the Terrorism Bill which dealt with ‘glorifying’ terrorism. Imams and others will now be prosecuted only if their remarks are seen as as inducements to further terrorist acts. Most people will have little problem with such a law. The fact that certain people, mainly radical Muslims, have abused our tolerance to incite acts of terror has rightly provoked anger.
“Where there is a problem, however, is with another government assault on free speech that has no direct connection with terrorism – the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. If it becomes law, anybody who publishes or says anything ‘likely to be heard or seen by any person in whom it is likely to stir up racial or religious hatred’ will be committing an offence that could make them liable to a seven-year prison term.
“This bill has so far attracted most attention because of the efforts of comedians such as Rowan Atkinson. They have argued that it would prevent them poking even gentle fun at any religion. It also featured during the election campaign when Mr Clarke – billing himself as ‘Labour’s home secretary’ – wrote to every mosque in the country highlighting Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition to the proposals. There was a clear implication that the government was trying to secure the Muslim vote.”
Editorial in the Sunday Times, 16 October 2005
Short version: laws that penalise Muslims, good; laws that protect Muslims, bad.
Muslims are the real threat, claims Nazi
A Nazi argues that the traditional fascist emphasis on resisting the supposed Jewish control of government and society is now outmoded:
“… the world is facing a bigger threat. Right now our whole way of life is under a threat of the magnitude that no Jew has ever presented us: Sharia Law. Little by little, piece by piece Blair is facilitating the Muslim take over of our society. Burger King remove icecreams because a squiggle on the packaging looks like ‘Allah’. A council removes pictures of pigs during Ramadan. They are pushing and pushing – seeing what they can get away with. If they are refused it’s ‘Islamophobia’. How long before all pork is banned because of ‘Islamophobia’. How long before we are told what to wear, what to drink, what to say?
“At the moment our society is the best on the world (even if it is run by some secret group of Jews!!) Compare our way of life to the real enemy: People who’ll flog your feet for listening to music or being clean shaven. People who’ll behead you for drinking a lager…. Groups like Hisb ut Tarir want an Islamic world, with white people as subservients – paying tax to their caliph king. Despite the noise made by Blair, they are still all around us and still getting stronger.
“Obesssion with ZOG [Zionist Occupation/Occupied Government] is a distraction. Fuck it – forget about the Jews. Focus on the real enemy. Defending the Jews isn’t something I make a habit of, but at least they are more or less like us…. The Jews don’t eat pork, but they don’t shove their religion down our throats, but there are people out there who will – if we lose sight of who the real enemies are.”
Joan Smith defends modernity against Muslims
“I haven’t opposed religious reactionaries all my life to suddenly go soft on people who argue that calling for a ban on ‘adulteresses’ being stoned to death is a bit too radical for Islam at the moment (yes, I do mean Tariq Ramadan).” Joan Smith takes up the refrain we hear endlessly from Nick Cohen, Harry’s Place et al that the Left have abandoned their principles by allying with Muslims in opposition to US imperialism. “It’s time they took an honest look at where they may be heading and I don’t just mean the restoration of the Caliphate.”
Tribune, 14 October 2005
Personally, I think the Islamophobic self-styled defenders of secularism and rationalism should take an honest look at where they are heading – and I do mean (cf. Gay and Lesbian Humanist) into a de facto racist bloc with the likes of the BNP.
Robert Spencer assesses ‘Bush’s new terror stance’
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch endorses Daniel Pipes’ verdict on Bush’s speech. But Spencer argues that the president should be more specific in his condemnation of Islamist terrorists and “announce that we are at war with their supremacist, expansionist ideology, which arises from Islam”. Still, the overall verdict is positive: “The force of events has brought the President far. Before he is done, he is likely to have gone farther still.”
‘Active Resistance to Islamification’ organisation launched
A former aide to Robert Kilroy Silk has launched a group which aims to fight back at what it views as “Islamofascism”. Tony Bennett, who worked as a researcher for the former politician and television presenter, is recruiting members for the Active Resistance to Islamification, which plans to “erect one sign or symbol that is offensive to those sensitive Muslim flowers in our midst for every one they succeed in removing from our society”.
Bennett, who believes Islam is an “evil force” but insists that he “doesn’t believe in discrimination”, added: “Last week one Muslim said he was offended by a picture of a pig and demanded that all things resembling pigs at his work were removed.” In retaliation Bennett painted a St George’s cross on a “Welcome to Harlow” road sign. Last year he left the UK Independence party after describing the prophet Muhammad as a paedophile.
Cross party coalition says no consensus on anti-terror law
On the day the government published its anti-terrorism bill, a broad cross-party coalition met to challenge a number of the government’s proposals.
The coalition says that the concessions announced by the government do not go far enough so that in its present form the legislation will not command the cross party and cross community consensus which is essential for it to be successful.
The coalition brings together the Mayor of London, the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats, Labour MPs, the Green Party, major trade unions, Liberty, lawyers, the main Muslim organisations, Sikhs, Christians, the peace movement and many others.
The coalition held its first meeting on Wednesday 12 October, at Central Hall Westminster with one of the broadest platforms ever brought together around a single issue. Around one thousand people attended the meeting.