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.