Tower Hamlets deshis and lefties pulled it together to pull off a startling win in the Bethnal Green and Bow elections. George Galloway unseated the loyal prowar newlabour candidate, he was respectful in victory and praised her work for the community.
This was happy news to me for a few reasons, it was a triumphant display of functional unity between social forces of bangla, islamic and lefty flavour....it inspired the local people who got actively involved who now walk with an extra spring in their step....it was a good development for those who imagine and want to work out a way out from global and local injustice.....its a maturing opportunity for the 'Stop the War/End the Occupation group'....it is an inspiriation for justice movements worldwide from bangladesh to baghdad....it is scaring the hell out of corrupt council leaders in the area
Well wishers of east london should be pleased that creative politics is not dead.
This situation reminds me of the Sylhet refurendum held in british occupied assam ( part of india) when the muslims of sylhet (reduced in stature through purposeful colonial and quisling land and educational policies) chose to link their futures to the muslim peoples of india upon partition. The two nation idea hadn't garnered mass support before this time...this was significant watershed....and the rest followed suit....well thats my take on it. I cant get this stupid grin off my face!
The Respect Coalition polled well in birmingham(3 000 short!), 2 seats in newham and canning town (20%+)...next years council elections should see more triumphs, so long as this hard fought constituency serves its people well and promotes and contextualises the adab-ful vibe. Many people i have spoken to have only heard of Respect just now (duh!) after they won something...so i guess it takes time for positive experiences to emerge in the local social memory.
The establishment's revulsion at this free expression of public will was noted.
1 ex-labour mp tony bank's statement that bangladeshis/muslims are latently rascist
2 BBC newsman Paxman's hilarously loony 'do you feel proud to have displaced one of the only black women MPs'
3 blairite sellout mp david lammy's 'he's an exploitative carpet bagger' and 'those poor helpless and hapless people of the east end' statement
Labour corruption and skull duggery through the postal vote issue have also been noted, as have armchair political commentators annoyance/ignorance/prejudice of this community on the ground.
May local society be further emboldened and inspired to achieve its highest state! I think one of the keys is a cultural adaptation (or 'J'). politicians arent really the solvers of all our problems, their job is to create an enabling environment.
We have a 'bhaiya - apa' (older brother -sister) set of relationships that we maintain in deshi extended family networks. I think they become uneven and get truncated on migration to a new country (the uk) we can see this as parents can often get a bit desperate and lame in efforts to marry of their children.
Mentoring is ...... good, but reestablishing the caring-slightly-elder relationship, though overlapping of ...'aador networks' is much more promising in my experience. Why should i have to go to an outside agency to promte to them that i am not a paedophile so that i can help my own kids? Lets not wait for anyone, dignity, justice and freedom are not handed out on silver platters, they need to be taken...
but brother, sister , comrade....can you spare the time......?
Anyhow, now the people of bethnal green and bow have an MP who will represent their views in parliament. I hope many more constituencies disengage from the politics of hegemonic parties.
Something a little more nourishing for the soul to round this up. I found the web pages of Said Nursi's teachings , a reknowned Islamic thinker who was born into the late period of the Osmanli Caliphate and who died in a time of present day Turkey. His Risale-i-Noor Collection is illuminating. Remember the authors situation and read his biography on the web pages to better realise the spiritual audience and political strife of his time.
I asked a wise old turk (not aligned to his followers) in istanbul about this(Nursi's) personality, he rated him as a write and a thinker, but in retrospect wished he had not entered politics (for which he and others suffered).
There is a similar theme of value running throughout Islamic history, whereas the brit/european history i was taught at school is always about kings and queens and battles, islamic historical thinking tends to be about the scholars.
In the Late Shayk Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi's 'Saviours of the Islamic Spirit' most of the individuals (apart from Salahuddin Ayubi..who freed al quds from the crusaders) were people of learning.
