A badge of honour...The left doesn't have to compromise any principle to defend and work with Muslims - on the contrary
by Lindsey German
There is no section of the British population that has seen its world change more dramatically since 9/11 than the Muslim community. Events have propelled British Muslims into political activity, especially around the anti-war movement. The continuing plight of the Palestinians, the imprisonment of Muslims without human rights in Guantánamo Bay and Belmarsh prison and the terrorism laws have all fuelled a new politicisation.
Muslims were already the target of widespread racist attacks - the situation is now far worse. The British National Party singled out Muslims in its recent election broadcast, while the home secretary has demanded British Muslims accept the "British way" and that English should be spoken in Asian homes. There has been a dramatic rise in the stop and search of Asian men as "Muslim" has become increasingly interchangeable with "terrorist" or "fundamentalist" in some sections of society, including some in uniform.
It should be a badge of honour to those of us on the left that a group of people who face discrimination and victimisation should look to organisations like Stop the War Coalition to help defend them - and that the overwhelming majority of those so politicised do not turn to fundamentalist groups but to socialists, trade unionists and peace campaigners.
Unfortunately, however, those liberals who backed the war against Iraq seem to regard any alliance with the Muslim community as a pact with the devil. Charges of anti-semitism, support for terrorism, homophobia and sexism abound, as in the attacks on Yusuf al-Qaradawi and the Muslim Association of Britain in recent days. Those of us who have long supported women's and gay liberation have now picked up some unlikely supporters. Papers like the Sun, itself no stranger to sexist and homophobic rants, have developed a belated concern for the rights of Muslim women and gays.
For any socialist, the defence of sexual equality and freedom must be unconditional. But we cannot, in the process, join in the attacks on those very Muslims who are at the sharp end of racist attacks and Islamophobia in Britain. We could start by not treating Muslims as one reactionary, superstitious mass. Just because women wear the hijab, for example, does not mean that they are more oppressed than other women. Our experience in the anti-war movement is the opposite. Young Muslim women, most of whom wear the hijab, have played a central role in organising, speaking at meetings, fundraising and debating policy. Many say they dress in this way not out of deference but because they want to show pride in their culture and religion.
Everyone should oppose homophobia and attacks on women from whichever source. But such views are far from being held by all Muslims, nor are they unique to Muslims. Fundamentalists of most religions hold such views - but where is the uproar when fundamentalist Baptist preachers from the US visit our shores?
It is also absurd to insinuate that homophobic attacks or wife-beating are exclusively Muslim problems. They are preponderantly found among the white majority in this country. Many of the attitudes being condemned were themselves part of public British culture until relatively recently. It has taken argument and organisation to challenge those views, and that political engagement needs to be continued.
For example, the Muslim Association has increasingly put forward Muslim women speakers to represent it on anti-war platforms as our campaign has developed. And, while its support for the Palestinian people's struggle is unequivocal, it clearly distinguishes between the Jewish people and the Israeli state. Those who argue that Muslim groups such as the MAB are fascist, or that al-Qaradawi's views on gays are worse than the BNP's, are dangerously wide of the mark.
The BNP's heroes in Nazi Germany scapegoated gays, trade unionists, Gypsies, socialists and, above all, Jews because they wanted to destroy democratic and working-class organisations in the interests of a German imperialist super-state. British Muslims, however much we might disagree with some of the views that some hold, are struggling to uphold their rights and culture in an environment of pervasive racism - a racism used to uphold the policies of the new imperialism. The comparison with Nazism is abhorrent.
Of course, some Muslims - and non-Muslims - hold views on some social issues that are more conservative than those of the socialist and liberal left. But that should not be a barrier to collaboration over common concerns. Would a campaign for gay rights, for example, insist that all those who took part share the same view of the war in Iraq? That would be a road to the fragmentation of any progressive movement seeking to reach out beyond the traditional left.
It would be a catastrophe for the left to bow to the witch-hunt and turn its back on the Muslim community. We have always defended ethnic minorities and immigrants coming to Britain. When socialists and communists joined Jews in London's East End in the 1930s to defeat fascism, they did so because they realised that if we do not defend those under attack today, we would all be under attack tomorrow.
·Lindsey German is the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition
She is available at office@stopwar.org.uk
The article was first published in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday July 13,2004
URL:http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1260025,00.html
There is no section of the British population that has seen its world change more dramatically since 9/11 than the Muslim community. Events have propelled British Muslims into political activity, especially around the anti-war movement. The continuing plight of the Palestinians, the imprisonment of Muslims without human rights in Guantánamo Bay and Belmarsh prison and the terrorism laws have all fuelled a new politicisation.
Muslims were already the target of widespread racist attacks - the situation is now far worse. The British National Party singled out Muslims in its recent election broadcast, while the home secretary has demanded British Muslims accept the "British way" and that English should be spoken in Asian homes. There has been a dramatic rise in the stop and search of Asian men as "Muslim" has become increasingly interchangeable with "terrorist" or "fundamentalist" in some sections of society, including some in uniform.
It should be a badge of honour to those of us on the left that a group of people who face discrimination and victimisation should look to organisations like Stop the War Coalition to help defend them - and that the overwhelming majority of those so politicised do not turn to fundamentalist groups but to socialists, trade unionists and peace campaigners.
Unfortunately, however, those liberals who backed the war against Iraq seem to regard any alliance with the Muslim community as a pact with the devil. Charges of anti-semitism, support for terrorism, homophobia and sexism abound, as in the attacks on Yusuf al-Qaradawi and the Muslim Association of Britain in recent days. Those of us who have long supported women's and gay liberation have now picked up some unlikely supporters. Papers like the Sun, itself no stranger to sexist and homophobic rants, have developed a belated concern for the rights of Muslim women and gays.
For any socialist, the defence of sexual equality and freedom must be unconditional. But we cannot, in the process, join in the attacks on those very Muslims who are at the sharp end of racist attacks and Islamophobia in Britain. We could start by not treating Muslims as one reactionary, superstitious mass. Just because women wear the hijab, for example, does not mean that they are more oppressed than other women. Our experience in the anti-war movement is the opposite. Young Muslim women, most of whom wear the hijab, have played a central role in organising, speaking at meetings, fundraising and debating policy. Many say they dress in this way not out of deference but because they want to show pride in their culture and religion.
Everyone should oppose homophobia and attacks on women from whichever source. But such views are far from being held by all Muslims, nor are they unique to Muslims. Fundamentalists of most religions hold such views - but where is the uproar when fundamentalist Baptist preachers from the US visit our shores?
It is also absurd to insinuate that homophobic attacks or wife-beating are exclusively Muslim problems. They are preponderantly found among the white majority in this country. Many of the attitudes being condemned were themselves part of public British culture until relatively recently. It has taken argument and organisation to challenge those views, and that political engagement needs to be continued.
For example, the Muslim Association has increasingly put forward Muslim women speakers to represent it on anti-war platforms as our campaign has developed. And, while its support for the Palestinian people's struggle is unequivocal, it clearly distinguishes between the Jewish people and the Israeli state. Those who argue that Muslim groups such as the MAB are fascist, or that al-Qaradawi's views on gays are worse than the BNP's, are dangerously wide of the mark.
The BNP's heroes in Nazi Germany scapegoated gays, trade unionists, Gypsies, socialists and, above all, Jews because they wanted to destroy democratic and working-class organisations in the interests of a German imperialist super-state. British Muslims, however much we might disagree with some of the views that some hold, are struggling to uphold their rights and culture in an environment of pervasive racism - a racism used to uphold the policies of the new imperialism. The comparison with Nazism is abhorrent.
Of course, some Muslims - and non-Muslims - hold views on some social issues that are more conservative than those of the socialist and liberal left. But that should not be a barrier to collaboration over common concerns. Would a campaign for gay rights, for example, insist that all those who took part share the same view of the war in Iraq? That would be a road to the fragmentation of any progressive movement seeking to reach out beyond the traditional left.
It would be a catastrophe for the left to bow to the witch-hunt and turn its back on the Muslim community. We have always defended ethnic minorities and immigrants coming to Britain. When socialists and communists joined Jews in London's East End in the 1930s to defeat fascism, they did so because they realised that if we do not defend those under attack today, we would all be under attack tomorrow.
·Lindsey German is the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition
She is available at office@stopwar.org.uk
The article was first published in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday July 13,2004
URL:http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1260025,00.html
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