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.

Why Not Be a Muslim for a Day, Mr Nick Cohen

When an outspoken Muslim gains some prominence, sooner or later they find themselves targeted by a campaign to discredit and undermine them. We have seen it time and time again. The list includes Journalists Mehdi Hasan, journalists and editorial staff of the Guardian and most recently Assed Baig of the Channel 4 News. Muslim Politicians and elected officials like Mayor of Tower Hamlet, MPs and Members of the House of Lords, etc also come under attack. Currently London's mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan MP is in the firing line from the opponents including the Prime Minister. Prime Minister used the parliamentary privilege to attack Sadiq Khan, the leader of the opposition and made unsubstantiated claims of extremism against an Imam Suliman Gani.

Then there are the Muslim student bodies which come under sustained attack. So when we see attacks on Malia Bauattia, newly elected president of the Student Union, it is neither shocking nor surprising. Furthermore, Muslim groups and individuals highlighting injustices, raising concerns about inequality and discrimination are constantly targeted in the mainstream and social media. Even Muslim children and their education doesn’t escape the scrutiny. Parents Teachers and school governing bodies have all come under attack on the whim of zealot officials and sensationalist media.

You don't need to say or do anything to be subjected to this scrutiny, just need to declare you are a Muslim. However, if you happen to be outspoken Muslim or in the public eye, you will be targeted by certain people to who would devote time and resources to find something incriminating, no matter how old or irrelvat. A recent example of this is the case of a 20 year old Muslim councillor, Aysegul Gurbaz, who may have posted 3-4 tweets between the age of 14 and 18. Another recent example was the attack on Assed Baig, again for 3- 4 tweets 2-5 year old and tweeted long before his employment with the Channel 4 News. In the first case the incriminating discovery was made by the campaign against anti-Semitism and in the second case by Guido Fauks, a right wing political blog. Both cases then appeared in the Daily Mail.

I am certain that I will be branded anti-Semite and not anti fascist for what I am about to say. In all of the above cases two things are prominent Israel lobby along with the right wing establishment supporting media. The question is why deploy resources, both human and in monitory terms, to try to dig dirt on Muslim individuals and organisations. They do not deploy these resources on every Journalist, politician, student body, education establishment, etc. Talking of students and educational bodies, when so called Trojan Horse story was in the news we saw helicopters flying around taking pictures of schools, teachers, governors, parents and pupils. The same situation occurred in the case of the Iqra school. There was no privacy and no concerns about the safety of the people being filmed. Compare that to the recent story of missing boys and the illegal and unsafe schools of the Jewish community. The reporters were prohibited from identifying students, teachers and the locations of schools. There was no interrogation of Jewish leaders instead the BBC Newsnight presenter had a very civilised almost jovial conversation with various Jewish leaders, politicians and educationalists. There was no outrage at their support for such schools.

Incidentally all these people who attack Muslims call themselves "liberals" but what does it really mean. One definition I found says "willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own". These so called liberals have closed minds and are not open to discussion and debate. They have scripted rhetoric and ideas which they want to enforce on others. They not only abuse and misuse the term liberal they also abuse other terms like moderate and medieval. To be moderate is to be average, modest and ordinary but these individuals have extreme views about monitoring activities of Muslims from birth to death, labelling them from Islamist to extremist and demonising them in a way that it restricts their opportunities.

As far as the term medieval is concerned, historically it refers to the era between year 500 to 1500 after the loss of Roman Empire. Everything related to this term relates to history of disarray in the European continent. It has nothing to do with the rest of the world's civilisation, culture, trade and inventions. Basically people are judging rest of the world with their own bad history. Their limited knowledge of the rest of the world and historyis not based on reality but tainted by own experiences.

Recently Nick Cohen wrote a piece titled Why I am becoming a Jew and Why you should, too . This piece is an attack on the left in particular the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn, Muslims of the West and alleged rise in the anti-Semitism. This is not the first time he has written on this subject, in fact the article is a rehash of his article written in 2009. There is a common thread in both articles warning left to stay away from Muslims in Europe and that Muslims and dark skinned people are the new fascists of Europe.

The Article doesn't mention of the modern day white far right and neo Nazi groups sweeping through Europe. This is probably because they have been persuaded that presence of the dark skinned minorities/ Muslims is the only threat to the Judeo-Christian Europe. Jist of the argument, in both articles, is the same, only thing which has changed is that Nick is no longer a member of the Labour party and there is more emphasis on the left in particular attacks on the Labour party and Jeremy Corbyn. Could it be that the party embraces true liberal principles and it is on the side of the ordinary people that provides minorities including Muslims; support and opportunity to participate in the democratic political process.

While Mr Cohen continuously talks about anti-Semitism, which by the way is more to do with his affinity with the state of Israel, he denies the existence of Islamophobia. He regularly criticises Muslims, Islam and Palestinians but says nothing about the excessive persecution and suppression of Palestinians. He doesn’t criticise the fundamentalist religious coalition which is in power in Israel and their two tier justice system. The fact that the state of Israel governs over as many Jews as Arab and Palestinians with Muslim and Christian faith, criticism of Israel can not be considered anti-Semitic. Only way it could be regarded as anti-Semitic if Israel is considered solely religious Jewish state which will be contrary to the position of her and her supporters that Israel is a modern democratic state.

Whether he admit or not Nick Cohen not only promotes a certain rhetoric which can only be described as racist Islamophobia. Furthermore, time and time again he comes to the defence of others involved in the same activity. A classic example is this article in the Spectator. The headline states that “Richard Dawkins attacks Christian bigots as well as Muslim”. But when you read the article he doesn't provide any example of attacks on Christians. Nick Cohen uses the classic form of defence by attacking Muslims and in a convoluted way he justifies Richard Dawkins racist and Islamophobic activity. He talks about Nahla Mehmoud and how she had suffered in Sudan. Would he do the same for Malia Bauattia, who had fled terror in Algeria, only to find herself facing racism, discrimination and accused of anti-Semitism and being supporter of terrorism. Would he criticise this article by Hannah Weisfeld which belittles NUS motion against anti-Semitism, passed with the support of Malia Bauattia

In the above article Hanna Weisfeld provides the clue to the Islamophbic rhetoric coming out of these people. She says that 93% of UK Jews say that Israel is part of their identity and have an afinity with Israelis. There is nothing wrong with that except when, it becomes obsessive as this tweet by Toby Young suggests, it becomes dangrous. In contrast poll after poll of British Muslims show that they have 80+% feel loyalty to Britain. Furthermore, despite being migrants, refugees or descendants of migrats and refugees and having relatives abroad, they show no such afinity with other countries. Yet their loyalty is questioned again and again, just because they want to voice an opinion about wars and devastation it brings to the lives of ordinary people. 

Nick Cohen, an atheist, has seen the light and has accepted that he is a Jew and want others to be the same. He is not alone to show such sentiment about his religeon. The reality is that New atheism is all about religion and most of its figure heads have affinity with their or their parents. Be it Richard Dawkins who has more than soft spot for Christianity or Sam Harris who supports Israel because of his Jewish roots.

For a Jewish man to become a Jew is not really a big step, and it hasn't made a slight bit of difference to his rhetoric. Nick Cohen should try to be a Muslim for a week or just for one day, may be then he would realise how hateful and hurtful his rhetoric really is.

Democracy, Media and the Pressure Groups

Voting in Labour Leadership Elections closed at mid day yesterday. This has been an historic election in many ways. First of all it is the first leadership election with no block vote for the Trade Unions or the MPs. A truly democratic system of one member one vote is not only open to the Labour Party members but also to the wider electorate who could sign up to be party supporters. This revolutionary idea allows party to test the popularity of the elected leader. This election is also historic as it is likely to break from party’s recent past and allow it to reconnect with the masses and the democratic principles of “Government of the people by the people, for the people”. Furthermore, hopefully it will revive the founding principles of the welfare state and equality for all. Whatever the result on Saturday, the Labour party will have to change from a mare reflection of the Tory party, to a radical force with alternative ideas.

These leadership elections will also be remembered for the dirty tricks, not only of the establishment, the Tory party members, Blair and Blairites and the media. Everyone who took part in the dirty campaign has their own reasons. Recent labour leadership is worried about the scrutiny of their actions/ inactions during their reign. The establishment is worried about loosening of their stranglehold on power. The Tory party is worried about having a proper opposition, questioning their ideological policies of austerity, failure to invest for growth and using the same old trick of selling public assets to balance the books. The elections will also be remembered for excessive column inches and air time used to smear attack and undermine one candidate. However, they could not find anything in Jeremy Corbyn’s personal life or 30 year of public service to attack him. They were forced to admit that he is a nice and principled man. However, their attempts to attack him on various policy discussion papers and economic proposals were scuppered when number of economists including Noble Prize winner supported his plans.   

When all else, including Jeremy Corbyn’s vest and dress sense and all the jibes of Trotskyite, etc failed, dirty tricks were deployed. Some people latched onto his support for the Palestinian cause and desire for a dialogue to end the conflict and suffering of Palestinians. Allegations of Anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry started to fly. This attack was started by the Jewish Chronicle and was immediately picked up by the cabal of “literati”, “journalists”, think tanks”; the so called “liberal left”. Soon there were blogs, articles, tweets and media repeated the same allegations. One ex Tory minister and the Sun columnist, Louise devoted a good part of a month on this propaganda. When she and her colleagues at sister newspaper the Times couldn’t find a shred of evidence against Jeremy Corbyn to support their allegations, they resorted to attacking his supporters. They abused their positions as “journalists” to malign the unsuspecting public for supporting a principled man.   

This shows the depth of depravity some people will go to protect their interests. The unholy alliance between so called liberal left and Tories and suspect nationalist and racist groups isn’t new. They don’t have any principled position and they would forge alliances with anyone to achieve their goals of creating disorder. They support disorder around the world and at home by promoting views of interventionist policies and attacking migrant communities at home and in the West. They would support Tory government and Blairites in return for support of their views. In other words they are not Liberals, leftists or even Tories, they are just a pressure group with their own aims. They aim to silent people by insinuations, harassment, often bare faced lies and bullying.

The result hasn’t been declared but these people including media pundits are developing new narratives to attack Jeremy Corbyn. One of the common question is that can he be a Prime Minister. They did the same to Ed Milliband and attacked his personality. They forced him, a Jewish man, to eat a bacon sandwich and then ridiculed it. They succeeded in persuading him to hide his stated left leaning policies to develop rhetoric similar to the Tories. The result, public was left confused which resulted in a massive defeat for the Labour. We are now left with unprecedented austerity cuts with lasting effects on our lives. The Tories have always cut the essential services and sold public assets to balance the books. For example they cut youth services and then sold school playgrounds leaving our youth nowhere to go.

It is the Left which always had vision of welfare of the masses and investment for growth. They created National Health Service to make it available to all. They invested in the Education to give everyone chance to improve their lives. They cleared the slums and improved living conditions by investing in Public Housing and duties on Councils to house homeless and those in need. They brought rent controls and minimum standards for housing. They brought equality legislations to include all minority groups. They introduced welfare state and benefits for those in need including growing families, unemployed, infirm and disabled. They invested in industries including ship building, mining, aeronautical, steel, etc. They invested in the defence industries and the defence forces and introduced nuclear technology. On the other hand the Tory governments, instead of investing and modernising to make it competitive, sold or closed these industries and helped to diminish the manufacturing industries. 

Whatever happens on Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn has already started a debate and conversation with the masses to present an alternative to the same old same old. If he wins he will need our support to succeed in his mission. Don’t be distracted by the questions such as whether Jeremy Corbyn is Prime Minister material or whether he wants to be the Prime Minister, as the general elections are years away. What is important is the need to help him develop alternative policies to that of austerity, diminishing public services and welfare state. We need someone to take us away from the tried and failed interventionist and military adventures and to advocate diplomacy and dialogue to resolve conflicts at home and abroad.

Finally, a plea to the Journalists, I know you love spin and analysis but wont it be refreshing to see a politician with straight answers to straight questions. So please don’t resort to usual dirty tricks respect democratic choice for public good. Public is yearning for change from the same old deceptive rhetoric, you know it makes sense. There is no point making the same plea to the liberal left and other pressure groups as they are hell bent on peomoting disorder.

Freedom of Speech and Hypocritical Alliance

I had started to write this before the brutal, unnecessary and unjustified Murder of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo staff and 2 Police Officers. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and the French people of all persuasions. From the information available so far it seems that the attack by these criminals was motivated by revenge for the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).

From what I know about the life of the Prophet (pbuh), the perpetrators actions contravene the way he lived his life. He did not seek revenge or harm against those who had caused him pain and discomfort. I know that some of the Islamophobe Industry will disagree and will try to produce disputed texts, etc. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they are wrong.    

Speculations are a plenty on the mainstream media and of course the playground of the dark forces the Social media, to jump on the bandwagon and try to capitalise on the tragedy. The morality of these people and the hypocrisy of these people who demand that the Muslims community as a whole should condemn the actions of criminals, did not utter a word of sympathy towards the bereaved families. These are the people who would object to the abhorrent images published by the terrorist groups and then publish them on their websites and tweet them. These are the people who would claim a moral high ground but then defend the atrocities committed by governments. These are the people who create the fear of others and then claim that no such thing as Islamophobia

 That brings me to the topic I had originally started to write. On Friday 2nd January the Independent newspaper ran a front page article, about online Islamophobia and increasing Muslim hate incidents. After considering the matter over the weekend and it’s impact on the him, his organisation and his allies, on Monday 5^th January Maajid Nawaz  Tweeted. Bearing in mind that Monday was the day when anti Muslim demonstrations were bring held in Germany , organised by a Neo Nazi group called, Pegida. While the demonstrations did not achieve any significant numbers in most of Germany and a large number of Germans came out in opposition, they did achieve attendance of around 18,000 in Dresden, an area with little or no immigrant/ Muslim population. The Germen Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned Pagida as haters. Wish our leaders had shown such leadership.

The 'timely' tweet by Maajid Nawaz was retweeted by the usual suspects. They included  the Atheists fraternity, Secular Fraternity, Ex Muslim Fraternity and various Islamophobes including the star pupil of Quilliam's academy of Counter Extremism, Tommy Robinson. Although there are different Titles of these Fraternities, often it is the same people who appear under different banners. Tommy Robinson openly supported the Pegida organised demonstrations and encouraged his supporters to attend. From Tommy's tweets is clear that not only that his supporters and EDL members attend the demonstration but as he boasted 'the lads made contact with the leadership'. So we can safely assume that the Dresden demonstration was not just attended by locals but also their affiliates from across Europe. Maybe that is the reason for the high attendance numbers. Of course our media like the BBC is incapable of doing the simple deductions.  

After the signal from Maajid his comrades sprung into action, including the self declared master of 'sarcasm' Richard Dawkins, who tweeted . His subsequent tweets were about religion not being a race and so on. He, however, failed to elaborate what he was trying to say. Was he trying to say that being Islamophobic or Anti-Semitic wasn’t racist or that it was ok to be anti-Semitic or islamophobic as it wasn’t racist. Only he knows what he meant but whatever it was, it was in defence of people like Tommy Robinson and anonymous twitter trolls like Jihadi Joe and Spellchecker. In the recent days the twitter accounts of both of these trolls had been suspended by the Twitter. Mr Dawkins took up their case and despite clear evidence of their bigotry he claimed that they were brilliant satirists like him. While he was successful in getting their accounts (not sure if he deserves the credit) he was criticised by most of the Atheist community for his support of the bigoted anonymous trolls.

This point by Maajid and others that the criticism of Muslims/ Islam is not racist, xenophobic or Islamophobic, has no logic except that that is their point of view. The fact is that long before Maajids’s conversion, this has been the stated position of Mr Dawkins and others like Bill Maher, Sam Harris and their followers. So it is not an original thought of the Chair Maajid, it is the next stage in his evolution.  The Lawyers Secular Society also responded to Maajid Nawaz’s tweet and published this  tweet  and published an article on their website. If we apply the logic of these lawyers then the term anti-Semitism could also be said to mean nothing, as Semite mean a collection of races of Middle Eastern region. Therefore, to use it as a term for the hatred of Jews is as illogical as their claim about Islamophobia.
   
The fact is that the Islamophobia is now an internationally recognised term to define anti Muslim hate, propaganda and to spread fear of Islam and Muslims. The failure to acknowledge this suggests that these people do not accept any form of rights of Muslims of protection from harassment, intimidation and violence. It is this attitude along with suggestion that Islam is an alien religion not compatible with the secular democratic values of the west is not only bigoted but dangerous. Then we are living in strange times when with the aid of CGI anyone could become a star, when a karaoke singer could become pop star with the help of technology and no original material, any man could become journalist with autocue and plagiarised material and anyone become politician by learning to dodge questions and quick answers without thought.

I was very much heartened by the Journalists, commentators and members of the public, interviewed by the BBC. Despite attempts by the BBC presenters provocative and divisive questions the interviewees were calm and calculated and refused to blame the religion or the majority of Muslim community for the dreadful action of murderers responsible for Paris massacre. Instead they were worried about the exploitation of the event by the Far Right organisations and were opposed to the Islamophobic and xenophobic tendencies of these organisations. BBC's own cultural correspondent Tzvetan Todorove, who happened to be French was interviewed for the BBC Newsnight. He said that he was worried that the murders will strengthen Xenophobic and Islamophobic attitudes in some quarters. He also eloquently pointed out that there was no such thing as absolute freedom in a secular democracy and citizens have responsibilities to the society. Today on the Question time Liberal Democrat voiced the same sentiment and said that in our democracy people have freedoms within the law not absolute freedom as some have been suggesting.

Therefore, the notion of absolute freedom to cause offence and hurt is a basic right of secular society is contradictory to the principals of the secularism. Then the new Secularism and Atheism has mutated into something un recognisable from founding principle. The new values are extremist tinged with hate, bigotry, xenophobia and of course Islamophbia. Their hypocrisy becomes clear when they say they want to maintain a Judeo-Christian culture. Not surprising as it is the same crowd acting under different banners. The true secularism  protects all religions and does not allow people to discriminate people or denigrate their rights, on the basis of their beliefs, culture and race. Furthermore, the promotion of the idea that Islam is an alien religion is also a false propaganda. The Islam as a religion belongs to these lands and shore like as any other religion / belief and so do the Muslims. Any belief other than that is bigoted, racist xenophobic and yes Islamophobic.

On the day of the French Murders the Islamophobic fraternity was very busy on the social media, Hundreds of tweets a minute were being fired. They were not only spreading hate they were demanding that the media should defy normal procedures and publish show offending cartoons. Not surprisingly these included known suspects like Tommy Robinson, LSS, Ex Muslims forum, Secularists, Atheists and of course BBC's own Nicky Campbell. BBC and other news channels interviewed hundreds of experts commentators from all around the world and of course they included Quilliam’s, Maajid Nawaz and Douglas Murray of The Henry Jackson Society and Gatestone Institute. These three organisations and above mentioned are most active in the Islamophobic activities and spreading hate and fear of Islam Muslims and fear of persecution in the Muslim communities and then clam there no such things as Islam phobia. BBC allowed Nigel Farage to get away with remarks that there was a fifth column in the midst of us. It was only Jon Snow of Channel Four who confronted him and Geertt Wilders about their xenophobic and neo Nazi stand. 

Due to my addiction to the News, Current affairs and politics, I had the misfortune to watch the Daily Politics Show today, hosted by Andrew Neil and Joe Coburn. The guests included two “opposing and respectful specialists” Maajid Nawaz and Douglas Murray. As expected there was no considered discussion but regurgitation of old rhetoric of Islam being responsible all atrocities in the West and Maajid Nawaz begging for funds. Furthermore these supporters of freedom speech were upset that Media had been using Muhammad Shafiq to comment on the Paris events.

This hypocrisy of advocating free speech while seeking to ban others from speaking has stifled the debate within the society the Muslim community and has given Islamophobes a free hand to spread fear and hate. By supporting and demanding bans in the Educational establishments, media, and public life, these people have created a vacuum of positive role models and have suppressed the free thought. Yes some people will have a point of view or an interpretation of the holy scriptures which is perverted but by banning them and driving them underground you deny the Muslim Community to challenge and debate such notions. The state sponsored censorship of thoughts and views is creating an atmosphere of fear and helplessness in the Muslim Community and this pressurised bottling of emotion is and will result in the undesired outcomes which we all want to prevent.

As it happens I also watched the late programme this week on the BBC where I had to suffer the ridiculous analysis of the Paris event by Andrew Neil. I was, however, looking forward to some sense of balance from the announced guest, David Aaronovitch. However, I was disappointed, because while advocating freedom of speech, David Aaronovitch promoted the idea, that those who don’t agree with his interpretation of freedom of speech, they can move to different countries. The hypocrisy is that even if some people move to different part of the world, they will still be subject to his long standing support for the interventionist policies. In other words you are not allowed to live a peaceful life whether they are in the west or in any other part of the world.

Then he suggested that Muslim should hold large demonstrations like they do when Israel commits atrocities in Palestine as though atrocities committed by state are equal to the murders committed by criminals. I didn’t see him organising or attending such demonstrations against Israel, which by the way were multi racial, multi faith and non faith individuals. Neither it seems he had the ability to organise demonstration of any kind. The heart of matter is that all those who are vocal in criticism of Islam and Muslims happen to be extremist supporters of Israel. These are the people who labelled demonstrations against atrocities in Gaza as anti-Semitic. These are the people who instead of promoting unity as a nation are promoting divisions.

Andrew Neil and David Aaronovitch wanted British media to publish certain cartoons from Charlie Hebdo to “spread the fear”. It would definitely cause the offence and spread the fear in the Muslim communities. While it is acceptable for people to cause offence, it is clear that people has a right to take offence otherwise what is the point. If people are not allowed to air that they are offended without fear, intimidation and bullying then where will that bottled pressure go? Muslims do not need to apologise for their beliefs and certainly do not need to abandon their country on the say so of some Journalists like Andrew Neil, David, Nicky Campbell or Politicians like Nigel Farage.     

Following are some of the tweets to give you a flavour and you decide which are racist, bigoted, xenophobic or Islamophobic or all in one.
http://mobile.twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/552803726772420608?p=v
http://mobile.twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/552783220962787328?p=v
http://mobile.twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/552574856001507328?p=v