The Muslim Vote Project

It is a time of great sorrow, disaster and murder in Gaza and the West Bank, and UK elected officials are quite complicit in it. We need not be. Palestine is anti colonial dhikr. Everyone carrying multigenerational colonial wounds remembers them. It matters because these are matters of life, death and the Zone of Non Being. 

Since falling to the British Empire in 1917, life in Palestine and in wider Sykes-Picotistan has been imperilled by a toxic and deadly entanglements of colonial power, European xenophobia, proxy powerplay and the morally debasing Zionist Movement. Not to mention foolishness, and selfish gits. 

Even before the establishment of the once heretical Zionist movement, Christian fantasists and statesmen like Napoleon had toyed with the idea and benefits (to them) of a Jewish state in the region. Later, Ronald Storrs, a British Mandate era Military Governer in Jerusalam remarked that the state could be "a loyal little ulster in a sea of potentially hostile pan-Arabism", I recently heard a dissident US military commentator remark of the current state as a "US Battleship in the Middle East".

British colonial crimes in Palestine draw in a wider historically subjugated fraternity, from the redeployment of colonial torturers from Occupied India, to Black and Tans militia from Ireland. This underlines our visceral concern. 

Another world is possible with organised effort, pain and creativity. Political Cost-benefit analysis shift with time, events and realisation, sometimes quite nonlinearly. The hegemony of the Zionist position(s) was not always a given, the assassination of the anti Zionist Jewish writer Jacob Israel de Haan by the Hagana militants in 1924 demonstrates how insecure the Early Zionist movement leadership was at the time of articulate community-based opposition. We are witnessing a post Zionist turn in the so-called west, and in the UK the scent of something post Labour for many. 

Immigrants to the UK from the colonial periphery generally came with very few political expectations and are seen to have generally fallen behind the Labour Party, especially when they were allowed in and managed into votebanks. The Corbyn Leadership years were an opportunity, they are over now, but the political movements and energies are very much out there. In fact the post corbyn collapse was a bit of a train wreck and its very much worth looking back down the track at those features of the preceding Student Movement and Anti War Movement that made them possible. 

The establishment response to the war on Gaza has exposed the moral vacuity and racism of the British political class in a fairly obvious way, again. On the other hand I feel that the horror of these past months have reminded many people what they are about and what they are politically for. Countless, well attended, inclusive and regular pro Ceasefire protests characterised the last quarter 2023, as Palestinians bodies have been obliterated, maimed and souls departed at a horrific rate. We hear news of direct actions and organic boycotts every other day responsive, collective and determined. High quality political educational resources are abundant, not least due to the brilliant works and efforts of Palestinians like the late Shaheed Dr Refaat Al Areer.

The purpose of this post is to highlight one initiative from the UK's Muslim millet that seeks to boost political organising is The Muslim Vote project, . It is much more than a simple pivot on census data and that Parliamentary ceasefire vote failure, it is a call for long term, ethical, political action. It raises questions, sober realities and exciting possibilities. Do have a browse, listen and think about it. 

 

The coming year brings with it the responsibility for discussion building, wisdom sharing, bullshit busting and ego managing. Nearly 20 years ago a successful Anti War inspired effort in the taken for granted by East London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bro changed the political dynamics of the area, for the better, with material results benefiting the people of the borough to this day. We can do so much better than we are.

Oh and Algorythmic Preventitude under Starmer and the post Starmer is going to be awful, best prepare.

Britain's Political Rose Garden

There is a movement in the UK thats gaining new expression, confidence and capability. I have not seen anything like it in my life and am amazed at how far we are now, towards a transatlantically synergising post-neoliberal ecosocialist conjunction

 With the UK's 2019 General Election due in a few weeks, the Labour Party's Manifesto reads like a horizontal supplication of political love. Activists have literally been crying over it with joy and hope. [link to pdf] In some ways it reminds my of the currentWestern Catholic Pope's  Care for Our Common Home.

It is a well organised, ecological and thematic proposal for a a future of practical hope and transformation.  I love the proposals for the energy sector and the commitment to massive social eco home building and retrofits. Plenty to be getting along with. Imagine, wind power towns on the coast like Barrow and Lowestoft becoming desirable places for commutants to flock towards for better quality of life?

I love the British Colonial Legacy Audit, and I think we should develop resources around the Bengal famine to connect with it and our futures.

Overall its a great document to campaign with, with multiple points of entry. Like the plan to protect people from exploitative freeholders and landlords, the National Education Service and a deep, grounded commitment to Mother Earth.

On the ground,  I think that we are beginning to see the emergence of a Parliament with fewer rubbish Labour MPs and more talented ones. There are still too many hard to reach racist people who read the Daily Mail for me to be jubilant at this stage, and 4 years of media brainwashing have taken their toll on the public. However I do still have moments of pure excitement and giddyess, so I'm pinching myself with 'epistemically challenged' opinion polls. [ Epistepollogy ]

Allahumma keep the campaigners energised, well distributed, persuasive and fragrant, through time that we may grow wiser and stronger, whatever Your weather. Help us cultivate a beautiful Political Rose Garden to remember and serve you by.

Mir Quasem Ali's execution and the tale of two Bangladeshs

Liberating Nadiya 
I was watching the Chronicles of Nadiya recently and thinking about representations of Bangladesh in the international media, what they are, who they work for and what is actually real about them.

Reading about Bangladesh in most places you might think that the government there was a strong partner in The War on Terror, developing its people and that the only injustice was coming from the direction of deranged Muslims. Give or take a bit of white right left liberal frosting. That's the fiction that the Foreign Minister of the Occupied Turtle Island John Kerry dwelt in on his recent visit to the country. Its the fiction that people like Tahmima Anam write about and that Jeremy Corbynjaan says he reads, Lord guide him.

Begum Nadiya is real, talented, lovely, being commodified, and growing in agency and brilliance. Britain needs a good Muslim story to offset the awful ones and its mutating Islamophobia and she's generating feelings, even tears, of love among many. The Chronicles are well-shot two-parter that in my mind valourises the creative genius of our mothers and aunts and takes us on a trip from the mystical-material shini of the gonj, with kissing otters to the urban dystopias of culinarily challenged elite NGO workers and the North-South University ghetto.

I am all for integration. Therefore I wonder what meal I would cook up for the country's political prisoners in Kashempur and Dhaka Central Jail's, and their families, not to mention those of the assassinated, massacred and disappeared? After all, we usually recognise the vertical and the horizontal when we cook and eat, as well as when we see.

Who are you calling a one party state?
Over the past few months many have been enthusiastic to call Turkey a one party state. More recently we have observed Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, who presided over the 2005 Andijan Massacre, transition towards a state of divine accountability. Karimov was a strong partner in the war on terror, and backed by The War on Terriors all the way, ex-British diplomat Craig Murray has a blog pretty much dedicated to this in all its colonial detail.

Well, desh actually IS a one party state, in which the state gets away with murders most foul, and the stench trail reaches well into these (English) shores: int development, culture and the political establishment . Every year, the British government puts a quarter of a billion into the hands of the country's NGOs. The niece of the Prime Minister is a sitting Labour Party MP.

In 2014, the ruling Awami League ran the fakest general election in the country's history, possibly giving the British Labour party purge a run for its money in the ridiculousness department. It was so fake that they had to ask their coalition ally, The Jatiya Party to form a pretend opposition whilst they blocked political gatherings by their political opponents by blockading their homes with trucks filled with sand [watch here].  This is a regime that massacres people,  most heart-breakingly during the Dhaka Massacre, which claimed the lives of countless unarmed sit-in protesters as they slept and prayed in the early hours of 6th May 2013 [archive here]. This is a regime which has introduced new legislation to enforce a self-serving and rather lobotomising perspective on history as national liberation delivery.

The Judicial Murder of Mir Quasem Ali
This is a regime that just a few hours ago judicially murdered the media pioneer and philanthropist Mir Quasem Ali, in a blood sacrifice to their Islamophobic [Article] political idol of Bengali Nationalism. His son, Arman or Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, who was also one of his father's defence barristers, was illegally detained by state agencies on August 9 , nobody knows where they've put him and they are denying holding him [HRW Report].  It is a new level of cruelty that he will (probably) not be able to lead his fathers funeral prayer. Altogether, a sorrowful and terrifying time for the family, who have been on the receiving end of state persecution since the tribunals were established in 2010.

We believe that the ongoing impacts of our deeds continue to benefit us in the after life. Shaheed Mir Quasem Ali was an institution builder in health, media and banking and I'm beginning to learn about how generous in spirit and material he was. In so many ways he embodied the brighter practical side of the country's Political Islam tradition and so my guess is that he is deed rich.

I will write about the case specifics in more depth at a later time,  but two points before dropping some resources at your feet. First off, the tribunal that convicted Mir Quasem is a kangaroo court concerned with killing opposition politicians, manipulating the public and the judiciary, consolidating power and extending hegemony over history, bodies and resources. Secondly,  I'm still not sure how to make truths, restorative justice and reconciliation out of the Bangladesh War, but Yasmin Saikia has got an idea [Video]. The family campaign website is here. David Bergman's hole-prone archive of the tribunals is here. The Tribunal's 2014 judgement in here and the 2012 Skype Scandal is here.

Responses
The early responses from Bangladeshis are mixed, as one would expect. I suspect a lot of people are sick to death with them. The prayerfully sympathetic are asking the Almighty to accept Mir Quasem as a martyr, because he was killed in the path of truth and social service. People on Twitter are expressing solidarity on #WeAreMirQuasemAli and are smaller group is reproducing hatred against him with stale Shahbag-era quotes. My guess is that we will learn a lot more about his work and legacy with time.

Meanwhile the local, tightly monitored media compete with each other for horror honours, putting a new gloss on the term Sustainable Lievelihood Framework. Diaspora Awami League institutions are even more surreal, with ATN Bangla UK broadcasting a pro-government report with hindi melodrama music. Small groups of ultra nationalist hangsters celebrate their Independence and Liberation from Pakistan. With no sense of irony.

Sixty odd electoral decapitations, or something more creative?

MPs in the British Labour Party voting for government proposals to bomb Syria.

I advocate reverse doorstepping to give them the respect they deserve.

Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East), Ian Austin (Dudley North), Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West), Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Margaret Beckett (Derby South), Hilary Benn (Leeds Central), Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertree), Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South & Cleveland East), Ben Bradshaw (Exeter), Chris Bryant (Rhondda), Alan Campbell (Tynemouth), Jenny Chapman (Darlington), Vernon Coaker (Gedling), Ann Coffey (Stockport), Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract & Castleford), Neil Coyle (Bermondsey & Old Southwark), Mary Creagh (Wakefield), Stella Creasy (Walthamstow), Simon Danczuk (Rochdale), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Gloria De Piero (Ashfield), Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South & Penarth), Jim Dowd (Lewisham West & Penge), Michael Dugher (Barnsley East), Angela Eagle (Wallasey), Maria Eagle (Garston & Halewood), Louise Ellman (Liverpool Riverside), Frank Field (Birkenhead), Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar & Limehouse), Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East), Caroline Flint (Don Valley), Harriet Harman (Camberwell & Peckham), Margaret Hodge (Barking), George Howarth (Knowsley), Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central), Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central), Alan Johnson (Hull West & Hessle), Graham Jones (Hyndburn), Helen Jones (Warrington North), Kevan Jones (Durham North), Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South), Liz Kendall (Leicester West), Dr Peter Kyle (Hove), Chris Leslie (Nottingham East), Holly Lynch (Halifax), Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham & Morden), Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East), Conor McGinn (St Helens North), Alison McGovern (Wirral South), Bridget Phillipson (Houghton & Sunderland South), Jamie Reed (Copeland), Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East), Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West), Joan Ryan (Enfield North), Lucy Powell (Manchester Central), Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North), Angela Smith (Penistone & Stocksbridge), John Spellar (Warley), Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston), Gareth Thomas (Harrow West), Anna Turley (Redcar), Chuka Umunna (Streatham), Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Tom Watson (West Bromwich East), Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) and John Woodcock (Barrow & Furness).

BuT

Of course a post industrial white party in the opposition of a fading imperial power was always going to have a problem stopping western revenge attacks after the pre climate conference violence in France.

And

Turkey and Iran, and your respective social constellations are the keys.

May your elites interbreed, interests align, hearts bond strongly and skills grow masterfully together.

Challenging the bases of PREVENT: The Letter

This Friday (10th) a letter was published in the Independent newspaper, and signed by hundreds of leading academics and activists to express their objections to the assumptions, contents and impacts of the UK government's policies on counter-terrorism. Its a simple seven paragraph affair, which moves a consensus view which is becoming increasingly common sensical to people who think about these matters. The Paper Bird blog has a neat analysis of some early responses to it and you can sign the statement at Protecting Thought here.

It is great to see so many names behind this, which comes towards the end of Ramadhan, as Preventitude is being nationalised by an Act of Parliament, the school summer holidays are in view and the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre is being performed.

The text is a good primer for anyone wishing to orientated themselves around the core of whats the matter here. It has already provided sufficient discomfort for Birmingham City Council's Muslim PREVENT manager to offer a very lengthy facebook response that ran to 1909 words. It included such gems that even his wife doesn't support his PREVENT work, communities distrust him and his employers are too austeritied out to help him much. The Independent letter reproduced below is only 464 words.

"We, the undersigned, take issue with the government’s PREVENT strategy and its statutory implementation through the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 for the following reasons: 

1. The latest addition to the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism framework comes in the form of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (CTS Act). The CTS Act has placed PREVENT on a statutory footing for public bodies to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism by tackling what is claimed to be ‘extremist ideology’. In practice, this will mean that individuals working within statutory organisations must report individuals suspected of being ‘potential terrorists’ to external bodies for ‘de-radicalisation’. 

2. The way that PREVENT conceptualises ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’is based on the unsubstantiated view that religious ideology is the primary driving factor for terrorism. Academic research suggests that social, economic and political factors, as well as social exclusion, play a more central role in driving political violence than ideology. Indeed, ideology only becomes appealing when social, economic and political grievances give it legitimacy. Therefore, addressing these issues would lessen the appeal of ideology. 

3. However, PREVENT remains fixated on ideology as the primary driver of terrorism. Inevitably, this has meant a focus on religious interaction and Islamic symbolism to assess radicalisation. For example, growing a beard, wearing a hijab or mixing with those who believe Islam has a comprehensive political philosophy are key markers used to identify ‘potential’ terrorism. This serves to reinforce a prejudicial world view that perceives Islam to be a retrograde and oppressive religion that threatens the West. PREVENT reinforces an ‘us’ and ‘them’ view of the world, divides communities, and sows mistrust of Muslims. 

4. While much of the PREVENT policy is aimed at those suspected of ‘Islamist extremism’ and far-right activity, there is genuine concern that other groups will also be affected by such policies, such as anti-austerity and environmental campaigners – largely those engaged in political dissent. 

5. Without due reconsideration of PREVENT’s poor reputation, the police and government have attempted to give the programme a veneer of legitimacy by expressing it in the language of ‘safeguarding’. Not only does this depoliticise the issue of radicalisation, it shifts attention away from grievances that drive individuals towards an ideology that legitimises political violence. 

6. PREVENT will have a chilling effect on open debate, free speech and political dissent. It will create an environment in which political change can no longer be discussed openly, and will withdraw to unsupervised spaces. Therefore, PREVENT will make us less safe. 

7. We believe that PREVENT has failed not only as a strategy but also the very communities it seeks to protect. Instead of blindly attempting to strengthen this project, we call on the government to end its ineffective PREVENT policy and rather adopt an approach that is based on dialogue and openness."

We live in interesting times, under an appalling freshly elected government willing and able to cause great havoc with impunity courtesy of House Muslims, white supremacists and confused people. So I welcome and feel encouraged by the letter and look forward to further challenges and adjustments as the summers rolls on.

Conservative Party Muslim Mohammed Amin has done his party duty to defend the policy with a post on Conservative Home on Sunday (12/07). Unfortunately, it seems preoccupied with sounding like an establishment guffaw,  and he doesn't appear to understand very much of what was written. His ill-advised launch into a discourse on logic is one for the archives though.  Lets call that one logicwash.

Amin chooses to dismiss the academic-and-activist letter as offering no constructive inputs, which is his political duty. However, in my reading, the letter offers several take homes for securocrats. I have coded the most obvious in green above, and that excludes the idea that saying something is wrong is also a positive contribution to the dialogical process.

Tulipvangilism

Political Fact
Or not.
It is from the head
That we rot.

There is no such thing
As Original Sin,
It's the conscious spin,
With unnaccountable transnational ring,
That makes this Political Fact detestable.

A not entirely unattractive prospect
Politically, quotically, such trickery.
Female, Asian and Muslim
A White Liberal's wet dream
On Hampstead and Kilburn hallowed grounds.

The British establishment
Has always had
A soft spot for
A South Asian dynasty

A granddaughter,
That Bangladesh begot.
Chewed the bones of the 2009 Pilkhana massacre,

To Aunty, 

Representing the party and government of her Aunty,

And her uncle's military 'restructuring'

Then deleted that archive of blog posts.

Six years down the long game,
The return into autocracy,
Is clearer to us.
Like watching an implosion in reverse.

The first move was the boldest one,
Mutually beneficial to both partners,
On each side of the border.

Lights camera action.
With socialist blusher,
A sepoy's revolt.
Sends dissent through the Bangladesh Rifles,

A blusher to mask
Assassination's marks.
The first powerplay of the session.

Roll on 2013,
At the court of Putin,
On a mission for a fission reactor,
Stockpiles of small arms,
Dipu Moni's small charms.
Not what I would call a
"two second private meeting".

Meritocrats argue
While tonight the meritorious await death,
And the mediocre and privileged await election.

TellMamaGilligate, or How to win/lose credibility in one telling article

A few days ago an article appeared on the Telegraph website, written by Andrew Gilligan.  Peter Oborne's recent resignation from the publication gives us some flavour of what is going on there. Contrary to the piece's claims that there was anything radical at the heart of Whitehall, its just bum-licking as usual.

Gilligan is known for going after decent or half decent Muslim organisational forms and figures like bitch on heat on a mission from the deep state to cause maximum and unjust disruption to the scapegoats of its failed imperialistic policies abroad. After falling on bad times after failing to protect the life and dignity of Dr David Kelly, he was picked up by the now Mayor of London Boris Johnson during his time at the Spectator, and God knows who else. I argue that as far as the decolonial ummah in progress goes, he is the same category of individual as Anjem Choudhury, only fatter, balder, whiter and with a right to audience, not 'entertain'.

Both are highly dedicated and involved, wittingly or unwittingly in the assemblage of resources and interests that works to undermine any growth in our community's integrity, function and appeal.  They and the many other stage devises like them are an invitation to observe and improve.

Gilligan's last target, Mayor Lutfur Rahman and his re-election prospects, did not fall over when pushed. It was a bungled attempted coup featuring the British Labour and Tory Parties, the BBC, the Bangladesh Awami League, the City of London, a creepy blogger and a washed up documentary maker. People from all over the world understood what was afoot and smiled at Luther's re-election. At the time of writing, Tower Hamlets Council  is going through legal proceedings relating to the anti-Lutfur campaign run over last year's election campaign. In any case, it is the social cleansing of Tower Hamlets that is the long game to keep our eyes on, and that means citizen mobilisation, not simple nose counting exercises.

Which is why the recent article was annoying, as it shows the character gap in a man who runs an organisation that is meant to be monitoring Islamophobia, not fueling it.

It is a really sad feature of the late Whitethropocene, that colourful politicians on the make have become quite practiced at furthering their ambitions over the reputations, dignity and bones of others.

I saw this cringeworthy dishonour in Fiyaz Mughal's contribution to the Gilligan article, in particular his use of the term 'entryism', around which the journalist built the article, linking in with Gilligan's second most favourite Islamophobising trope, The Stratford Megamosque. Many others have noticed this skulduggery too, and I suspect Mr Mughal will now inhabit the spaces exploited by the likes of the Quilliam Foundation, which was probably part of his business plan. His clarification later, which has been taken off the website, made his supplication to his paymasters even clearer to the naked eye.

I guess Mr Mughal will be getting a good bollocking from his old friends and associates, and no doubt some strategic consolations and congratulations from his new ones, and the men who stroke cats.

[Political Tragicomedy Alert] A Diary of a Bad Man does PREVENT

Today around lunch time a piece of weird news was circulating the social media, that the maker of the YouTube phenomenon A Dairy of a Bad Man had sold out to Prevent, the UK government's deradicalisation programme. Sure enough, the BBC article, then the Leicester Mercury piece furnished us procrastinators with the sad tidings and a vivid of Muslim cultural degeneration's latest wrong turning.

We learn that PC Rizwaan Chothia, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit's Prevent team coordinated the project on the same day as a secret trial of a terrorism suspect possibly alludes to an attempt to bring Tony Blair to a belated and worldly account via some kind of Bollywood dance move. Its worth noting that we might have expected better, as PC Rizwaan was subject to Islamophobic humiliation a few years back. I wonder if he 'gets' any of this?


A Dairy of a Bad Man has made me belly laugh at times, especially in its early physicality. Who can forget the classic tribute to the 'Roti or Rice?' dilemma, or Humza's Rap Battle with His Mum? Yet its not hard, even for a comedically challenged miseryguts like me, to notice how he found it hard to grow beyond the slapstick and toilet humour of the facebook/iphone degeneration. Salafis turned on him once they were guilt tripped by their seniors into disapproving of the fellow. His political commitments were admirable, appealing to followers to sign the Babar Ahmad petition, and objecting to Boris Johnson's hair in the run up to his recent reelection.

Think for Yourself is a royal bumwave of epic proportions

His Deradicalisation episode 'Think for Yourself' (above) is very unconvincing. See for yourself, he said, patronisingly. I'm struggling whether to rank it above or below that  #HappyMuslims video earlier this year. But its not just appalling cultural product, by any standards, its menacing. Think for Yourself appeals to viewers to snitch on their close ones, which is deeply Stasi-esque.

Perhaps the Muslim Oaf is an important dumbographic, but I think its been a mistake from Humza, who would appear to have sold himself, and his efforts out to the prevent agenda. Perhaps he made it all the more awful as an act of subversion, or was institutionally bullied into it - sixty eight excuses to go. I hope somebody close to him raises these issues and he considers his community with enough respect to dialogue on the issue.

Analyse the whole A Diary of a Badman experience, with ISIL's most recent propaganda offering 'Flames of War' (liveleak URL here, watch it carefully if you dare), and the whole problem of Muslim Ridiculisation is revealed.

Deciphering David Cameron's Cli[e)mate Talk

An annotated transcript of the speech of British Prime Minister to the UN Climate Summit in New York yesterday.

It would be a pity were the rest of the world to take David Cameron at face value.

Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing our world. And it is not just a threat to the environment. It is also a threat to our national security [because the securitisation my primary lens, forget the huskies, check out my resilience speak], to global security, to poverty eradication and to economic prosperity.
And we must agree a global deal in Paris next year [Weaker countries must submit to the neoliberal order] . We simply cannot put this off any longer [I probably wont be in power then so you can switch off now. Hey! where is everybody? ] .
And I pay tribute to Secretary General Ban for bringing everyone together here today and for putting real focus on this issue [And my respect for parroting Israeli talking points during their attack on Gaza last month] .
Now my country, the United Kingdom [ just about, pending investigations of referendum rigging] , is playing its part [yet as a key industrial originator of petro urban industrialisation] .
In fact, it was Margaret Thatcher who was one of the first world leaders to demand action on climate change, right here at the United Nations 25 years ago [That great environmentalist! of course that was why she closed the coal pits!].
Now since then, the UK has cut greenhouse gas emissions by one quarter [not when you consider indirect carbon emissions] . We have created the world’s first Climate Change Act [That was Labour] . And as Prime Minister, I pledged that the government I lead would be the greenest government ever [ah the huskies, nobody believed you by the way] . And I believe we’ve kept that promise [Liar, your cuts and policies have moved us backwards is that was even possible. Local authorities have slashed their climate work, the green deal retrofit scheme was intentionally stupid and failed, cutting the feed in tariff by half for renewables effectively killed that scheme, your approval of fracking is disgusting and your first environmental minister Caroline Spellman was a lobbyist for the flippin GMO industry]
We’ve more than doubled our capacity in renewable electricity in the last 4 years alone. We now have enough solar to power almost a million UK homes [no thanks to you. if you want to shift to renewables try Good Energy and Ecotricity] . We have the world’s leading financial centre in carbon trading [which is a failed idea, like raping your way to chastity] . And we have established the world’s first green investment bank. We’ve invested £1 billion in Carbon Capture and Storage. And we’ve said no to any new coal without Carbon Capture and Storage [wow did you just offset your last sentence?] . We are investing in all forms of lower carbon energy including shale gas [Fracking, which we will resist] and nuclear, with the first new nuclear plant coming on stream for a generation [in our great post Fukishima wisdom] .
Now, as a result of all that we are doing, we are on track to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 [no we are not, even excluding indirect emissions from consumption] . And we are playing our role internationally as well [Climate Change is UK PR, especially after we helped to destroy Iraq], providing nearly £4 billion of climate finance over 5 years as part of our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our Gross National Income on aid [which invariably goes to subsidies the lifestyles and brainwashing of sections of the overseas upper middle classes]. And we are one of the only countries in the advanced world to do that and to meet our promises.
We now need the whole world though to step up to deliver a new, ambitious, global deal which keeps the 2 degree goal within reach [We certainly wont be investing much political capital in it] . I’ll be pushing European Union leaders to come to Paris with an offer to cut emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030.
We know from Copenhagen that we are not just going to turn up in Paris and reach a deal. We need to work hard now to raise the level of ambition and to work through the difficult issues. To achieve a deal we need all countries, all countries to make commitments to reduce emissions. Our agreement has to be legally binding, with proper rules and targets to hold each other to account [How do we hold you and those you serve to account?].
We must provide support to those who need it, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable [That's why you've cut welfare, housing provisions and poverty and foodbanks are rampant in the UK]. It is completely unrealistic to expect developing countries to forgo the high carbon route to growth that so many Western countries enjoyed, unless we support them to achieve green growth [ sounds ominous] . Now, if we get this right there need not be a trade-off between economic growth and reducing carbon emissions [false notion to support status quo, with a few solar panels and double glazing, nice one dave].
We need to give business [riight....because the only solution is a market solution] the certainty it needs to invest in low carbon. That means fighting against the economically and environmentally perverse fossil fuel subsidies which distort free markets and rip off taxpayers [ Why does fracking remain subsidised in the UK?]. It means championing green free trade [preventing indigenous technological development in the decolonising world yipee!], slashing tariffs on things like solar panels [and feed in tariffs you berk]. And it means giving business the flexibility to pick the right technologies for their needs.
In short we need a framework built on green growth not green tape [ false god of growth].
As political leaders we have a duty to think long-term. When offered clear scientific advice, we should listen to it. When faced with risks, we should insure against them [so why are you foot dragging on flood insurance?]. And when presented with an opportunity to safeguard the long-term future of our planet and our people [ Who are your people really?] , we should seize it.
So I would implore everyone to seize this opportunity over the coming year. Countries like the United Kingdom have taken the steps necessary. We’ve legislated. We’ve [play]acted. We’ve [dis]invested. And I urge other countries to take the steps that they need to as well so we can reach this historic deal.
Thank you.

The Murder of Nahid Al Manea

A 32 year old aspiring scientist Nahid Al Manea arrived in Colchester Essex a few months ago from Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, she was  murdered in what is likely to be an Islamophobic attack.  I do not have any (proxy) funeral prayer details and it looks like they are going to do the autopsy today.

It is impossible right now not to read this event in the context of rising anti-Muslim agenda being normalised by powerful politicians, journalists and interests in Britain. The tip of this iceberg assemblage has become increasingly clear in recent months and includes the Conservative Education Minister Michael Gove, The Telegraph's Andrew Gilligan, The Henry Jackson Society and the Quilliam Foundation.

Colchester is not renowned as a bastion of hearty cosmopolitan dignity, and they and the University of Essex are in for some challenging times right now. Places, communities and institutions get stained in sins like these for decades, thinking of Eltham and the murder of Steven Lawrence, though it depends on the stink that get kicked up. The University's own press release was quite machine-like for starters.

• Who did this and what were their motivations?
• How does the misframing of Muslims make them structurally more vulnerable to attacks like this?
• What was the impact of the recent Trojan Horse reiteration of the Scheming Muslim narrative on the perpetrator?
• Will politicians, editors and journalists reflect on their role in creating these unsafe conditions and their responsibilities to rectify them and return the Muslims voices to them?

Little investigatory appetite

Talk about the murder yesterday was generally prayerful but also sardonic, that if the victim were white and the act's originator apparently Muslim that this would be all over the news everywhere.

The artists at OOMK were spot on, tweeting,

Wondering why a Brazillian Noodles feature made it onto the @BBCNews homepage while the violent stabbing of a Muslim didn't... #Colchester

Last year, the 25 year old machine gunner and Afghanistan war veteran Lee Rigby's grisly murder was hugely impactful on the media and the country. As a forces guy, his honour was never disputed and the Muslim apology machine was swift into 'action'. However, that crime was on a very public street, in a metropolitan area and executed with social media narcissism and false pride that brought the edge of the moral sickness straight to our eyes.

This death context is that much harder to know about, and we really need to know. Dear Nahid was attacked at 1040 in the morning on a path by a nature conservation area by someone who doesn't want to be known just yet. As we saw in the recent floods, London news teams rarely venture out of their safety zones. As we have come to know over the years, they are generally peopled by feckless and careerist toerags.

It seems to me like it is easier to know about Mosul than it is Colchester.

Remembering Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez

I remember the hideous double murder and burning of French postgraduate researchers Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez in New Cross, South London in 2008. There were significant French protests at their deaths, families campaigned and twitter raged and their home institutions and students honoured their memory. Eventually, two were sentenced to a total of 75 years over the incident, a senior minister Jack Straw apologised for failings in the probation service and David Scott, London's chief probation officer resigned.

Fast forward to 2014, and the secret services are run by right wing nutters, there have been severe cuts in public services, Islamophobia underpins so much at play here and that the victim was a Saudi lady, not French.

Its hard to have any expectations of how the Saudi state will respond to this and their particular calculus of life. Therefore it is more important to locate the social justice and equality hunt right here in the UK amongst as broad a community as possible.

Decolonial Hopening

Below is a really well thought out 12 speech on the situation facing Muslims in the UK today.

Allahumma grant safety and dignity to all your creatures.

The British Police State strikes us all when it commits such outrages: #ReleaseMoazzam

Countless innocent people have become caught up in unjust War on Terror justified laws and practices of authorities at home and abroad. Precious few are as articulate, gentle and courageous as Moazzam Begg of CAGE, who was arrested yesterday in what looks to be the another case of the British State crossing another rubicon in violating the rights of its citizens.

Its an immoral act that is worthy of creative and transformative resistance, but first I think we need to read, liaise and take stock.

A recent report from CAGE, called The Prevent Strategy: A Cradle to Grave Police State shows, with evidence, how every aspect of our lives has been rendered legitimate to control and intimidate to this policy. From healthcare to primary education, to mosques, universities, airports and financial transactions., education. It is more comprehensive than McCarthyism.

One useful tool that emerges form the report is the following depiction of how this nonsense engine works and harms.

Rrom page 29 of The Prevent Strategy: A cradle to Grave Police-State (CAGE, 2014)

We can test the effectiveness of this model by the case of Moazzam's unjust state kidnap.  He stands accused of 'terrorism related offences' by the West Midlands Police, who state that arrest is not necessarily about guilt and that they were acting on intelligence.

MOBILISE: There was a twitter storm at 10pm last night
there will be another at 6pm tonight (26th)

We know that innocence until proven guilt doesn't apply to Muslims, wherever we might be. We know that the authorities in particular like to target Muslims who challenge them through democratic processes for their rights, especially if they are getting somewhere.


CAGE is a worthwhile and justice-making organisation that I recommend distributing Zakat through.  They have condemned the arrest and are holding a demonstration this Saturday in Birmingham at NOON. Their website http://cageuk.org/
provides a humanising portal for people to see what Muslims, especially conservative ones are going through these days, its staffed by a pretty diverse bunch who I have learned much from over the years. Theres a new microsite on Schedule 7 Stories contains vivid case studies of ordinary lives, humiliated and obstructed by the state.

Moazzam's last facebook status update was as follows, he was onto something, and duas for his condition, family and support.

This state kidnap is not the first time Moazzam has been intimidated by the UK authorities. 'Security' services have been complicit in his detention, render and torture before. A couple of weeks ago he wrote about why the British state was so obsessed with his passport. I append the article below.

I do hope justice loving people will lend thir soulful minds and stamina to the collective effort to #ReleaseMoazzam.  We shall also see what nasty people are lurking out there wetting themselves with glee over this. Gita Seghal CHECK, Quilliam Foundation CHECK.

Home / Politics / Europe / The real reason behind the confiscation of my passport

The real reason behind the confiscation of my passport

Posted by: Moazzam Begg ANALYSIS in Europe, Latest, Politics, UK 13 days ago 7 Comments 13406 Views

Moazzam Begg reveals why the British government has been continually harassing him since his return from Guantanamo, and took his passport for the second time in eight years.

In the summer of 2012 I wrote about the first of my two visits to Syria to investigate leads into cases of British and American complicity in the rendition of terrorism suspects to the regime of Bashar al-Assad[1].

This followed on from something I learned first-hand from CIA and US military intelligence agents who threatened to send me to Egypt or Syria if I failed to co-operate with them during my time in the Bagram prison. I made British MI5/MI6 agents, who were present at every leg of my unlawful imprisonment, fully aware of these threats[2]. Their response was that I had to co-operate with their US counterparts.

On my eventual return to the UK from Guantanamo, along with three other British citizens I received a letter from the Home Office informing me that my ability to apply for a passport had been restricted by the Home Secretary under the powers of the ‘Royal Prerogative’[3].

Having returned from three years of separation from my loved ones, spent mostly in solitary confinement and after suffering the effects of regular human rights violations, I didn’t challenge the decision immediately. Instead, I tried to rebuild my lost connection to a traumatised family, including a son I’d never seen.

UK torture complicity

As part of my work for CagePrisoners, however, I soon began campaigning for prisoners detained at Guantanamo and others held in secret detention sites or who had disappeared after being rendered to countries like Libya[4], Egypt, and Syria. We conducted numerous investigations[5] into recurrent reports of extreme torture carried out by the Syrian regime and discovered the complicity of the governments of the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Britain.

I was also constantly being invited to speak all over the world about issues pertaining to Guantanamo, torture, the rule of law and the war terror. Thus, in 2009 I mounted a successful challenge to get my passport back.

My subsequent extensive travel abroad was greeted simultaneously by meetings with people in power[6]—including unexpected praise[7] from US ambassadors in Luxembourg—to armed police escorting me off planes in order to deny me entry to Canada[8] (where I’d gone to meet with Canadian rendition victims sent to Syria).

Returning to the UK airports was often an ordeal in its own right as I would be stopped almost every time and questioned under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This happened even on visits to Brussels where I was invited to speak at the European Parliament by British MEPs as well as trips to Malaysia where I had been giving evidence in war crimes tribunals[9] set up by the former prime minister there. Often British police would ask me if I had gone to these places to further my claims about British complicity in torture.

During this period three very important things happened which I believe the British intelligence services have been unable to recover from:

1. A major civil action was taken by 16 former Guantanamo prisoners against the British government and intelligence services for complicity in torture and false imprisonment.

2. Prime Minister David Cameron ordered a judge-led inquiry to be launched into allegations that the UK was complicit in torture

3. The Metropolitan police began a criminal investigation against British intelligence services into recurrent allegations of complicity in kidnap, torture and false imprisonment

In 2010 we won an out-of-court settlement[10] against the government after it was compelled to hand over documents that showed how British government ministers had decided we should be consigned to Guantanamo, despite evidence of mistreatment.

At the end of the discussions with the government the then Justice Minister, Kenneth Clarke QC, sat with us and listened. Several of the world’s supposedly most dangerous terrorists sat in a room with a senior Tory minister discussing the previous government’s wrongs. I handed Clarke a copy of my book hoping there might be some proper understanding after this but, all the while the government was preparing the Justice and Security Bill[11]—which was passed as law earlier this year—that would ensure damaging and embarrassing civil actions such as ours would henceforth be heard in secret under colour of ‘national security concerns.’

The inquiry into torture by Sir Peter Gibson was shelved last week in favour of the Intelligence and Security Committee but in his interim report Gibson concluded that MI5 had at best ‘turned a blind eye’[12] to our abuse.

The criminal investigation is still on-going but I have sat for hours with the Metropolitan Police giving testimony to them about what happened in Bagram and Guantanamo and, they have gone to meet with rendition victims in Libya[13] and continue to investigate the claims of Shaker Aamer[14] who has been in Guantanamo without charge for twelve years.

Last year several former Guantanamo prisoners, including me, met with Asa Hutchinson, who had served as US Undersecretary for Homeland Security while we were captives. In a report by the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment, which included him and two former senior US generals, the practice of torture by the US administration was described as “indisputable”. The report[15] also stated bluntly that our treatment and indefinite detention was “abhorrent and intolerable”. There was also no escaping the fact that the British government had colluded in sending and keeping us there.

Visiting Syria

Following the uprisings of the ‘Arab spring’ I was able to make several visits to the Arab world and follow up cases of rendition, including the shocking case of a man whose tortured false testimony[16] was used as a justification by both the US and UK to invade Iraq.

In July last year, I visited Syria where I met numerous former prisoners who had been held by the Assad regime as well as a few victims of US and UK rendition. One of the men, a Libyan who had resided in Syria, had been rendered to Libya after a phone call by a British Libyan dissident had been intercepted by MI5 and its contents disclosed to Assad’s Mukhābarāt (intelligence agency). Documents[17] found in the headquarters of Gaddafi’s Mukhābarāt after the fall of Tripoli clearly prove British involvement.

A few months later, in October 2012, I was called by an MI5 officer who said they wanted to talk to me about my views on the situation in Syria after having read my article[18]. I told them that they must be aware that I was investigating several leads regarding British and American complicity in rendition and torture in Syria. They called back after consulting with their lawyers and said they understood that and would still like to meet. I agreed to speak to them and meet at a hotel in East London. Both MI5 and I had our lawyers present.

MI5 was concerned about the possibility of Britons in Syria being radicalised and returning to pose a potential threat to national security. I told them that Britain had nothing to worry about, especially since British foreign policy, at the time, seemed in favour of the rebels. At the end of the meeting I was assured by MI5 that my proposed return to Syria to continue my work would not be hindered, and it wasn’t.

Subsequently, I travelled to Syria without incident. I spent much time accumulating testimony and information for a report on the situation of the current prisoners as well as the accounts of those who had been detained and tortured in the past. I witnessed the squalid refugee camps, I visited the wounded, young and old, some of whom I buried, I saw the carnage of Assad’s killing machine and I saw the beautiful young faces of children aged beyond their years. I witnessed the harsh winter and saw farmers chop down their olive trees to warm themselves and I heard the horror stories of torture under the rule of both Bashar and Hafiz al-Assad. However, I also saw aid coming in from all over the Muslim world which included British ambulances, British fire engines, British garbage disposal trucks; British aid centres and hospitals with British doctors (one of whom was killed[19] saving lives a few months ago) and volunteers from Britain’s Muslim community. And yes, there were some British fighters too. I do not believe any of them posed any kind of threat to the UK.

I returned home without hindrance, except for the customary Schedule 7 stop. I was briefly questioned about my visit by border police and returned home shortly after. I came back ‘radicalised’ enough to speak at numerous events for various charities working out in Syria. I also conducted interviews[20] with people on the ground that are close to the fighters to answer questions about any tangible threat to the UK to help allay the fears of the British public and intelligence services.

Schedule 7 stops

Since then I have been ‘randomly’ stopped[21] more times than I can recall under Schedule 7 while travelling.

The last time this happened, last month, I was en route to a conference[22] in Turkey about the mass-imprisonments and torture occurring in Egypt following the military coup. British police suggested that I might be going to Syria, despite showing them details of itinerary and return flights for the following weekend.

I was made to miss my flight but the police were prepared to rebook me for the next available one meaning that they were neither preventing me from going to Turkey, or even potentially to Syria. I refused their offer as I would have had missed the conference by then and opted to returned home. However, they took possession of my iPad and phone and kept them for a week. Both items contained sensitive information and documents pertaining to CagePrisoners’ investigations on both complicity in torture and responses to the British government’s measures in tackling extremism.

In anticipation of future harassment at airports I began legal proceedings to challenge the constant harassment at airports under Schedule 7 and informed the Home Office, the border police and British airports about my intended travel via my lawyers. We received a response from their lawyers, which acknowledged the letter but did little else.

Change of language

The language and attitude of the British government has steadily changed towards the Syrian opposition especially since much of it has openly chosen an Islamic path, something the west has been unwilling to engage with and unprepared to accept. Britain went to war based on the falsehood that Iraq may have possessed weapons of mass destruction. Clear evidence of the use of chemical weapons, in addition to over 120,000 dead through the use of conventional ones in Syria has not elicited any such response, and most people are grateful for it. No one wants to see British involvement in Syria, especially the Syrians who know well what happened next door in Iraq.

As a result, however, the Assad regime is now regarded as the better of the two choices. That is why last month the decision to stop[23] even non-lethal aid for western-backed factions in Syria was taken by Britain. But, despite there being no evidence of a tangible threat from British fighters returning from Syria (the contrary[24] in fact) and certainly not the type that might have been posed from the same in Iraq or Afghanistan because of the presence of British troops, the government now wants to remove not just the passport but the nationality[25] of Britons suspected of being involved in fighting in Syria. The government’s myopic insistence on this point cannot fathom that this is simply about Syria, not Britian. The counterterrorism industry, it seems, has too many vested interests for the language to be tempered with reason.

Instead of easing the arduous journeys for the numerous convoys leaving with aid from Britain for Syria every month, border authorities detain the aid workers for hours on end—both on exit from and re-entry to the UK. On several occasions volunteers have been turned back, vehicles confiscated and money and goods collected by the community for the beleaguered Syrian people seized.

Britain has refused[26] to take any Syrian refugees despite the unprecedented crisis facing millions fleeing the war. It also did next to nothing for the British Muslim Dr. Abbas Khan[27] and has been heavily criticised for shirking its duty regarding one of its own citizens while he was horrifically tortured and murdered.

Simply speaking, the British government has lost all touch with the reality on the ground and the enormous sentiments in the Muslim community, and beyond, regarding the Syrian conflict.

Losing my passport – again

After a trip to South Africa[28] last month—which had coincided with the funeral of Nelson Mandela—where I spoke extensively about the complicity of the British government in rendition and torture, I was met upon arrival at Heathrow by officials who served me with a notice to seize my passport under the ‘Royal Prerogative’ stating that it was assessed my previous visits to Syria had constituted involvement in terrorism. No explanation other than that was given.

I am certain that the only reason I am being continually harassed—something that began long before any visit to Syria—is because CagePrisoners and I are at the forefront of investigations and assertions based on hard evidence that British governments, past and present, have been wilfully complicit in torture.

How logical is it to stop me from travelling anywhere in the world simply because they want to prevent me from going to Syria? Numerous British citizens have been prevented from entering Turkey (the key entry point to Syria) at the behest of the British authorities. They could have done the same with me.

It is these government-shaking issues that are the real reason why I have been continually harassed and targeted by the authorities in this country. I am not and never have been in anyway a threat to them, unless words seeking accountability are a threat.

At a time when Islam and the Muslim community is facing an unprecedented attack via politicians, the media and ultimately some sections of the public susceptible to this onslaught, it has been the aim of CagePrisoners and myself in trying to empower the community that is being purposefully undermined.

The struggle for reason and justice is clearly a longer one than I once imagined but since our aim is a good and just one, I do not believe our detractors will succeed.

Source: www.islam21c.com

This article was cross-posted from www.cageprisoners.com

Notes: 

[1] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/4758-syria-my-journey-to-the-land-of-blessing-and-torture

[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/12/moazzem-begg-speaks-binyam-mohamed

[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4266609.stm

[4] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/2425-some-deaths-are-more-convenient-than-others

[5] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/3496-fara%E2%80%99-falastin-%E2%80%93-syria%E2%80%99s-proxy-us-prison

[6] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/alerts/item/454-luxembourgs-olive-branch-to-former-guantanamo-detainees

[7] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/30/wikileaks-cables-us-guantanamo-moazzam-begg

[8] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/13/canada-guantanamo-bay-camp-guard

[9] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/4175-bush-convicted-of-war-crimes-evidence-from-cageprisoners-director-crucial”

[10] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/861-settlement-are-the-guantanamo-cases-closed

[12] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/19/gibson-report-mi6-detainees-torture-cooperated

[13] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/12/libya-rendition-torture-abduction-mi6

[14] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/19/police-claims-shaker-aamer-torture-mi5-complicit

[16] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/may/13/ibn-al-sheikh-al-libi

[17] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/04/libyan-commander-demands-apology

[18] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/4758-syria-my-journey-to-the-land-of-blessing-and-torture

[19] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22684151

[21] http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/7059-just-a-job-how-uk-border-police-target-muslims-at-airports

[22] http://www.thecordobafoundation.com/news.php?id=1&art=160

[23] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10510498/Britain-and-US-suspend-non-lethal-aid-to-Syrian-rebels.html

[24] http://news.sky.com/story/1183820/syria-sky-news-gains-access-to-uk-jihadists

[25] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-no-way-back-for-britons-who-join-the-syrian-fight-says-theresa-may-9021190.html

[26] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/former-liberal-democrat-leader-sir-menzies-campbell-joins-labour-in-condemning-uk-for-turning-its-back-on-syrias-refugees-9026083.html

[27] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25517356

[28] http://www.ciibroadcasting.com/2013/12/10/moazzam-begg-obama-tributes-to-madiba-ironic/