As the economic crisis drags on, and as Britain, France and Italy lead the third military assault on a Muslim country in ten years, the poison of Islamophobia is in danger of spreading.
Stop the War Coalition
13 May 2011
What was the difference between the death of Michael Jackson and the deaths of 80 Iraqis on 25 June 2009? asks rapper and political activist Lowkey
The political, media and literary establishment in Europe declared open season on Muslims years back. While other religions barely figure in public debate, Islamic culture and beliefs are constantly being scrutinised and criticised in public in the most ignorant and insulting way.
Now in many parts of Europe prejudice has turned into systematic and open state discrimination.
In France women are not allowed to wear the veil in many state institutions and the full veil has been banned in all public places. Shocking scenes of public arrests of Muslim women have followed.
In Switzerland the government has banned minarets, elsewhere Halal food has been removed from schools and foreign languages discouraged in public places. David Cameron’s Munich speech attacking multiculturalism signalled the British government is not far behind.
Demonising, caricaturing and defaming Islam and Muslim communities in a host of subtle and not so subtle ways is regarded as acceptable because it is judged part of a debate about culture, not racism.
In reality of course the vast majority of Muslims in Europe are from South Asia, North Africa or the Middle East and already suffer discrimination in employment, housing and the courts. Attacks on Muslim culture literally add insult to injury, but they also create a climate in which physical harassment is becoming commonplace, and is taking organised forms in many countries.
Islamophobia has various sources. Above all it is a kind of war propaganda, an attempt to demonise ‘enemy’ populations to justify unpopular wars in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. But scapegoating is second nature for governments at times of economic crisis.
As the crisis drags on and Britain France and Italy lead the third military assault on a Muslim country in ten years, the poison of Islamophobia is in danger of spreading.
Stop the War has worked alongside a range of Muslim organisations and campaigning groups in the Enough Coalition to organise a conference in the heart of East London’s Muslim community on 21 May to challenge the rise of the new racism. Among the speakers at the conference will be the courageous French Muslim Kenza Drider, who has received world-wide media coverage for her active defying of the law banning the wearing of the face veil.
She will be joined by other speakers from France, Germany and the USA. From Britain,a wide range of community figures, campaigners, academics, experts and victims of Islamophobia will address the conference, including Tony Benn, journalists Peter Oborne and Mehdi Hasan, Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob,Dr Daud Abdullah from the British Muslim Initiative, Dr Robert Lambert from the European Muslim Research Centre, the rapper and political activist Lowkey, and Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition (full list of speakers here...).
A dynamic campaign to stem the rise of Islamophobia has every chance of success. The May election results were a disaster for the far right; the British National Party lost all but two of their council seats across the country, showing that on the ground there is strong opposition to racism.
It is now a matter of urgency that activists and campaigners from all communities come together to mount a serious challenge to the threat of Islamophobia. We need to insist that attacks on Muslims are racist and unacceptable in public life. We need to respond to Islamophobia in the media, from the police, politicians and racists on the street and we need to develop links with European campaigners to help spread our arguments.
At the same time we need to keep up our campaign against our government’s foreign wars. As long as Britain is bombing and occupying Muslim countries the establishment here will continue their campaign of demonisation.
