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Pro-Islamist Left Exposed

Looks like the EDL without the knuckle-scrapers.

It's nothing like the edl - it's a coalition of communists, secularists, humanists, socialists etc - many of whom have been forced into political exile from places like Iran - only to be labeled racists by large parts of the left in this country. By all means disagree with their views and how they go about them (their recent reports have been marred by very poor source selection for example) - but don't lump them in with the edl, with groups who want to 'send the black cunts home'.
 
It's nothing like the edl - it's a coalition of communists, secularists, humanists, socialists etc - many of whom have been forced into political exile from places like Iran - only to be labeled racists by large parts of the left in this country. By all means disagree with their views and they go about them (their recent reports have been marred by very poor source selection for example) - but don't lump them in with the edl, with groups who want to 'send the black cunts home'.

Thanks for the insight - my apologies twas my knee jerk reaction. Will read the report with interest now.
 
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Is the line a certain section of the left continually fall for.
america and israel maybe behaving like bastards.
But that doesnt excuse the iranian goverment and others behaving like barstards.
When your supporting people who shoot girls for wanting to go to school your a wrong en.
 
So this is Hitchens's legacy, how pathetic.


What bullshit. Christopher Hitchens adopted wholesale both EDL-style Islamophobia and neocon foreign policy whereas Maryam Namazie is an Iranian ex-Muslim anti-racist and an anti-imperialist.

Whenever I see you post elsewhere you are talking shit about things you obviously know nothing about, I see that you are doing the same here.
 
This report is still very relevant in many ways, for example Azad Ali is still Vice Chair of the UAF and the sort of attitudes that put him there are still very much alive.
 
‘Democracy, if it means that, you know, at the expense of not implementing the Sharia, no-one’s gonna agree with that. Of course no-one agrees with that.’ Azad Ali, Vice Chair, Unite Against Fascism

Excuse me?

How can you defend that?
 
Hmmm, this could be the thread to stick my question. Didn't warrant a thread of its own. What do people think of the word 'Islamaphobia'? My instinct was that it was a bollocks word yet I couldn't actually argue that position.
 
Hmmm, this could be the thread to stick my question. Didn't warrant a thread of its own. What do people think of the word 'Islamaphobia'? My instinct was that it was a bollocks word yet I couldn't actually argue that position.
islamophobia shurrely?
 
Hmmm, this could be the thread to stick my question. Didn't warrant a thread of its own. What do people think of the word 'Islamaphobia'? My instinct was that it was a bollocks word yet I couldn't actually argue that position.


I think in many ways it is used to close down debate, strangely often by white middle class activists, but yes, awful things are happening to some muslims, so something is needed,
 
Hmmm, this could be the thread to stick my question. Didn't warrant a thread of its own. What do people think of the word 'Islamaphobia'? My instinct was that it was a bollocks word yet I couldn't actually argue that position.


I think that Islamophobia as a term is fine, perhaps etymologically it's not ideal but neither for example is the term anti-Semitism and when either term is contested on the basis of semantics I wonder a bit about the person doing it (not that I'm accusing you in particular BTW). Groups that are targeted by discrimination should probably get to choose the term to describe that discrimination and Muslims have chosen Islamophobia.

Islamophobia is definitely a distinct form of hatred, there definitely are people who are 'racist' towards people because they are Muslim or appear Muslim but not towards others because they are not white. I know that secularist groups have tried to get the term 'anti-Muslim bigotry' rather than 'Islamophobia' adopted which might make more sense but I'm not really sure it's their place to decide what term is used to describe that, particularly considering the fact that some secularist groups like the National Secular Society continue to promote openly bigoted people like Pat Condell.

That being said, the use of Islamophobia by some is utterly ridiculous. The SWP has described even religious Muslims opposing Salafists in Egypt as 'Islamophobic'. Similarly, some Salafist groups such as the IERA have described British universities as 'Islamophobic' for not allowing them to forcibly segregate audiences by gender. I don't think that this disqualifies the term for use any more than the abuse of the term anti-Semitism by far-right Zionists should disqualify the term anti-Semitism from use.
 
I've just been reading through that report and already I can see a few things that are a bit off. The general point, that UAF and STWC made dodgy alliances with islamists, is undisputable, but there's certain parts of that document that conflate being soft on islamism with being against a war with Iran. A lot of emphasis is placed on being against war with iran, or appearing on PressTV, as evidence in itself of being pro-Islamist. OF course the irony is when it comes to Islamism, bombing Iran is the one point that Melanie Phillips and the US right and the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia and Al-Queada are in total agreement. The word "Islamism" goes from meaning supporting Jihad in to supporting Iran, with no contextual explanation about how the two are geo-politically different. I'm not going to dispute that Galloway's a snake, but does this logic extend to anyone who doesn't support regime change in Iran? Likewise would it be possible to list all the people who've argued in favour of arming Al-Quaeda in Syria, or arming the Barhraini and Qatari dictatorship, or have appeared on Al-Jazeera (and btw Qatar is every bit a theocracy as Iran) as also being pro-Islamist? Because you could have a field day showing how often leading conservatives have been willing to arm and finance Islamist dictatorships in the gulf states, how willing they are to send support to Al-Queada soldiers in the field in Syria, if you were so inclined.

Also the stuff involving Galloway and the miriam appeal seems a bit desperate. Surely, if there was substance to those accusations, then something would've been done by now? These aren't even remotely new, they're the accusations the Galloway sued the Daily Telegraph over iirc, as of yet no-one's managed to make any of those accusations of Gallowas recieving millions of oil money stick in court, all the attempts at sub-committee's here and in the US to pin something on him haven't made it very far. Perhaps this particular aspect of the case against Galloway's not as strong as they would like. Why it gets such emphasis here I have no idea, god knows there's no shortage of stuff to throw at Galloway that really is based on undisputed fact, but I think it's revealing.

Infact I might return and pick through that report in detail. Not because I dispute the overall point - that UAF and other left groups have flirted and supported with Islamists because I know they do and let them hang their head in shame for all eternity for it - but because I think there's an anti-Iran streak running through that needs to be looked at. In this report being against war with Iran, or appearing on PressTV, is used as innuendo to suggest that an individual is pro-Islamist. I don't like PressTV very much myself, and those appearing on it have a lot of explaining to do, but in itself it's not evidence of being an Islamist. Certainly if people on the right can vehemently argue in favour of sending money and weapons to Al-Queada in Syria, yet somehow escape the charge of being Pro-Islamist, whereas merely appearing on PressTV is seen as wholehearted approval of Islamism, its an interesting bit of hypocrisy. Iranian Islamism bad, Saudi-backed Islamism and al-Queada good.


I like some of the stuff in the post-script though.
 
Utter garbage, rubbish and trash.

Either support your bullshit or retract it.


Alright.

From a cursory glance at Unhitched (I can provide the pdf if anyone wants, feel free to PM me):

PG 69

Hitchens on why 9/11 happened said:
the grievance and animosity predate even the Balfour Declaration, let
alone the occupation of the West Bank. They predate the creation of Iraq as a state. The gates of Vienna would have had to fall to the Ottoman jihad
before any balm could begin to be applied to these psychic wounds.

PG 70

Hitchens on Islam said:
I f you ask specifically what is wrong with Islam, it makes the same mistakes as the preceding religions, but it makes another mistake, which is that it's unalterable. You notice how liberals keep saying, 'If only Islam would have a Reformation' - it can't have one. It says it can't. It's extremely dangerous in that way

Statement by Martin Amis that Hitchens defended re: What he wanted to do to Muslims said:
not letting them t ravel. Deportation - further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan . . . Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.

His writing included Eurabia conspiracy theory bullshit, he even wrote an article called Londonistan Calling in vanityfair

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/06/hitchens200706

The article consistently essentialises Islam and the views of Muslim and Muslim-seeming immigrants, "Quite unlike the Irish and the Cypriots, they bring these far-off quarrels along with them. And they also bring a religion which is not ashamed to speak of conquest and violence."

The cherry on the top, and I haven't seen it quoted elsewhere for whatever reason maybe SEYMOUR! hadn't heard it before, is this



Listen from 37:42 onwards: Hitchens rounds on the welfare state, Muslim immigrants in general and trade unions, says that socialism in Europe is rich workers disliking poor workers.

Then from 39:14 "everyone knows that there is a trap door underneath that apparent free gift of cheap [Muslim] labour and I don't think I need to state it any more dramatically than that" Pure Eurabia bullshit.

This isn't dogwhistle stuff, this could come straight from the likes of Pam Geller or Tommy Robinson.
 
Basically saying what should have been bleeding obvious ten years ago, but some still need to have the message drilled into them. Still, no harm in continuing to call out the SWP and fellow travellers on their Islamist appeasing BS.
 
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