Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité? by Les May

THERE’s a line in the James Stewart film ‘The Dynamite Man from Glory Jail’ which always comes to mind whenever I hear that the leader of some religion based political party or other is making demands; ‘God uses some people and some people use God’. If you think we have problems in the UK with a few mediaeval minded God botherers outside a school, spare a thought for Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan.

Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, variously described as ‘hardline’ and ‘far right’, blocked major transport routes demanding the release of their leader Saad Rizvi who had been arrested on Monday after he gave the government an ultimatum to send the French ambassador home or face protests culminating in a march on the capital on 20 April. One protester and a police officer who was beaten by angry crowds have died.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have been enraged by France's Emmanuel Macron defending his country’s freedom of speech laws after the killing of a teacher who had shown images of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.

Khan’s problem is that last November he appears to have tried to buy off demonstrators who had organised anti-France protests demanding a boycott of French goods and the severing of diplomatic ties.

At least that is how the protesters see things, though at the time a senior government official is reported to have told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that the "government has no intention of cutting diplomatic ties with any country" and that the situation had been 'handled accordingly' to ensure the protesters left peacefully. If true this suggests that Khan’s government may have told a ‘porky pie’ to get themselves out of a hole and now it has come back to bite them.

In this country we hear a great deal about so called ‘Islamophobia’. A phobia is essentially an irrational fear of something, so Islamophobia is characterised by a wholly irrational fear of Islam. But when we look at what is happening in Pakistan and the consequences of the demands being made by those outside a school in Batley, should we not ask ourselves if in some cases these fears really are wholly irrational?

*********************************************************

Western liberals’ weakness on blasphemy is letting down Muslim dissenters

Posted on the National Secular Society website by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid on Wed, 31 Mar 2021

The hand-wringing in the face of a vicious campaign against a teacher sends a demoralising message to those fighting for free speech on religion globally and in British Muslim communities, says Kunwar Khuldune Shahid.

The Batley Grammar School teacher who has been suspended, and gone into hiding, after showing a caricature of Islam's prophet Muhammad in class last week, now understandably worries that he might be killed. While the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) worries that the teacher may have shown an image that "plays into" an "Islamophobic trope", and many on the Western left similarly wring their hands, it remains unclear if fearing for one's life over offending Islam also constitutes a phobia. Others, graciously, have responded by quickly condemning 'extremists on both sides', as if the defence of liberal principles were equivalent to Islamist intimidation.

After the satirical French publication Charlie Hebdo was targeted in a jihadist attack, the gruesome murder of its journalists was rationalised through the 'Islamophobia' that it was guilty of, for treating Islam like any other religion. When French schoolteacher Samuel Paty was decapitated after showing Charlie Hebdo's caricatures in school, 'Islamophobia' once again became the rallying cry.

At first it was a publication's act of satirising Islam that translated into asking to be murdered. Now it's teachers showing those cartoons in lessons on blasphemy that is translating into 'asking for it'. Next it may well be critics of this blatant endorsement of Islamic blasphemy laws in the West who might 'ask for it'.

This gruesome eventuality has long been a reality in Muslim-majority countries, where individuals have been killed for mere criticism of the blasphemy laws. A dozen Muslim states sanction death for blasphemy and apostasy, and 20 mandate prison sentences. The day the Batley Grammar School teacher was suspended, and left at the mercy of radical Islamists, yet another man was killed for blasphemy in Pakistan. Since then, over the past week, radical Islamists have initiated violent protests in Bangladesh demanding, among other means of institutionalised persecution, capital punishment for blasphemy against Islam. On Tuesday, a man was burnt to death in Nigeria for 'insulting prophet Muhammad'.

It is impossible to separate the Islamist blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority countries and the demands to silence critique, caricaturing and satire of Islam by Muslim minorities. It shouldn't need saying but it is actually possible to uncompromisingly defend the rights of minorities, and shield them from majoritarian groups, without mollycoddling them over regressive and often downright bigoted beliefs.

Similarly, drawing cartoons or mocking religious beliefs as satire, or exposing believers to ideas completely antipodal to their beliefs in critical learning settings, do not constitute persecution. An offence, or its gravity, needs to be universally applicable and cannot be determined by the reaction of a group. Otherwise, we're a Hindutva attack on a steakhouse away from equating beef cuisine with persecution of Hindus.

Sketches or depictions of Muhammad are no more prohibited in Islam than cow slaughter is in Hinduism; or more poignantly, no more offensive than Hindu wives outliving husbands was two centuries ago. Europe consumed centuries over 'religion wars' between Christian sects which found one another's beliefs offensive. The rise of a radical, and puritanical, literalist brand of Islam, impacting Muslim majorities and minorities alike, is a corollary of a similar sectarian warfare within Islam today.

Some interpretations of Islam have long incorporated the tradition of drawing Muhammad, which means that the ubiquitous claims masquerading as fact that 'Islam prohibits depictions of Muhammad' or that 'Muslims are offended' by such illustrations paints all Muslims with a monolithic, and arguably regressive, brush.

However, even if there is a 'true' version of religion that might uphold certain beliefs, and even if every single one of its billions of adherents were to endorse them identically, that still cannot be used as justification to suppress rights, including the fundamental freedom of speech. And the only legal asterisk on this right should be explicit incitement to violence.

Again, to hold offended sensibilities as the limit of free speech is to not only fail miserably in understanding the very need for protection of such a freedom — since what is acceptable by all doesn't have to be guarded. It is also to constantly lower the threshold of what is 'offensive'. Even more critically, it can shield ideologues from countering viewpoints, which often is the raison d'etre of protests undertaken by those believing their ideas to be the ultimate truth.

Perhaps most pungently, endorsement of this censorship on the part of Western liberals makes it harder to normalise criticism of religion and undermines the fight against Islamic blasphemy laws that hang like a sword over millions in Muslim-majority countries. More than just an ideological regression on the part of the left, such upholding of Islamist ideas has even translated into European courts upholding blasphemy laws that many from Muslim majority countries are escaping from. And in acquiescing to the Islamist narrative in the garb of 'protecting Muslims', liberals in the West have not only abandoned dissidents in Muslim-majority countries, they have also helped facilitate regression of Muslim minorities in their own countries.

When the MCB's first ever female leader was asked questions that would be considered extremely basic for any other community, those otherwise unflinching in their quest for gender quality instinctively shouted 'Islamophobia'. Much of the western left embraces the MCB's calls for 'inclusivity' and 'care' when faced with cartoons. It showed less interest when, for example, an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper was killed in an Islamist attack in 2016 – and the Muslim Council of Britain's focus was declaring that 'Ahmadis are not Muslims'.

Shouldn't such marginalisation or violence committed for Islam, or the fear of one's life over cartoons on Islam, be the bigger concern here?

Shouldn't more energy be dedicated towards elimination of this widespread belief, codified in many Muslim-majority countries, but also preached in many mosques in the West, that blasphemy against Islam merits death?

One doesn't have to be a linguist to discern the contrast between statements issued by many Muslim community groups over killings in the name of Islam, and satire of Islam.

Indeed, Western liberals are complicit in facilitating these Islamic blasphemy narratives around the world. For, when states otherwise upholding free speech on religion start backtracking, those living in countries where blasphemy still mandates death will have little hope.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid is a writer and social commentator based in Pakistan. The views expressed in our blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the NSS.

The Wrong Colour Of Black? by Les May

IN November 2018, I wrote an article for Northern Voices with the title ‘The Silent Sisterhood’. It raised the question of why feminist politicians and journalists had so little to say about the plight of Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman who had fallen foul of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws, had spent eight years in jail, had finally been declared innocent by the Supreme Court, and was still being held in custody so that the court’s decision could be ‘reviewed’ as a sop to the mobs demanding that she be hanged.

As I pointed out at the time there has never been any shortage of white, affluent, western feminists ready to discover examples of ‘misogyny’. Just another case of selective outrage it would seem. Is it going to happen all over again with the Black Lives Matter supporters displaying their own unique brand of selective outrage?

On Tuesday a 22-year-old woman died of severe injuries in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after being gang raped. The same day another 19-year-old woman died two weeks after she was gang-raped and strangled by upper caste men. Both were Dalits and in India's caste-based hierarchy Dalits are ranked the lowest and have been referred to as ‘untouchables’ in the past. Last month, a 13 year old Dalit girl was raped and murdered in the same state. Last year, two Dalit children were allegedly beaten to death after defecating in the open.

As with religious minorities in Pakistan where Christians like Asia Bibi are persecuted and young Hindu women forcibly converted to Islam before being married to older men, India’s caste system is structural discrimination because although in both cases technically illegal, it is built into the fabric of those societies.

Concern is expressed about Facebook, Instagram and Twitter becoming echo chambers reinforcing the existing attitudes and prejudices of their users. We hear nothing about how the choice of issues by the mainstream media determines what is ‘news’ and what is not; what causes outrage and what does not. We all know and can remember the name of George Floyd because his murder has been extensively covered in the press and on television. Unlike the USA, India and Pakistan are not part of the affluent West where ‘people are just like us’ and those of us who happen to have been born with a white skin can be made to feel guilty about events which happened a long time ago and in which we played no part.

Will anyone be asked if they will ‘take a knee’ in memory of these two young Dalit women; will some ‘Royal’ chip in his four penn’orth? I doubt it; selective outrage is the order of the day!

*****************************************************************************

Black Lives Matter; Who To?

by Les May

AS I pointed out in my piece ‘Unpalatable Truths About The Slave Trade’ in June, today we still have millions of people who are enslaved, and that the slaves and those who exploit them, are often the same skin colour, ethnicity, race, call it what you will, as the slaves themselves.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2020/06/unpalatable-truths-about-slave-trade.html

The Al Jazeera news channel at Freeview 235 will carry the programme ‘A 21^st Century Evil’ at 11.30pm this evening (27 July).   It is presented by Rageh Omaar who goes inside Pakistan’s brick kiln industry to find the families of slaves working for nothing to repay bogus ‘debts’.

It is one of a number of programmes which ask the question;

Hundreds of years after it was legally abolished, why does slavery persist?

From impoverished and often illiterate Thai farmers to women forced into prostitution; from men tricked into servitude in Brazil's brutal charcoal industry to entire families trapped as bonded labourers in Pakistan's feudal brick kilns - Al Jazeera investigates the flourishing modern slave trade, asking why millions of people are are enslaved today.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/slaverya21stcenturyevil.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/spiraling-debt-trapping-pakistan-brick-kiln-workers-190903135224452.html

https://www.endslaverynow.org/bonded-labour-liberation-front

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/19/asia/pakistan-humans-new-york-bonded-labor/index.html

******************************

Rochdale Cllr Faisal Rana's Ethnic Politics

Editorial comment:

In a tweet on July 22 Rochdale Cllr Rana says:

'Too few BAME councillors leads to bad decisions.'

Cllr Faisal Rana@FaisalRana48·

Yet some would say Rochdale has tended to be

over-represented by Muslim councillors, and it is worth

examining if this has been in historic terms healthy for

democracy and the moral status of the town.

Worries have been voiced in Rochdale about 
the problems of the Indian sub-continent 
becoming too much of an issue

in the town's politics.

I say this because since the early 1970s 
I have had a close personal and political 
relationship with the Kashmir community

in this town, and even accompanied a 
party of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front 
supporters when in 1992 we went to the 
House of Commons to appeal to get the backing 
of Paddy Ashdown, the then Lib Dem leader, 
in their conflict on the Indian sub-continent 
between the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation 
Front (JKLF), and the Indian government.

***********************

ROCHDALE'S TRAGIC HISTORY OF ETHNIC POLITICS

by Brian Bamford

RACIAL participation in the politics of Rochdale stems from the 1970s, when the then Rochdale MP Cyril Smith established a close relationship with the Muslim community. This was later well documented in the book 'Cyril Smith: Smile for the Camera' by the now disgraced former Rochdale MP, Simon Danzcuk.* For more than 20 years 1972 during the period Smith was in office as the local MP, the Asian community there continually supported the Liberals and the Liberal Democrats. Only later after Liz Lynne, who succeeded Smith as the Rochdale MP, lost the seat to Labour in 1997 did the Muslims in the town begin to transfer their affections to the Labour Party.  After the now disgraced MP Simon Danzcuk, became the Rochdale MP in 2010 the links between the the local Asians and the party accelerated, and the Labour Councillor Faisal Rana has now been able to boast in a post on his Blog entitled: 'How Labour In Rochdale Is Becoming A More Inclusive Party.'

Councillor Rana writes: 'All too often, an ingrained if unspoken prejudice exists in many Labour Party branches that BAME candidates cannot win in predominantly white seats. The selection process and selection meetings are poorly run and often loaded against minority ethnic minority candidates. How many branches, even today, meet on licenced premises discouraging many mumslim [sic] members from taking part? Even when a BAME member is selected as a candidate, it is likely to be in a seat that the party has little or no chance in winning.'

At present according to Carl Faulkner 'Rochdale Council has 12 ‘Asian’ councillors – that equates to about 20% of councillors. The 2011 census showed that the total ‘minority’ population was about 21%. Not all of these are ‘Asian’ of course.

After he was elected Councillor Rana was cautioned for electoral fraud by the police for voting twice in the local elections. Yet, he still retained his seat and has since been promoted. When I spoke to another Rochdale Muslim councillor about the shame that Rana was bringing upon the Labour Party by his conduct I was told that he (Rana) has too much influence over the leader of the Rochdale Labour Party Alan Brett.

Despite what Cllr Rana and the community of scholars might say 'Ethnic identity politics' doesn't have a very noble tradition in Rochdale. 
 

* In his book about Cyril Smith, Smile for the Camera, co-written with a fellow Labour activist, Matthew Baker, Simon Danczuk details Smith's close relationship with the Muslim community in Rochdale, including the encouragement of electoral fraud amongst them, apparently. According to Danczuk, Cyril Smith "transformed politics in the Asian community and became a powerful voice," as they switched from Labour to Liberal en bloc, and Smith prevented people being deported as illegal immigrants and supported the building of the first mosque in the Lancashire town. Danczuk continues: "It was in this community that Cyril unquestionably had the biggest influence."

'FREE AT LAST' THE MEMOIR OF ASIA BIBI

FREE AT LAST - ASIA BIBI

Asia Bibi was called the 'world's most persecuted woman'. A Roman Catholic Pakistani, she was sentenced to death for blasphemy after a dispute over a cup of water with Muslim villagers who were picking fruit with her. She spent eight years on death row waiting to be hung before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, quashed the case against her. Although some Pakistanis wanted to lynch her, some spoke out in support of her. A provincial governor in the Punjab, Salman Taseer, was murdered after speaking in support of her and for opposing Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Shahbaz Batti, Pakistan’s Christian minority’s minister was also shot dead for his opposition to the blasphemy law. Her defence lawyer, Saiful Mulook, fled to the Netherlands in fear of his life.

As a persecuted Christian, the family of Asia Bibi sought asylum from the UK Government, but this was refused by the Conservative Government led by Theresa May, the daughter of an English vicar. May refused the family asylum on the grounds that it might increase community tension in the UK and put the lives of British embassy staff working in Pakistan at risk. When Asia Bibi's husband and daughter came to London, they were told by the government's trade envoy for Pakistan, Rehman Chishti MP, that nobody representing the government was prepared to meet them. He resigned his position in protest.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party, also seemed reluctant to speak up for Asia Bibi. Brian Bamford, a Unite member and the Secretary of Tameside Trades Union Council, wrote on two occasions to Jeremy Corbyn asking where Labour stood in respect of an asylum claim from the family of Asia Bibi, but he never received a reply to his emails.

At a meeting organised by the North West TUC, Bamford asked during a discussion about racism and Tommy Robinson, whether cases like Asia Bibi involving religious persecution of Christian's by the mob, played into the hands of the far right in England and made racism more likely.  The Asian speaker replied that this was a matter for Pakistan and that this country had no right to interfere in the affairs of another country.

Angela Rayner, the local MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, incorrectly told a local Labour Party member that Labour were keen to help Asia Bibi but her family had made no application for asylum. Yet, Jeremy Corbyn didn't hesitate to take up the cudgel for the so-called ISIS bride, Shamima Begum. The Trades Council concluded that the Labour Party were possibly afraid of alienating the Muslim Labour vote.

When I circulated details of the desperate plight of Asia Bibi to various people, including the Momentum member, Sheila Sheppard, the Secretary of Stalybridge Constituency Labour Party, she politely told me to piss off, questioning why I had included her and pointed out that I was not a member of Stalybridge CLP and that there was nothing they could do to help Asia Bibi. I was told not to send her any more communications.

Many feminists were also conspicuously silent about the case of Asia Bibi possibly because they feared  offending cultural sensibilities or because she was a Roman Catholic Pakistani peasant woman and not a famous actress who'd been sexually violated.

Fortunately, the Canadian Government had more guts than the British Conservative government that let the Pakistani mobs dictate British asylum policy, or the Labour Party that gave preference to Labour votes before compassion and humanitarianism.

Asia Bibi and her family are now settled in Canada, despite the death threats of Muslim fanatics. From her new home in Canada, she now campaigns on behalf of other persecuted Christian's in Pakistan. I hope to get a copy of her autobiography 'Enfin Libre', when it becomes available in English - its been written in French - and possibly review it. It should be a compelling and interesting read.