Don't even think about it

Thursday, November 16, 2006

I took my degree at the London School of Economics in the early 1970s when it was unusual for having a very high number of overseas students. They came from all parts of the world, and many of them were in political exile: from apartheid South Africa and white minority rule Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); from Franco's Spain, the colonels' Greek dictatorship; from Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the Shah's Iran (it was estimated that one in three Iranian students in Britain was a spy for his secret police, SAVAK).

I have thought about many of those people this week as I hear more and more stories about students facing the prospect of the authorities spying or allowing spying on 'suspicious' students who might be attracted to terrorism. A meeting organised by the students' union at the University of East London on Tuesday spelt out opposition to this approach. A thought police in the colleges was unacceptable, and would lead to people being demonised on grounds of race or religion. Students doing certain courses would be more open to suspicion. Students regarded as 'extremists' would be singled out.

Back then, we assumed that there would be people informing these repressive reginmes on individuals. But we never dreamt that college authorities, encouraged by a Labour government, would be talking about spying on students.

If that had happened in the 1970s, political exiles would have had a very hard time, would have been thrown out of colleges and perhaps deported to sometimes torture and even death. It would also have created a climate of fear where we would have found it impossible to discuss in a free and open way, which should be an essential of any university.

Many of them were branded terrorists, extremists and subversives. Some undoubtedly now are middle aged pillars of the community in countries whose politics have changed dramatically in 30 years. They had to fight for their rights then, and we are having to defend democracy now, by resisting the incursions into college political life.

Our People's Assembly this weekend has students, trade unionists, Muslim activists, Stop the War members, coming together to discuss the relationship between war, Islamophobia and the attacks on civil liberties. It's followed on Monday by a big rally in Westminster called by the British Muslim Initiative on religious freedom.

They couldn't come at a better time, as we face open season on Muslims where 'radicalism' = 'extremism'='terrorism'. Where do we draw the line? Are people who understand the grievances of terrorists the same as terrorists? Are those who attend anti war meetings or marches 'extremists' or merely people expressing their political opinions?

Support is coming from new and sometimes unexpected quarters. Claudia Roden's books on Middle East cookery and Mediterranean cookery have been regular companions of mine over the years and I have found out a lot about the region as well as the food by reading them.

She describes the People's Assembly as a 'community bridge-builder,' and says, 'As an Egyptian Jew who was born and lived in a Muslim world where there once reigned harmony and respect between religious communities, as a Jew who feels deeply hurt when Jews are demonised and who knows what that has led to in the past, I feel very sad and worried that we have come, in Britain, to demonise a religion that I respect and people who are my friends'.

With her, actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West, academics, MPs and trade union leaders, the Muslim community is gathering support which it desperately needs to organise a fight back.

11/16/2006 03:42:00 PM | Permalink