Posters with the phrase “America’s latest hero is a Muslim straight out of jail” has been banned from the Tube by London Underground (LU).
LU said it will not show the posters from a £1m advertising campaign for new TV series Sleeper Cell until creators remove the word Muslim from the text. It claims it will offend people and it is trying to be sensationalist.
Letter in Socialist Worker, 1 April 2006:
The organisers of the protest for “freedom of expression” in Trafalgar Square last Saturday claimed to be standing up for free speech after the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed in Denmark. But what they were really doing was standing up for their rights to insult and offend Muslims, and increase Islamophobia in Britain.
The organisers had originally asked people to bring placards containing the cartoons to Trafalgar Square. But the day before the protest they had had to backtrack on this. One of the organisers admitted that many Muslims, including secular ones, were extremely offended by the cartoons that depicted all Muslims as terrorists.
The call to protest over this issue had opened a Pandora’s Box of racism and nationalism. The Civil Liberty website, run by Nazi BNP member Kevin Scott, had urged people to demonstrate on the day.
A strange mix of right wing libertarians and middle class liberals joined the rather small protest – which unlike the multi-racial anti-war protest that had filled Trafalgar Square the previous week, was mainly white.
I was particularly disappointed with gay campaigner Peter Tatchell who happily spoke alongside right wing nutcases from the Libertarian Alliance and the Freedom Association. Tatchell continually criticises the left, including Socialist Worker, for forming alliances with supposedly “reactionary” Muslims. He told the rally, “Free speech does not include the right to incite hatred and violence against other human beings.” But that was exactly what the cartoons were published to do – to make people see Muslims as the enemy within.
Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance defended the rights of BNP leader Nick Griffin, Holocaust denier David Irving and disgraced racist lecturer Frank Ellis to “speak their mind”. The crowd cheered him. Mark Wallace of the Freedom Association also spoke. This is a notorious right wing group that campaigns for the “freedom” to speak out against the “tide of immigration”.
The real undercurrent of this rally was the racist idea that the main threat to all of our liberty is “reactionary Islam”. While some speakers denounced the “war on terror” most of the focus was on Muslims. Everyone involved with this “unholy alliance” should be ashamed of themselves.
Katherine Branney, East London
Those who question whether the far right was present at Saturday’s ‘March for Free Expression’ in Trafalgar Square are referred to the BNP’s report, which states that the rally was attended by “a delegation from Civil Liberty, the organisation established earlier this year to defend the rights of patriotic Britons…. Whereas there are scores of organisations, some of which are publicly funded, that defend ethnic minority groups in their usual divisive way by excluding the indigenous majority from taking advantage of their services, until recently there has not been one single organisation that was prepared to defend the hard won freedoms of the British majority…. About 40 CL supporters attended the protest rally and handed out literature which was well received by other defenders of our fundamental liberties.”
BNP news report, 27 March 2006
See also Civil Liberty news report, 27 March 2006
Cf. Peter Tatchell’s claim: “Contrary to the lies and scaremongering of the far left, there was no BNP presence at Saturday’s rally.” Or the assertion by Tatchell’s sidekick Brett Lock that fascists “were explicitly banned from the march”. Odd that. I don’t recall seeing stewards intervening to prevent “Civil Liberty” distributing its glossy literature at the demonstration.
For the LAGCAR statement that Tatchell and Lock polemicise against, see here.
A representative from Islamophobia Watch will appear on the Islam Channel on Wednesday 29th March at 7pm on the ‘Politics and Beyond’ programme to discuss Islamophobia in the media and what the Muslim community can do about it.
Another paranoid rant from Melanie Phillips, this one in response to Jack Straw’s speech at the Muslim News awards on Monday evening. She even finds sinister implications in the following uncontroversial statement by Straw:
“The release of the British hostage, Norman Kember, and two of his companions has been very prominent in the media over the past few days. I believe the calls by many Muslims in this country and fellow British citizens for the safe release of those kidnapped victims and showing their solidarity with their plight may have contributed to their survival.”
Mel comments: “The British Foreign Secretary has now said, in effect, that the lives of Norman Kember and the other two hostages were saved thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood. What price will the Brotherhood now exact from Britain in return?”
Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 28 March 2006
Update: See also Yusuf Smith’s comments at Indigo Jo Blogs, 29 March 2006
As’salaamu alaykum,
Our brothers and sisters in New York desperately need our help and support.
On March 29th, this Wednesday, an event is being held by a student organization at New York University called the Objectivist Club. The event’s purpose is to analyze the issue of free speech with an emphasis put on the vile cartoons published in Denmark that depicted the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Islam in a highly offensive manner. This little known student group is also planning on displaying the cartoons at the event.
I joined Muslim students in an emergency meeting with the university and its administration on Friday to ensure the display will not go ahead. We did not get assurances we needed and the university hierarchy is still considering the issue. While the event itself poses no problems the pictures, as you know, are racist, offensive and will breed hate against Muslims as well as ridicule our beloved Prophet (pbuh).
The students at NYU need our help to stop this disgraceful exhibition. Can we all send a simple, polite email to John Sexton john.sexton@nyu.edu, the president of NYU, as well as Bob Butler bob.butler@nyu.edu, the director of student activities as NYU, letting them know your concerns.
I did tell the students that I would try and rally support overseas – so let’s show the NYU administration that if they mess with our brothers and sisters in New York they mess with all of us. The following is a letter that has already been sent to President Sexton earlier by the imam of the Islamic centre.
Your sister in Islam
Yvonne Ridley
The weekend papers provided a platform for pundits to offer their views on the House of Lords decision in the Shabina Begum case. These are, predictably, uniformly hostile to Shabina. Thus we have Fiona Phillips in the Daily Mirror (“‘I’m an intelligent girl,’ Shabina told me, ‘and no one tells me what to do.’ Clearly, though, her brother does”) and Carole Malone in the Sunday Mirror (“this uppity young woman not only needs to be brought down a peg or two, she needs to learn that in Britain rules and respect are a damn sight more important than what you wear”). Jasper Gerard in the Sunday Times dismisses Shabina’s point that “there are girls pressured to wear headscarves who don’t want to” (“here Shabina surely shoots her case out of the sky: if girls are subject to any unwelcome pressure to cover up, then far from giving in, perhaps schools should ban all religious clothing”), while Joan Smith in the Independent on Sunday says that “the decision marked the moment in Britain when the State, faced by religious extremism, drew a line” and claims that Shabina is among those who “advocate ideas that are quite at odds with the values of the society in which they live”.
Lenin’s Tomb has coverage of the pathetic “March for Free Expression” protest in Trafalgar Square this afternoon. It drew some 300 people at its peak and that had fallen to around 150 by the time this would-be mass demonstration reached its rain-soaked end. The hard core who remained gave an enthusiastic reception to Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance when he criticised the supporters of “free speech” who had backed Jyllands-Posten over the cartoons but had failed to give similar support to Nick Griffin and David Irving during the recent court cases against them.
Lesbian and Gay activists say “Don’t support the BNP” – the truth about the Freedom of Expression rally
LGBT activists have expressed deep concerns at the Freedom of Expression rally due to take place this Saturday. The event has received support from fascist group the BNP, and “Civil Liberty” which is co-ordinated by BNP regional organiser Kevin Scott, who holds convictions for assault and using threatening words and behaviour(1). The BNP is calling the forthcoming local elections a “referendum on Islam”.
LGBT activists have expressed concerns that some Lesbian and Gay organisations, and other mainstream figures, could be seen to lend legitimacy to the event. Speakers billed as appearing include Peter Tatchell, GALHA (The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association), Dr. Evan Harris and the British Institute of Human Rights. The event is also supported by UKIP, whose London Mayoral candidate Frank Maloney remarked that he didn’t intend to visit the north London borough of Camden because there were “too many gays” there. Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, who was selected to represent his party on the European Parliament’s women’s rights committee, has argued that “no self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age”.
The Libertarian Alliance Director Sean Gabb is also billed as speaking. He defended the right to free speech of an evangelical Christian in Sweden who had been convicted under that country’s anti-hatred legislation after describing homosexuality as “abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society”. The Libertarian Alliance also states that “the Commission for Racial Equality and all similar organisations should be abolished, and their records burned”, and that all the legislation making racial discrimination illegal should also be abolished.
An Imaan spokesperson said: “We are deeply concerned that LGBT people and organisations appear to be supporting this rally. Our members support freedom of expression and free speech, but this is being exploited by this demo which appears to be aligning elements in society which have singled out the Muslim community, under the guise of ‘free expression’. Organisers of the march were encouraging supporters to bring placards with the Danish cartoons on them, which caused deep offence to the Muslim community for their racist caricatures. They have since backed down, but we are concerned about a number of comments posted by individuals to their website that seem to be reacting to this decision in a way that we feel is hostile towards Islam; this seems to be revealing the real intentions of some of those intending to march under the banner of ‘Freedom of Expression’. Any hostilities whipped up against the Muslim community have a direct impact on LGBT Muslims who suffer from Islamophobia. We call on everyone in the LGBT community to show solidarity with us against Islamophobia at this difficult time.”
Denis Fernando of the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism said:
“Peter Tatchell has issued a statement regarding his addressing of the demo stating ‘In January, I challenged Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain when he denounced homosexuality as immoral, harmful and diseased. But I did not seek to ban him, nor did I support calls for his prosecution. I defended Sir Iqbal’s right to free speech. Will he and his fellow MCB leaders now defend my right to freedom of expression?’ However, Peter Tatchell and Outrage actually called for Iqbal Sacranie and the MCB to be withdrawn from the Unite Against Fascism conference(2), which brought together all those who oppose the disturbing growth of the BNP, including Muslims and LGBT activists. Peter Tatchell is now speaking at a rally which is being built and supported by the BNP and the Libertarian Alliance. This is of serious concern to the LGBT movement. In areas where the BNP are active, racist and homophobic incidents increase.”
For more information contact Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism
lagcar@hotmail.co.uk
1: source – BBC News
2: source – www.petertatchell.net
“Freedom of expression has been in the news in recent weeks and attempts by both the State and extremist Islamicists to stifle freedom of expression have come under the spotlight in the wake of the Nick Griffin and Mark Collett trial in January and the recent furore over the publication of satirical cartoons featuring Mohammed. Freedom of expression has been in the news in recent weeks and attempts by both the State and extremist Islamicists to stifle freedom of expression have come under the spotlight in the wake of the Nick Griffin and Mark Collett trial in January and the recent furore over the publication of satirical cartoons featuring Mohammed.
“On Saturday in central London a wide range of political, religious and lobby groups will be taking part in a protest rally to affirm the importance of free expression in frank and honest debate, including the freedom to criticise and mock religions and faiths. The BNP, the only political party which champions free speech backs the protest and we have also been made aware that Civil Liberty supporters will be present to demonstrate against the encroaching intolerance of Marxism and militant Islamicists.”
BNP news article, 23 March 2006
To quote Nick Cohen’s boost for the “March for Free Expression” in last Sunday’s Observer: “Fortunately, the British National Party is nowhere to be seen and the rally will be filled with democratic leftists, Liberal Democrats, secularists and Iranian and Saudi Arabian dissidents.”
See also Salma Yaqoob’s post on the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 23 March 2006