Not a Normal Country

Some will call this anti-Semitic

On 10^th November an Israeli sponsored account, which spreads state propaganda, tweeted the following:

This account, Israel News Flash, tweets propaganda as "Breaking News". Account tweets are then copied to people like Tommy Robinson, Trek Fatah, KT Hopkins and dozens more by twitter account of Charlie Green who's profile shows that he is an ex diplomat.

The young Palestinian boy in this picture is one of the 80+ Palestinians, mainly teenagers, shot dead by the Israelis since the latest troubles, which started at the beginning of October. During this period 10 Israelis have also been killed. On 13^th November2015 Two more Israelis were killed and one Palestinian was shot dead and over 100 were injured by live bullets at a demonstration. The Palestinians say that majority of the victims of Israeli policy of shoot to kill were unarmed and at the wrong place at the wrong time. A closer inspection of the knife placement in this picture can only strengthen the Palestinian version. The shoot to kill  policy isn’t new but what is new is that it has now been legalised. The Palestinians of any age including children can now be shot and killed for any descent including for stone throwing. Young children, as young as 6/7, can be described as terrorists and imprisoned.

Its not that Israel didn’t imprison children before, it did, however, now it can put them in front of military courts and prison them as terrorists. Furthermore, Israel continue to apply British colonial era practice of demolishing homes of Palestinians, accused of so called terrorist/ descent activity, rendering whole families homeless.

We in the west are  bombarded daily with rhetoric, by trolls on social media, newscasters and politicians like Boris Johnson, that Israel is a modern western democracy. Also that she is the only democracy in the Middle East. Yet I can’t think of a time when this so called democracy wasn’t involved in the suppressive and discriminatory behaviour towards the Palestinians and others living under her rule. This behaviour has been universally condemned, well almost universally. In fact Israel is the only country in the world which has broken/ ignored as many UN resolutions as the years of her existence. Not forgetting a bunch of resolutions which have been vetoed by the United States of America. No wonder Israel behaves like a villainous Mini Me and continues to apply the most brutal, discriminatory and apartheid practices against the Palestinians, Arabs and other minorities.

The fact is that Israel didn’t evolve as an organic nation but more like a creation of science fiction. What I mean is that Israel didn’t come to being because the people had always lived there and had gained independence and nationhood like many of the nations in existence today. Israeli story is more akin to a science fiction where aliens land from another planet. Like the Science Fiction, Israelis were given permission to settle in Palestine by the earth power, which at the time happened to be the British. Then in the fashion of sci fi they turned on the power that gave them sanctuary and the indigenous locals. They went on a terrorising spree of killing and expulsion of not only the indigenous population but also the British Imperialists.   

Israel’s relation with fiction has continued throughout her existence. From divine right to supposed ancestral home to reliant on Hasbara to spread fictional rhetoric. Israel and her supporters spread the rhetoric of being a modern democracy with civilised values. However, when it comes to the reality the picture is anything but that. It is a portrait of dark colonialism and suppressive apartheid. Where mistreatment of minorities, migrants, Palestinians in the occupied territories and in Gaza is a daily reality. Where exists a deliberate policy of discrimination, use of deadly force and suppression. Where intolerance shows in the shape of imprisonment, racial abuse of African migrants. Where claims of gay friendly atmosphere are made but gay pride is attacked and you will have no open doors for sanctuary to gays fleeing persecution. Where criticism of state is banned and so is flying of Palestinian flag. Where you will be denied visa to visit, even to co religious, if state considers that you have been involved in the activity of criticising the state of Israel and her policies of suppression.

Fiction, lying, racism, discrimination, use of deadly force iaren’t limited to rogue elements, it is the official state policy. It starts from the top with the Prime Minister Netanyahu, his advisors, spokes persons, cabinet ministers and the Knesset. We all know the racist broadcast by Netanyahu during the elections, warning that Arabs are voting in droves. His most daring fiction came with attempts to rewrite the history and to rehabilitate Hitler by shifting the blame for holocaust on to the Palestinians and Muslims. It seems that he has started to believe his own Islamophobic propaganda and that can’t be good sign for a person leading a country.

 Israel and Netanyahu are aided and abetted by a group of fiction writers and propagandist. They hold onto the scripted lies and spread the fictional idea of Modern Western Democracy. More often than not they also share Israeli Ideals of racism, discrimination, inhumanity and war. Whether it is the Gatestone institute, Bill Maher, Tommy Robinson, Henry Jackson Society and Douglas Murray, they all spread Islamophobia, racism against the refugees and advocate bombing of other countries. Others include new atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and self declared reformed radical Maajid Nawaz.

The hypocrisy of people like Douglas Murray and others is breathtaking. They cry that Syrian and other refugees coming to Europe of ½ billion people will affect Jodeo-Christian culture of Europe (even after acceptance of the refugees Muslims will only be approx 3.5% of the European population). The same people who oppose resettlement of refugees in Europe fervently support the Netanyahu’s policy of importing co-religious to already overpopulated occupied territories of Palestine, where settlers now make approx 30% of the West Bank/ occupied territories.  

These fiction writer Israeli supporters conveniently ignore at least 50 pieces of Israeli legislation, discriminating against the 20% of the “Israel proper” population of Arabs, affecting their family life from Marriage to buying a house. Then there are Palestinians living in the occupied territories in the West Bank. They face daily barrage of bullets, abuse and humiliation, not only from the ever present security forces but also from the armed settlers. The settlers have not only stolen their land, both residential and farming, they have the audacity to claim that they are doing favours by employing Palestinians as slave labour. These settlers are an extremist bunch on par with the IS, Indian RSS and Myanmar’s extremist Buddhists. Settler’s extremism and radicalism is many time greater than Maajid Nawaz’s greatly embellished radicalism.

We must remember the 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza, who have been subjected to an ongoing medieval style siege. They are surrounded from all sides with no prospects in Gaza and have no chance to escape to better their lives. Along with the walls and barbed wire, they are monitored from Military ships, drones and from time to time bombed by military jets. Last year over 2000 including 500 children of Gaza were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed by what could only be described as mad army. Their lives, livelihoods, health provisions, education, ability to farm and build homes are all subject to control. There homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, power stations and even beaches have been bombed by Israel. They don’t even have control of the safe water supplies.

Israel’s apartheid system is often compared with the South African system but in reality it is worse. As brutal and suppressive it was the South African regime didn’t use tanks and fighter jets against the black population. It did not invade neighbouring countries or sent bomber jets to invade and bomb. It didn’t have the walls erected or watch towers installed. It didn’t kill people at the mass scale as Israel does. It didn’t arrest and imprison children at the unprecedented rate. It didn’t make it legal to shoot and kill stone throwing children, It didn’t classify children and others protesting against the inequalities as terrorists. It didn’t classify the whole swaths of population as terrorists. It didn’t use military courts instead of the civil courts. It didn’t implant 600,000 foreign settlers in already heavily populated areas and armed and trained  them to kill.

During his latest visit to the United States this week, Netanyahu has once again stated that Israel is the only safe space for his co-religious. This is a slap in the face of all western democracies and their freedoms, which has allowed his co-religious people to flourish without any kind of discrimination. The dangerous nature of oppressive policies of Israel are sometimes criticised by some free thinking politicians like the Swedish Foreign Minister speaking after the Paris attacks. Yet this unlikely country continues to receive political support from our politicians and most importantly monitory and military support from the US.  

Pushing Back Boundaries but, ....

In the Wrong Direction

Not a day goes by when a section of the British society is not in the news headlines. Even if there was a serious tragedy in the world affecting 100s, it would not trump the action / perceived actions of an individual from this community. Such coverage is deliberately normalising the issues which were made taboo by decades of struggle. This continuous highlighting of issues affecting the community is pushing back the boundaries but in the wrong direction. This is happening because every action and inaction of the community, is being looked through the tainted glass of prejudice. This prejudice is affecting more than the community in question.

Recently Channel Four broadcasted a documentary, presented by Trevor Phillips, a former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The documentary titled “Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True”, seems to be based on the old stereotypes. However, he failured to acknowledge, that the old stereotypes had in the past, given rise to hatred, violence and atrocities rarely seen in the human history. Therefore, it is important to fight old and the new stereotypes to prevent this happening again. While the documentry has been criticised by activists like Lee Jasper , it was welcomed by the right wing media such as the Daily Mail, which published this, incorporating his article. It is not surprising that only people they found to agree with him were couple of Tory MPs. The Mail, which is not a fan of the Equality or Human Rights, couldn’t help to have a dig on Trevor Phillips himself, stating that he received salary of £112,000 for 3.5 days work.

                                                           Cartoon by Operation Black Vote

Trevor Phillips’s only achievement was to merge the various branches of the Equality into one. I personally don’t think that this achieved the goals previously set by the various independent commissions. As the head of the EHRC, Trevor Phillips had started from the complacent belief that the equality, especially in the field of race had been achieved. His actions to merge various branches of equality commission were more to do with empire building than reality on the Ground. Since then we have seen case after case revealing institutionalised racism and discrimination not only in the field of race but also of gender, disability and the under privileged. The Rotherham case is as much, if not more, of institutionalised discrimination against the under privileged white community who’s complaints were ignored, of groomers being from a certain section of community. This is supported by the Oxford council’s admission, that their failures to investigate such cases properly had nothing to do with any political correctness.

Unfortunately, Trevor Phillips has allowed himself to fall into the trap of increasingly blurred lines made possible by the continuous headlines and reckless media coverage using inflammatory language. The mainstream media and the Politicians have muddled the equality issue with stereo types. It is now normal to hear Xenophobic language when discussing immigration, racism when discussing Islamophobia, macho attitudes when discussing sexism, derogatory remarks when discussing disability, label of anti-semitism when discussing Israel/ Palestine conflict and rhetoric of freedom of speech, while inciting hatred against Muslims.

The social media has also played a role in this normalisation of pushing boundaries in the wrong direction. People think that they can get away with typing their inner most dark thoughts in the anonymity of the Internet. We have seen threats of rape and violence against women, blatant lies and stereotypes to spread religious, racial and other forms of hatred. Unfortunately, the bigots take comfort in the knowledge that they have the support of respectable figures on the internet and in mainstream media. The trends on the twittersfield become headlines for the 24 hour media, hungry for more and more headline fillers. So tweets about halal/ kosher food become national headlines.

The recent example is the Clarkson fracas with an Irish producer, which turned out to be a serious unprovoked physical and verbal racial attack. For few days it looked that, like many times before, Clarkson would survive the latest mess of his own making. BBC did everything possible to keep Clarkson on their books but as more and more witnesses came forward, they had no choice but to ignore the tank carrying one million signature petition. The petition is the perfect indictment of the prevailing attitude in sections of the society. Despite the tragedy in the French Alps, BBC gave prominence to its decision to not to renew contract with Clarkson. BBC journalists gave his sacking disproportionate air time. They made arguments about his value, for bringing 50 million pounds, and made light of the physical assault, describing it as 30 second incident. It is this kind of attitude that minimises the gravity of similar actions against minorities.

The common thread, in majority of Clarkson's misdemeanours, is the race including the latest incident that included remarks about the victim being Irish. Although, he has been equally vile towards, women, disabled, etc. he receives admiration for not being PC, as though this is something to admire. Astonishingly, he received support from high profile people including our Prime Minister. It is this kind of support which normalises, racism, sexism, Islamophobia and victimisation of other disadvantaged groups, sick and the poor working classes. Such racism also affects the unity of the United Kingdom, as throw away remarks are made about the Scots, Welsh and the Irish for political gains.

I am not an expert on any of the issues listed above but as a member of ethnic minority group with migrant and Muslim heritage, I have views on these topics. We are witnessing the erosion of minority rights earned after long and hard struggles. I say earned as it took decades of fight with the overt, covert and institutionalised racism and discrimination. The equality Acts of 1977 did not work because of the reluctance of the establishment to implement them. This resulted in demonstrations, which were classified as riots despite it being reaction to provocation of discrimination and attacks by organisations like National Front and combat 18. Only after these “riots” and the Lord Scarman’s report, things started to improve. So from the passing of the Act in 1977, it took another decade to see changes especially in the public sector and the public services.  

Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century and we find that all those prejudices, we thought had been left behind, have resurfaced. Only this time the problem has returned in a respectable form, in our politics, media and in the literati. It has spread like a virus from mainstream politics to the gutters of racist EDL and Britain First. An example of muddle alliances is Tommy Robinson, who still supports EDL, Pagida, Britain First and UKIP but is friends with the Islamophobic new Left, LibDem PPC Maajid Nawaz, and the disgraced Tory PPC Afzal Amin. He openly tweets Islamophobic and racist material on the internet but somehow keeps friendship with this diverse group of people. Maybe he is the new symbol of diversity.

The racist and fascist organisations always had the backing of powerful and influential people. It’s not different today as powerful members of the media, politics and literati, supporting the racist and Islamophobic individuals and groups. They are helping to undermine the progress in the equality field, by spreading fear through the xenophobic rhetoric of immigration and Islam. They cleverly use, all encompassing Islamophobic narrative, that includes all the traits of the Far right. It includes immigration, racism and misogyny . No wonder that people like Richard Dawkins, his followers and the organisations under his patronage claim that no such thing as Islamophobia. The same view expressed by others like Sam Harris and lately by Maajid Nawaz who even issued a Fatwa stating that there is no such thing as Islamophobia. If anyone thinks that the Islamophobia doesn’t affect others, they should read this SAALT report by the US Asian community highlighting the diversity of communities affected by Islamophobic attacks.    

Trevor Phillips, in his article attacked the idea of multiculturalism, and said that in multicultural Britain Muslim children may have a narrow view of the world. At the same time he blames France’s non multiculturalist system for the murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. He can’t have both ways. Like many others he doesn’t want to acknowledge that children of migrants have a greater knowledge of the world than their white counterparts. There is a high chance that they are bilingual, they have visited developing countries of their  parents/ grandparents heritage. They probably have the first hand knowledge of struggles of people around the world. They are more likely to have a wider world view through the international media.

Trevor Phillips also talked about the young girls who had gone to the war torn Syria. Again his views seem to have been based on stereotypes rather than facts. It is clear that these girls had normal family life and were happy at school and were A grade students. The question to ask is about their experiences outside of school and home. What I have learnt from two groups of girls interviewed by the BBC News and BBC Newsnight. The first group interviewed was hijab wearing and they said that they had experienced racist, Islamophobic and Misogynistic attacks, because they way they dressed. The second group was interviewed by Evan Davis for Newsnight. They weren’t hijabis and they also said that they also feel that the society doesn’t accept them because of their colour and race. When they said they understood why girls would leave their comfortable life for a warzone, Evan Davis said that their comments could be interpreted as apology for terrorism. Not surprised that the BBC did not release these videos, while other videos like the interview with Ayaan H Ali were released immediately after the broadcast.

There are some people who have spoken out against the Islamophbia but not enough. In a recent appearance on the BBC Question Time, broadcasted on 18^th March, Will Self said that his students overwhelmingly think, that the Muslims are the most oppressed minority in the UK today. In the same week Matthew Parris wrote an article, in the Spectator, titled "Anti Muslim Prejudice is Real and Scary" . Unfortunately his lone voice is drowned by Douglas Murray’s weekly articles in the Spectator, who also wrote this and his other prejudicial gems include this vile article and this . 

It has become respectable to have Islamophobic prejudice and thanks to the false scandals such as Trojan Horse and the Cathy Neman tweets, it has spread from the mainstream media to the school playgrounds. Our universities are being monitored by the new humanists and the Henry Jackson Society supported group Student Rights. Their activity is not dissimilar to that of Hitler’s Nazi Youth. If we want to have a fair and equal society then we must confront this last respectable prejudice. Our failures to do so will have wider implications for all.  

Don't Talk About It, Its Not the Right Time

The appalling murders in France have rightly started the debate about the freedom of speech. However, at the same time people are being told that it is not the time to talk about the issues which are absolute relevant to the unity of the communities and are vital to stop such incidents happening again. This happens everytime such incidents happen and it is never discussed and addressed. Instead narratives are developed to create divisions, stereo types and prejudices, which can only lead to discrimination and feelings of not belonging. These feelings are then exploited and cause some people to act in a manner which is not conducive to a cohesive society.

The solidarity march in Paris today was to promote unity and inclusiveness for all. The impressive and historic attendance was a spectacle to hold with people of all faiths, colours and nationalities attending in large numbers. There were lot of moments to remember, like a Muslim Mayor of a Town who had come with his Jewish Businessman friend. Both were wearing placards, the Mayor’s placard said I am a Muslim and I love Jews and the Jewish friend was wearing placard saying I am a Jew and I love Muslims. The Jewish businessman spoke better English and said that the Muslim mayor had started a programme for teenage children from different races faiths and backgrounds to meet and learn about each other. Then there there was a Muslim man who gave white roses of peace to passer bys Jews and others. There was a Jewish woman who had moved from Israel to France, 20 years ago, and she was there with her Muslim friend but both also expressed their fears for the future. People were there with their children and elderly relatives with messages of peace and desire to live in peace and harmony. There were lot of young people whose parents / grandparents had moved to the country. Its this unity of young generation of descents of migrants and young white French that gives hope for a more tolerant future. 

The march was also attended by some leaders and high officials of the world. Some leaders tried to make political capital out of it and others were grateful to be invited. British Prime Minister was talking about security and measures to limit our freedoms further. Despite being told to stay away Netanyahu turned up, he used the well rehersed rhetoric of fighting Muslim extremists (Palestinians) and rise of anti-Semitism. He offered safe sanctuary to Jews in Israel, not surprising as more than 30% of Israelis want to leave the country for better careers and futures. One of the considred views of humanity and unity of all races, colours and beliefs and non belief came from an Italian Prince. Unfortunately he doesn’t have any power to bring about changes he was talking about. One Sky commentator and his guest agreed that this kind of unity procession was a better way to create cohesion, integration and unity than the proposed legislations limiting our freedoms.

Despite the positives of the march, one must ask questions whether the crowd represented all of the French communities. Was it just a gathering of the great and the good and middle classes and what efforts were made to include the marginalised and deprived communities where these murderers had come from. The neighbours of the culprits had nothing to say about these men except good things like they held doors, they helped people to carry shopping, they helped the disabled, they were quite and polite, etc. Even the person at the print warehouse, where they were finally killed spoke about their humanity. We now know that the brothers who carried out the Charlie Ebdo massacre were orphans, one of them was homeless the other had committed string of petty offences. They were born and bred in France and didn’t have any particular roots abroad. Yet they felt the need to travel abroad and make contacts with people with extreme views.

One person interviewed on the BBC said that there was abject poverty in the ghettos of Paris. Children were literally starving and young girls were prostituting themselves to survive. Another person who owned a restaurant said there was wide spread discrimination against the  descendants of the migrants from North African and Arab countries. He said while he had employees from various racial backgrounds such as Mali, Ethiopia, etc, there were no go areas for these young people and majority of restaurants will not employ young people from minorities like Arabs and Africans. One Muslim said that there are restrictions on the liberties of people with regard to expression of religion, clothing and even food. There is also the problem of increasing attacks on Muslims and their places of worship both before and after the murders at the Charlie Ebdo. There is no legal protection against Islamophobia anywhere in Europe.

Slowly it is becoming clear that the Charlie Ebdo wasn’t just a satirist magazine, it allegedly also promoted xenophobia, racial and religious hatred. It has also emerged that the Magazine had sacked one of its employees for anti-Semitic activity, but not for racial hatred or Islamophobic. It is clear that Charlie Ebdo wasn’t a popular magazine in any sense with only 60,000 copy print. The magazine mainly catered for the high society, which influence the opinions and policies of the government. It would be interesting to see if the proposed government funded million copies will contain similar material as alleged above.

While the France was preparing for the solidarity march, a debate was being held at the BBC studios for the programme the Big Question, with main topic of incident in Paris. The host of the programme is well known for his prejudice and collaboration with the Islamophobic community. This was reflected with the choice of guests disproportionally in favour of his views.  It was like having a match where the referee was in cahoots with one team. He failed to give enough time for reply to Raza Nadim of MPAC. It is becoming a norm for the BBC to give platform to people like Douglas Murray of the Henry Jackson Society and the Gatestone Institute and Quilliam’s front man Maajid Nawaz, to spread the narrative of division, fear and hate while gradually dropping the voices of reason. Douglas Murray said that it wasn’t the time to discuss the alleged inflammatory material and editorial of the Magazine. He made the laughable claims that Muslims were trying to enforce Sharia on the mainstream community and that the Islam was to blame for the actions of the perpetrators. Maajid Nawaz’s rhetoric is well known and is not  worth repeating. Nabila Ramdani a French Algerian Journalist puts it better in her Guardian artcle why French Muslims shouldnt be blamed. For that matter we need to get away from blaming whole of the Muslim communities for the crimes of the few and start confronting those who are creating mischief of this kind for own goals.    

To say it is not the time to discuss these issues is to ignore the real causes of disconnect, frustration and helplessness, which are leading to people acting out of character and committing acts of violence. The solidarity message need to be filtered through to the above mentioned deprived communities which exist in all of our societies. In reality they exist in all countries accross the world developed, developing, Western, Eastern, Muslim and Non Muslim. The lazy rhetoric to ask Muslims to do more, blaming the religion and rhetoric of back door sharia and the harsh language by politicians has been tried, tested and has failed. These people who carried out atrocities were born and bred in France. They were the product of French society. Therefore, to blame any other society, culture or religion is farcical and we are all to blame for our failings not just the one community.

Its time pay attention to the above mentioned deprived and discriminated communities. They include people of all races religion and colour. We need to provide comfort, assurance and support to these communities before someone else does and exploit them for their own agenda. Don’t just blame the religion and ask communities to do more as it reinforces the idea of separation not cohesion. We all have a responsibility to our young; don’t treat them as foreigners as their roots are here, treat them as citizens. Dont let people with extreme dark agendas of creating divisions and hatered talk and listen to the voices of reason in all communities.