UK Decay

[mh]

[D]

There's no doubt about that but what I'm trying to draw out is the fact that because Al Quaida makes references to islam, all moslems are scapegoated, even those who are British and have never been to an islamic country. Irish people were scapegoated for being Irish not because of their religion; whereas now, all muslims are suspects, indeed, anyone whose religion or colour or appearance is regarded as alien.

The point about standing the test of history is irrelevant is the anti-war movement fails, as the winners get to write the history and keep the spoils.

The most important thing is that the Stop The War Coalition keeps the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the public eye. Blair and Bush would like nothing better than for these occupations to become forgotten wars that no-one cares about. It's also important because it shows that there are millions of people in Britain who are against, not muslims per se, but the people at the top of society who are responsible for the whole situation in the first place.

If the government were serious about stopping terrorism, they would pull the troops out tomorrow and stop supporting America's and Israel's own terrorist activities.

[TANTRABOY]

I think were are on the same page D, but I have an opinion that the Stop The War Cohilition will not fail.

The forces for peace are more pervasive, and it can take a generation, but the Anti War Movement is an ideal, and it did contribute to stopping an illegal War of occupation in Vietnam just as much as Chinese bombs, because it starved America and her Allies of the moral integrity they were trying to keep while crusading against Communism. And I'm not preaching Communism, its just a fact.

Many people died in Vietnam, and there were murders in Americas' Universities during protests, and what it did was deprive America of being able to ever re write history for their won ends. Everybody made a laughing stock of them for years...It doesn't matter how many times they
'Win' in Iraq, or Afghanistan, they lost, the peace movement won a vital argument.

Al.
_________________
BEDFORD'S ONLY 40 + TEENAGER

[Guest]

The invasion of Iraq was a joke and something I was totally against.
The difference between the 70's Irish Catholics and present day Muslims is the number of people supporting the violence. You'd have been hard pressed to find a decent percentage of Catholics who supported the tactics of the IRA. On the other hand as per the poll this week around 28% of British Muslims view the London bombers as Martyrs. Over the next few years there is going to be no way of avoiding more 7 7's. The war on Iraq was wrong. But at the end of the day it's just an excuse to push the tipping point over the edge. Makes me laugh all the civil liberties types crying for the rights of the Islamic population. Religion is evil. Islamic religion is the most evil. Society should be making more efforts to assimilate the Islamics and also should be discouraging their poisonous faith instead of embracing with open arms. If there was a right wing group that preached supremacy over all others, was violenty anti jewish, hated gays, oppressed women and preached intolerance of decadent mainstream society you can guarantee it would be kept on the fringes and probably banned out right. But call this group Muslims and a blind eye is turned in the name of political correctness.
To bad Aki turned out to be such a wanker as he was brilliant in SDC.

[D]

Sorry TANTRABOY, I meant to write "IF the anti-war movement fails" not "IS the anti.." so I totally agree about the importance of the Stop The War coalition.

As for the subsequent post about Ireland, there's a difference between regarding someone who dies as a martyr and supporting the tactics of the IRA. For example, as you say, even if the majority didn't support the TACTICS of the IRA they did regard Bobby Sands and the others who starved themselves to death as martyrs (he was elected to Westminster whilst still in prison).

Regarding islam, a quick study of the history (and current practice in many parts of the world) of other religions puts it into perspective. To me, the issue at the moment is not religion but racism. By fighting islamaphobia and racism, it's also possible to criticise and undermine religion.

For example, many of the black civil rights protesters in sixties America were religious and had backward views about woman and gays but it would be wrong to have made their religion a reason not to support civil rights in the US. Was it wrong to support Italian partisans fighting nazi occupation, because many of them were catholic? Or dismiss the jews who took up arms against the nazis in the Warsaw ghetto because "all religions are evil"?

Although political correctness can be irritating due to being patronising and elitist (and for some, a lucrative business ) whilst often missing the point, we have to recognise that despite what the Mail, Express and Sun say, it isn't the cause of people's problems, indeed it's an attempt, albeit a clumsy one, to redress the balance in a society that despite improvements, is nevertheless institutionally racist.

If you take a look at why many people get into radical islam in the first place, it tends to be about finding an identity in a racist society that has rejected them time and time again - people talk of only being partially assimilated despite having been born in the UK, about never really fitting in and so on. And in that context, radical islam appears to them to identity the causes and the solutions to this situation. The best way to undermine radical islam, is not to dismiss all followers as evil religious nutters but to fight the racism and oppression that leads to alienation in the first place.

We should also remember that the great majority of muslems do not support the terrorists. A recent security services report says that the growth of radical islam is a consequence of the war in Iraq, Britain's support for Israel and various social grievences linked to racism. It says that the policy of trying to contain the terrorists and stop them will not work.; that the causes have to be dealt with as well. It has echos of the British army's admission that they couldn't win in Ireland, that there was rooted support for republicanism in the communities and so on.

But will the government take any notice (or it's own security services never mind the anti-war movement)? If they were serious about stopping the terrorists, they would. Although we have fundamental criticisms of islam, indeed all religions, it's important to put the blame where it lies and THEN continue arguing about the evils of religon, not the other way round.

How can you convince people that their religion is negative, if you don't first of all, condenm the realities that make make religion seem so attractive in the first place?

[D]

Aki Nawaz from Fun-Da-Mental talks about imperialism and his album All Is War


Aki Nawaz


All is War cover by Leon Kuhn

Aki Nawaz is the main creative force behind the British hip-hop act Fun-Da-Mental. He spoke to Anindya Bhattacharyya

Being radical is one thing - being radical and Muslim is quite another, as Aki Nawaz discovered last month.

The media went into a frenzy following news of the forthcoming release of Fun-Da-Mental’s new album, All Is War, while Aki from the group became the focus of an Islamophobic hate campaign.

The Labour MP Andrew Dismore called for Aki to be prosecuted for glorifying terrorism. The Sun and other newspapers joined in the calls for his head, while anti-Muslim websites accused this long standing left winger of “fascism”.

The immediate trigger for the hysteria was an article in the Guardian describing some of the album’s lyrics and detailing how two directors of Beggars Banquet, Fun-Da-Mental’s record label, had threatened to resign if it was released.

Aki has been with Beggars Banquet for over 20 years. Starting off in the punk scene, he served as the drummer in Southern Death Cult in the 1980s, before leaving to form Fun-Da-Mental, which fuses hip-hop, political militancy and Islamic imagery.

“The Guardian phoned up and said they really wanted to cover the album and interview me,” Aki told Socialist Worker. “I was expecting something on the arts pages, but when I opened the Guardian the next day I found I was taking up the whole of page three! I couldn’t believe it.

“Then my phone started going off constantly, the whole of the media trying to interview me. That’s when it clicked - I realised that I was being used as a way into the coverage of the anniversary of the 7 July bombings.”

The press hysteria has died down, but Aki is still having problems getting All Is War released to the public, despite a glowing recent review in the Observer. “The manufacturers all pulled out. I had to go out of Britain to manufacture the CD - nobody would touch it here,” he said.

“I’m also having trouble with my distributors. They love the album and back what I’m trying to do. But they say the media frenzy made it too hot to handle - shops and warehouses were refusing to stock it.”

Having been dropped like a hot potato by the music business, Aki has had to handle the design and artwork aspects of the album himself. The cover is by regular Socialist Worker illustrator Leon Kuhn.

The album itself is an angry, moving and intelligent exploration of the issues surrounding the “war on terror”. It traces the links between present struggles and those of the past, and how so called “terrorist” violence is inextricably linked with the imperialist violence of the system.

One track, “Che Bin” caused particular controversy by allegedly comparing Osama Bin Laden to Che Guevara. In fact if anything the track contrasts the two figures, juxtaposing speeches from them about their differing attitudes to terrorism.

Another track, Cookbook DIY, has been accused of justifying suicide bombing. The first verse certainly does describe the thoughts of a would be suicide bomber - but the track moves on to talk from the perspective of a military scientist developing bombs for governing powers.

Far from glorifying suicide bombing, the track asks what the moral difference between the two bombers is. But such subtleties were lost on much of the media.

“I ended up doing hundreds of interviews, trying to explain what the album was about. But they weren’t interested in any substance,” he said.

“Thankfully I haven’t been arrested yet. But there is an absolute fear out there - and a reluctance among good people to challenge that fear.”

Aki is certainly bitter at what he sees as a failure by parts of the liberal left to stand up against the new imperialism and the Islamophobia that accompanies it. “People are not speaking out,” he said. “I was right in there with all the left struggles - now I’ve found my struggle is not anyone else’s struggle.”

Nevertheless, Aki acknowledges that there has been solidarity from the anti-war movement. “I love people like George Galloway when he rants on, or journalists like John Pilger. But why is it that when we Muslims say something, the reaction is so much worse. A lot of this is down to racism, I believe.

“Go back in time and you’ll see that when a black person opens their mouth it’s perceived in a certain way, and those racist perceptions have been institutionalised in the media.”

Ultimately Aki believes these invisible lines that mark out what Muslims are “allowed” to say should be challenged. “I reject the parameters for debating these issues,” he says. Fun-Da-Mental’s new album certainly does that - and it deserves the support of every anti-war activist.

To find out more about All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had) go to Fun-Da-Mental’s website at www.fun-da-mental.co.uk. The album will be available to download from 7 August.

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