Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia And ....

Politics of Distraction and Division

Recently three Jewish Journals decided to print  same front page to show the extent of concern about anti-Semitism in the labour party and to show their disapproval of Jeremy Corbyn. Anti-Semitism is as abhorrent as any other form of racism. Similarly criticism of Jewish people because of their religion or use of religion as an insult is also abhorrent. In recent years issue of anti-Semitism has resurfaced in the western countries including USA. It is mostly related to the rise of the of so called pophiulist/ Far Right parties. in Europe and North America. They have grown at the back of the rhetoric against refugees, migrants and especially Muslims. Their success has emboldened supremacists and neo Nazis both in Europe and North America.

Coincidently, on the same day Times of London published an article by David Aaronovitch with headline “Criticising Muslims doesn’t make you racist”. The paper also carried an article with headline “Sajid Javid orders research into “grooming gangs” however it did not mention religion of the perpetrators. This makes me wonder why David Aaronovitch felt the need to mention religion in his article. Was he trying to fill the gap left by the imprisonment of Tommy Robinson, who also says criticising Islam/ Muslims isn’t racist. Maajid Nawaz didn’t want to be left out and fired a reminder tweet with reference to religion and race and a follow up  tweet referring to now debunked Quilliam report and as usual used the race card saying that the report was written by people of Asian heritage, as if this makes the discredited report legitimate.

The reality is that the rise in Islamophobic and anti migrant was left unchecked by our mainstream parties and mainstream media. They even adopted the rhetoric to suit their political needs and the media provided platform to these unsavoury characters. An example of this normalisation is the above article by Mr Aaronovitch. People like David are buying the rhetoric of the far right and President Trump that religion or race are a factor behind heinous crimes. They haven’t provided a scintilla of evidence to support their claims but the rhetoric has been swallowed by our political and social commentators in mainstream media. Maybe the investigation ordered by the Home Secretary, if conducted without pre conceptions, will put an end to these claims. However, the Islamophobia has become so common and wide spread that I don’t expect it to change the rhetoric.

This normalisation of hate rhetoric made it easier for neo Nazis and Fascists to resurface and latch on to the identity movements. Thing about these neo Nazis and supremacists is that they don’t discriminate against any minorities and hate them equally. However, some people especially those involved in the Islamophobic activity including blame the left for the rise in racism against Jewish community and some even blame Muslims. For the past 2-3 years Labour party, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, has been under sustained attack for not dealing with the issue of anti-Semitism. Either they forgot the following or they are trying to divert attention from it:

- rise of populists like UKIP and the far right that saw BNP/ UKIP electoral success;

-the London Mayoral election, which was fought by the Conservative candidate on racist, Islamophobic and divisive rhetoric;

-  Brexit referendum campaign, which was loaded with racist and Islamophobic rhetoric the rise in racist hate crime after the result;

- election of Donald Trump that emboldened racists, supremacists, fascists and Nazis in Europe and North America.

- Prosecution of members of banned far right group National Action and their anti-Semitic speeches.

- far right supremacist marches with anti-Semitic, racist and anti Muslim slogans in US , Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Italy, etc.;

- Nationalist and racist parties making electoral gains in Europe.

As usual it falls to the left wing commentators to remind people how the rise of far right and their rhetoric has been normalised by the media .

Anti-Semitism has always been just below the surface in European and North American societies. In light of the above it is disingenuous to blame it solely the left/ Labour party. Despite party’s attempts to resolve the issue, some people in the media, Labour Friends of Israel and some Labour MPs along with their conservative counterparts seem determine to keep this issue in the news. They may think that by keeping the matter going they are helping the Jewish community but the experience of minority, migrant and Muslim communities show that continuous discussion about them only helps to normalise racism and Islamophobia. This normalisation leads to dinner table discussions thus creating new generations of racists and fascists.  

When this issue was first raised, it was all about the harassment of certain MPs via social electronic media. It then moved on to trolling of left wing activists and labour member's social media and networking history. This exercise often unearthed comments concerning Israel Palestine dispute. Same method is being used to search old history of Jeremy Corbyn, who has been long life supporter of causes of oppressed people including Palestinians. The matter was then moved on to pressure Mr Corbyn to visit Israel. Then it was suggested that the Labour party should adapt the anti-Semitism definition of IHRA. When the definition was adapted, taking into account select committee concerns regarding some examples concerning criticism of the state of Israel, the campaign took more aggressive and ugly turn. It turned into direct attacks on Jeremy Corbyn calling him Racist and Anti-Semitic.

So the anti-Semitism row which began with aim to protect members and some MPs from online harassment and abuse was hijacked by the Israeli lobby and so called leaders of the Jewish community. These include Stephen Pollard of the Jewish Chronicle, Labour Friends of Israel MPs like Louis Ellman, Margret Hodge, Ian Austin, Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council. Stephen Pollard lead the way by calling Jeremy Corbyn racist and anti-Semitic which is a despicable attempt to smear a lifelong campaigner against racism. However, this tweet by Chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, Jonathan Goldstein, saying "this was never about IHRA fight was never about IHRA, it was about the leadership" raises the questions about their motives..

These people have no sympathy with the victims of racism, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, they have their own agenda. They are exploiting the affinity of Jewish people towards Israel. They are using this issue to distract Jewish people and others to ignore the shift in Israel towards theocracy and discriminative laws making minorities like Druze, Arab and others 2nd and 3rd class citizens. Furthermore, this diverts attention from continuous attacks on Palestinians of Gaza who, despite heavy loss of lives, have been protesting for weeks against occupation and imprisonment in Gaza strip. Instead of devoting column inches and segments to the above, our media is printing and broadcasting propaganda supplied by the above without question and counter arguments.

When people like Stephen Pollard say that the Labour party presents an existential threat to Jewish life in the UK. His comments are those of a fiction writer. The reality is that under the current leadership, he sees a change in the Foreign policy concerning issues in the Middle East. Furthermore, so called leaders of the community are worried about increasing rebellion in the Jewish communities particularly in the younger generation, both here and across the pond in the USA.  They are rejecting the line coming from the elders and the state of Israel and rejecting the radicalising propaganda through the birthright visits and compulsory service in the IDF. They are vocal against occupation, settlements, atrocities, discrimination and racism against Palestinians, Arabs and Druze. They reject the idea that Palestinian struggle is based on religion and not because of occupation. These leaders are using this dispute to scare communities to bring them in line.

Reality is that today Jewish community is fully integrated and they are not part of any ethnic monitoring except may be for the purposes of census. Their path to equality, despite being Europeans was difficult but they found home in the Labour party and rest is history. Today they are represented in every political and unfortunately they also part of groups that are racist and Islamophobic. If we accept that society has a anti-Semitism problem then we accept that it is reflected in the Labour Party. Same could be said about parts of the Muslim, and other minority communities. We all need to work together to eliminate it. We have done it before and we can do it again. Labour members know that the Jewish community has been and continues to be an ally of disadvantaged and minority communities in their fight for rights, justice and equality.

There is no point in comparing experiences of the BME communities today with the past experiences of the Jewish communities as each community is different. However, when people like Jonathan Freedland start to compare current dispute with the Labour to the struggles of the black and ethnic minorities and start mentioning McPherson report, you have to say something. He clearly doesn’t know the circumstances that lead to the report. The report was written in the last century but the struggle for equality and rights continues in the 21^stcentury. There is still racism, discrimination and inequality. The push back against so called political correctness has given licence to people to be vile and hateful. Furthermore the institutional racism remains as bad as ever as seen in the hostile environment and the Windrush scandal.

We are used to the rhetoric from the establishment and MSM commentators that BME minorities and Muslims don’t integrate. Well so called hostile environment and scandals like Windrush make it difficult. However, when people do work hard to achieve success they are judged by different standards and often face abuse not only on social media but from colleagues too. For example Diane Abbot received more abuse than all her parliamentary colleagues put together. David Lammy was attacked for highlighting harsher and unequal treatment of BME communities in our criminal justice system. Sadiq Khan faces double whammy of hate for being Asian of Pakistani heritage and for being Muslim. Attacks on Sadiq Khan don’t just come from locals but from racists and bigots of Europe and North America including President Trump. Sayeeda Warsi came under attack for resigning from cabinet because of differences on policy concerning Israeli attack on Gaza and lately for highlighting racism and Islamophobia in the Conservative party.

This brings me to the issue of Islamophobia and the question, if Islamophobia is another form of racism? The simple answer is Yes as Islamophobic rhetoric has been adopted by known racist and supremacist groups and fact that it mainly affects Brown Muslims. However, the answer to this question is not that simple. While the foot soldiers are the same old racist groups, Islamophobia emanates from high echelons of political power, influential media publications and broadcasters and the literate. Everyone knows who these people are therefore I won’t go into details. Anti Muslim rhetoric has also been adopted by various groups for their own agenda. These people include anti migrant/ refugees, racists, nationalists, neo Nazis, Israeli lobby, new atheists, supporters of Monarchy in Iran, ex Muslims, etc. They are supported by so called reformist and moderate Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who provide cover by saying that the term Islamophobia is misnomer.

Like racism, Islamophobia is an international phenomenon. However, there is one group which is a constant in their overt and covert support for Islamophobic organisations and individuals. This group is the Israeli lobby in the West, especially in the US. While these people do not represent wider Jewish community, they are high profile and have resources to cause maximum harm. They are ideologically motivated and like any other extremist have sinister agenda. They aim to sow seeds of division and divert attention from Israel Palestine conflict. These people were behind placing Islamophobic adverts on New York underground and full page adverts in the papers. They take their lead from the right wing government of Israel and there is no shortage of it.

They are influenced by the racism and Islamophobic rhetoric coming from the right wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu who relies on the far right and fundamentalist parties. Mr Netanyahu has tried to rewrite the history by saying Hitler didn't want to kill Jews but was persuaded by Mufti of Palestine. He also made racist comments about Arabs during an Election Day video message. Furthermore, he has  been building alliances with far right leaders in Europe like Viktor Orban, despite his party’s history of anti-Semitism. And we know of his influential relationship with Trump and people in his administration like his security advisor John Bolton who has spent a lifetime in spreading hate against Muslims.

The barometer for building these unholy alliances seems to be if you are anti Muslim we will overlook your racism, fascism and anti-Semitism. We have seen this in other instances such as Tommy Robinson, an anti Muslim bigot, who in every step of way, has been supported by Israeli lobby. During his recent stint in prison, an American Israeli Supporting Islamophobic group, Middle East Forum funded protest marches for his release and paid his legal costs. In one of these marches a radicalised Jewish speaker proclaimed himself to be a Jewish Nazi .

Recently a journalist abi Wilkinson unearthed Baron Danny Finkelstein's connections with Gatestone Institute which is well known for its support for Israel and its racist, anti refugee, anti Muslim activity. Its board members include Douglas Murray of Henry Jackson Society and Raheem Kassam of Breitbart. Danny Fikelstein's defence, he wasn't aware of their Islamophobic and racist activity and that Gatestone listed him as board member without his knowledge. He said he asked them to remove his name and distanced himself from them. His name was listed for two years from 2015-17 and he hosted an event for them only couple of months ago, at House of Lords. He also said that he was being attacked for defending Jews As though supporting Jews and anti Muslim bigotry were somehow linked. Danny Finkelstein has been defended by many people in the Jewish community including David Aaronovitch.  

From Sam Harris, Bill Maher to Maajid Nawaz, Melanie Philips, Pamela Geller to Geert Wilders and from Douglas Murray, Nick Cohen to Ruben report, there is one thing in common. They are Jewish, have Jewish heritage or support Israel. They are not only anti Muslim activity but are critical of Muslim and non Muslim groups fighting for equality, justice and those who are active against fascist and racist activity i.e. Black Lives Matter, Antifa and Hope not HateYet no one talks about this issue, whether it is David Aaronovitch, or Stephen Pollard or any other political/ social commentators. 

Final thought: Racism of any kind is abhorrent and we all need to unite to eradicate it. Furthermore, it is not racist to criticise a state which enacts and enforces discriminatory laws and commits atrocities against people under her occupation.