| Home |
| Events |
| News & Analysis |
| Get Involved |
| Resources |
| Merchandise |
Press Enquiries |
Stop the attacks on Muslims
NEWSLETTER No. 1044
31 May 2008
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) STOP THE ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS
2) DEFENDING THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
3) WAR CRIMINAL GEORGE BUSH NOT WANTED HERE
**************************************
1) STOP THE ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS
ACT NOW TO STOP DEPORTATION OF HICHAM YEZZA
As the "war on terror" unravels, attacks on the Muslim
community are increasing alarmingly. Almost every day the
tabloid press carries scurrilous stories about Muslims.
College authorities are suppressing Muslim groups and
curtailing academic freedoms. Prominent intellectuals
regularly denounce Islam. The government is trying to extend
powers of detention without trial for 'terrorist suspects'.
All this threatens to create a divisive and dangerous
atmosphere in Britain.
What happened to Hicham Yezza and Rizwaan Sabir is a
frightening example of where this official hysteria can
lead. Yessir works at Nottingham University, where his
friend Sabir is a student. When, as part of his research
into political Islam, Sabir downloaded from the internet an
Al Quaeda training manual, he emailed it to Hicham and -
unable to afford the cost of printing - asked him to print
it. The university authorities informed the police, who
immediately arrested the two friends under the Terrorism
Act.
They were held without charge for six days, their homes
searched, their computers seized and friends and family
interrogated. Upon release, Hicham was re-arrested under
unrelated immigration charges. Although he was initially
given a hearing date for 16 July, he was served with a
deportation notice last Friday , which informed him he was
to be removed on Sunday 1 June on flight BA894 from Heathrow
to Algiers. Campaigners have been mobilising to prevent his
deportation and last Wednesday held a demonstration at the
University of Nottingham, attended by up to 500 people.
Stop the War is urging its supporters to support the
campaign to prevent this deportation by:
1) Most urgently, using the model letter
(http://tinyurl.com/4a6va7) or write one yourself and
e-mail and/or fax it the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith before
5pm today. Quote Home Office reference number Y76064.
Jacqui Smith has the power to stop Hicham's deportation
* Telephone: 020 7035 0198
* Fax: 020 7035 0900
* Email: indpublicenquiries@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
2) Before 5pm today, use the template provided by the
campaign to fax the deportation centre where Hicham is being
held: http://tinyurl.com/3w8sm7
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO CONTACT THE DEFENCE CAMPAIGN:
WEBSITE: http://freehichamyezza.wordpress.com
EMAIL: staffandstudents@googlemail.com
PHONE: 07948590262
**************************************
2) DEFENDING THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
Stop the War has organised a series of rallies to defend the
Muslim community, starting next week. If one of these
rallies is being held in your area, please attend and
publicise as widely as you can.
PUBLIC MEETINGS:
RACISM, THE WAR ON TERROR AND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
* LONDON Tuesday June 3, 7PM. Speakers: Moazam Begg, George
Galloway, Anas Al-Tikriti, Chris Nineham, Louise Christian,
David Edgar. Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London
Ec2M. Nearest tube, Liverpool Street
* BIRMINGHAM: Wednesday June 4, 7PM. Speakers: Terry
Eagleton, Anas Al-Tikriti, Salma Yaqoob, Andrew Murray
Bordesely Centre, Stratford Road, Camp Hill Roundabout.
* MANCHESTER: Thursday June 5. Friends Meeting House.
Speakers: Moazzam Begg, David Edgar, Nahella Asraf
* BLACKBURN: Wednesday June 11, 7pm, Speakers: Alice Mahon,
Anas Al - Tikriti, Chris Nineham, Blackburn Central Library,
Hornby Lecture Theatre
* LEEDS:Thursday June 12, 7PM. Speakers: Alice Mahon, Anas
al - Tikriti, Chris Nineham. Leeds Islamic Centre, Spencer
Place, Chapeltown, LS7
* GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH: Details not yet available. See
http://www.stopwar.org.uk for updates
**************************************
3) WAR CRIMINAL GEORGE BUSH NOT WANTED HERE
Stop the War will announce very shortly details of its
demonstration on Sunday 15 June, the day warmonger-in-chief
George Bush is visiting Britain. Our protest will be in
central London to say loud and clear that Bush is not
welcome here and to insist that the British government end
its slavish support for his wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Somalia and his threats to attack Iran and Syria. Local Stop
the War groups around the country are already booking
coaches to bring protestors from outside the capital. Watch
this space and our website for more details:
**************************************
--
To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
Friday, May 30, 2008 | Permalink
George Bush not welcome here on 15 June
NEWSLETTER No. 1043
27 May 2008
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) GEORGE BUSH NOT WELCOME HERE ON 15 JUNE
2) RACISM, THE WAR ON TERROR & THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
3) WHAT GORDON BROWN CAN DO NOW
3) YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP: NO. 4182
**************************************
1) GEORGE BUSH NOT WELCOME HERE ON 15 JUNE
War criminal George Bush will be visiting Britain on Sunday
15 June. No doubt he will receive a nauseatingly sycophantic
welcome from Gordon Brown. The anti-war majority on the
other hand will recall the hundreds of thousands who have
died, the millions driven from their homes and the utter
devastation resulting from the illegal attacks on Iraq and
Afghanistan. Stop the War will be organising a very
different kind of welcome - a protest that calls for George
Bush to be put on trial for what is under international law
"the supreme international crime… to initiate a war of
aggression."
The protest will be in London on Sunday 15 June and will
also call for an end to the British government's support for
these shameful wars. We will publish full details of time
and venue for our protest when we learn more of Bush's
itinery. In the meantime, put the date in your diary and
spread the word to encourage participation in the BUSH NOT
WELCOME HERE protest.
**************************************
2) RACISM, THE WAR ON TERROR & THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
The "war on terror" has been accompanied by a rise in racism
targeted at Muslims. A national tour, organised by Stop the
War Coalition, on the issue "Racism, the War on Terror and
the Muslim Community" will take place in June, with meetings
in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Blackburn, Leeds, Glasgow
and Edinburgh. Keynote speakers at these events include
Moazam Begg, George Galloway MP, Anas Al-Tikriti, playwright
David Edgar, human rights lawyer Louise Christian, Salma
Yaqoob, Lindsey German and former Labour MP Alice Mahon.
Details are given below. For updates see:
Public Meetings:
RACISM, THE WAR ON TERROR AND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY
* LONDON Tuesday June 3, 7PM. Speakers: Moazam Begg, George
Galloway, Anas Al-Tikriti, Lindsey German, Louise Christian,
David Edgar.
Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London Ec2M. Nearest
tube, Liverpool Street
* BIRMINGHAM: Wednesday June 4, 7PM
Speakers: Terry Eagleton, Anas Al-Tikriti, Salma Yaqoob,
Andrew Murray
Bordesely Centre, Stratford Road, Camp Hill Roundabout.
* MANCHESTER: Thursday June 5. Friends Meeting House.
Speakers: Moazzam Begg, David Edgar, Nahella Asraf
* BLACKBURN: Wednesday June 11. Speakers: Alice Mahon, Anas
Al - Tikriti, Andrew Murray
* LEEDS:Thursday June 12, 7PM. Speakers: Alice Mahon, Anas
al - Tikriti, Chris Nineham. Leeds Islamic Centre, Spencer
Place, Chapeltown, LS7
* GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH: Details not yet available See
http://www.stopwar.org.uk for updates
**************************************
3) WHAT GORDON BROWN CAN DO NOW
Johann Hari, columnist in the Independent, who now regrets
deeply that he supported the Iraq war in 2003, had some
advice this week for our prime minister:
"Nothing Gordon Brown can do now will bring back the 650,000
Iraqis who have died as a result of the invasion. But he can
do something for the 5 million who have been driven from
their homes… Brown should issue an apology to the Iraqi
people on behalf of Britain, and fly in a fair share of the
Iraqi refugees rotting and penniless in camps in Syria and
Jordan as the most minimal act of compensation. Instead, we
are actually deporting many of the Iraqis who make it to our
shores, on the grounds that it is "safe" there, even though
the US aerial bombing campaign has been stepped up once more
in the past few weeks."
See http://tinyurl.com/6motof
**************************************
3) YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP: NO. 4182
"Feminist" Cherie Blair, faced in 2003 with the objections
by Fiona Millar, Alastair Campbell's wife, to the invasion
of Iraq, said: "Listen, Fiona… in my view, you and I should
be supporting our men in these difficult decisions, not
making it worse by nagging them."
**************************************--
To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | Permalink
George Bush here in June - Be ready
NEWSLETTER No. 1042
21 May 2008
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) GEORGE BUSH HERE IN JUNE: BE READY
2) MORE UNPOPULAR THAN TONY BLAIR
3) AMERICA BRINGS HELL TO SOMALIA
4) AFGHANISTAN: ANOTHER SOLDIER DIES FOR NOTHING
5) PALESTINE: FROM BALFOUR TO BLAIR
6) YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP: NO. 2054
7) BECOME A NATIONAL STOP THE WAR MEMBER
8) LEBANON RESISTANCE AND LIBERATION EVENT
9) CREW WANTED FOR SHIP OF PEACE
10) LONDON ACTIVIST'S MEETING POSTPONED
**************************************
1) GEORGE BUSH HERE IN JUNE: BE READY
Will they never learn? War criminals are not wanted here.
George Bush will visit Britain Between June 9 and 16. The
last time he was here, in November 2003, it provoked one of
the biggest mid-week demonstrations in British history, with
up to 300,000 on London's streets. Since then his war of
terror has led to the loss of over a million lives and
spread from Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan, Somalia and
Kenya, with ever intensifying threats suggesting Iran is
next.
When Condoleezza Rice visited in March 2006, it turned into
a public relations disaster, with large demonstrations in
Liverpool, Blackburn and everywhere else she went. Only last
week the fanatical warmonger John Bolton, formerly Bush's
ambassador to the United Nations and vociferous advocate of
an immediate attack on Iran, cancelled a planned visit to
Bristol for fear of the anti-war demonstration that was
planned to meet him. (See http://tinyurl.com/4uvq2r)
We're sure that everyone who has opposed George Bush's war
policies and the slavish support he has received from the
British government will want to make their voice heard when
this warmonger-in-chief visits the UK. Stop the War will of
course aim to organise the largest possible protest against
George Bush's visit. More details to follow shortly.
**************************************
2) MORE UNPOPULAR THAN TONY BLAIR
A visit from George Bush -- the most despised politician in
the world, not least in his own country -- is surely the
last thing Gordon Brown needs. Brown has already achieved
the seeming impossible. He's more unpopular as prime
minister than was his predecessor Tony Blair, who had some
of the lowest poll ratings in British history. One reason is
Brown's broken promise to withdraw troops from Iraq. He's
not alone in responsibility for this. MPs in Parliament have
passively accepted Brown's current policy of keeping British
troops in Iraq for as long as George Bush insists they stay.
Stop the War is launching a campaign urging all MPs to call
for the troop withdrawal programme to be restarted, thereby
reflecting the views of the vast majority of people in
Britain, who oppose the British government's support for
George Bush's war in Iraq. We are asking our supporters and
local Stop the War groups to use every available means to
get this message across, by writing letters, collecting
petition signatures, lobbying MPs at their weekly surgeries,
writing to the local newspapers etc. A model letter can be
downloaded here: http://tinyurl.com/599tem
**************************************
3) AMERICA BRINGS HELL TO SOMALIA
Somalia is in the grip of one of the worst humanitarian
crises in the world, and it is all happening under the
direction of George W. Bush. His so-called war on terror is
in fact a war of terror practised against millions of people
all over the world and once again the mainstream media is
allowing him to peddle the same justifications he used for
illegal attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, to bring horrific
levels of death and destruction to the Somali people. The
media monitoring website Media Lens has an excellent summary
of the realities underlying Bush's war of terror on Somalia
and the media's failure to report it. See
**************************************
4) AFGHANISTAN: ANOTHER SOLDIER DIES FOR NOTHING
The endless killing in Afghanistan continues to get scant
media attention, with the 96th British soldier to die being
added last week to the hundreds of Afghan civilians, most of
them women and children, who have been slaughtered this
year. With one soldier being killed on average each week we
are fast approaching the landmark figure of 100 dead, which
Stop the War will mark with vigils and ceremonies across the
country, just as we did in 2006, when the hundredth British
soldier was killed in Iraq (a figure which has risen to 176
in 2008).
All this pointless loss of life is in the cause of a war
which is, by any rational analysis, lost. The forces
resisting occupation now control much of the country and the
US puppet prime minister Hamid Karzai -- who came close to
being assassinated last month -- doesn't even have complete
control of the capital city Karbul. See
**************************************
5) PALESTINE: FROM BALFOUR TO BLAIR
For an excellent video which documents the history of
British culpability -- from Lord Balfour in 1917 to Tony
Blair in 2008 -- in the colonisation of Palestinian land and
the continuing suffering of Palestinians under Israel's
brutal occupation, see:
**************************************
6) YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP NO. 2054
INTERVIEWER: If we were to pull out of Iraq next year,
what's the worst that could happen, what's the doomsday
scenario?
GEORGE BUSH: "Doomsday scenario of course is that extremists
throughout the Middle East would be emboldened… The biggest
issue we face is, it's bigger than Iraq, it's this
ideological struggle against cold-blooded killers who will
kill people to achieve their political objectives."
An antidote to Bush's increasingly deranged pronouncements
is this wonderful tirade by Keith Olbermann, the presenter
of MSNBC's Countdown programme: http://tinyurl.com/3vo3hq
**************************************
7) BECOME A NATIONAL STOP THE WAR MEMBER
Stop the War is now planning a whole range of activities to
step up the campaign against our government's collaboration
in US war policies, which have been and continue to be so
devastating for millions of people around the world. Our
protest against George Bush's visit in June and our campaign
to get MPs to represent the majority view of their
constituents -- by supporting the call to withdraw all
British troops from Iraq -- is just the beginning.
As ever, we need funds to ensure that we can be as effective
as possible in raising the profile of the anti-war voice in
this country. We have no large financial backers and rely
entirely on donations from individual supporters and local
Stop the War groups and affiliated organisations.
One of the best ways that individuals can contribute on a
regular basis is by becoming a national member of Stop the
War and taking out a standing order, which can cost as
little as £2 a month. If you are not a member, please
consider becoming one now. We need your help.
You can sign up online at http://tinyurl.com/3dhzpn. Or else
telephone our national office on 020 7278 6694.
**************************************
8) LEBANON RESISTANCE AND LIBERATION EVENT
George Galloway MP, Baroness Emma Nicholson MEP and Dr
Abdul-Rahman Bizri, Mayor of Saida, Lebanon, are among the
speakers at this event, which features the UK premiere
of "A Summer Not to Forget", a documentary film on the 2006
Lebanon War, with director/producer Carol Mansour.
SATURDAY, 24 MAY 2008, 5.45PM
UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER
OLD CINEMA, 309 REGENT STREET
LONDON W1B 2UW (tube Oxford Circus)
Info: http://tinyurl.com/5qovoa
**************************************
9) CREW WANTED FOR SHIP OF PEACE
A Stop the War supporter, Peter Le Mare is planning to take
his 22 foot yacht (name "Be Disarming") from Penzance in
Cornwell to the Climate Camp in Kent, which runs from 4-11
August. He aims to call at many places along the South
Coast, getting local activists with environmental and/or
peace concerns to welcome the boat with banners etc, and to
sail up to London past City Hall and Westminster to call for
peace. The yacht's mainsail has a large CND Peace symbol
painted on it.
This is an appeal for crew (the boat has four berths).
Inexperienced sailors would be welcome but Peter hopes for
at least one knowledgeable mariner. If you are interested,
please contact Peter for more information:
Tel: +44(0)1736 787 056
Mob: 07886195596
Email: pete@plumpeace.co.uk
**************************************
10) LONDON ACTIVIST'S MEETING POSTPONED
Please note that the London Activists Meeting, announced for
Thursday 22 May has had to be postponed. It will be
re-arranged for a new date in the near future.
**************************************--
To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | Permalink
Palestine and the anti-war movement
NEWSLETTER No. 1041
06 May 2008
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) PALESTINE AND THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
2) CRITICAL MOMENT FOR THE IRAQ OCCUPATION
3) THE "UNINTENDED" MURDER OF CHILDREN
4) WHEN DID WE BECOME A TERRORIST TARGET?
5) THE RISING TIDE OF RACISM AT HOME
6) BROADENING THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
**************************************
1) PALESTINE AND THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
Stop the War is calling on all its supporters to join the
national demonstration for Palestine in London next
Saturday, which will mark the 60th anniversary of what
Palestinians call the Nakba - the catastrophe - when Israeli
forces used terror and brute force to drive hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians from their homeland.
Sixty years of colonial expansion and brutal occupation have
followed -- in violation of numerous United Nations
resolutions -- and today the Israelis have imposed a
blockade on Gaza which starves one and a half million
inhabitants of food and essential resources. Across Gaza and
the West Bank, Palestinians are living in the most abject
conditions, under which Israel has set up walls and
checkpoints that separate farmers from their lands, students
from their schools and universities, patients from their
hospitals and families from each other.
The people of surrounding countries are under the ever
present threat of attack by Israel - one recent example
being the invasion of Lebanon in Summer 2006, when hundreds
of civilians were killed and the Israeli military fired the
highest number of cluster bombs used in any war in history.
Another example was last September's bombing of a nuclear
power station in Syria. Two more illegal acts carried out
with the impunity Israel has come to expect over the past 60
years. whenever it transgresses human rights and
international laws.
What has this got to do with the anti-war movement and
specifically with Stop the War, an organisation founded to
oppose the "war on terror" and its consequent wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq?
The short answer is that it is impossible to detach the
issue of Palestine when support for Israel is so central to
the US government's aggressions in the Middle East. It is
for this reason that half of all US government aid goes to
Israel, most of it for military purposes, which is used to
further brutalise the Palestinian people and to pose a
permanent threat to neighbouring countries. It is no
coincidence that George Bush and the Israeli government are
in tandem in their recent threats against Iran and Syria.
The pathetic wandering around the Middle East by war
criminal Tony Blair, laughingly called a "peace envoy",
shows that the warmongers know how significant Israel is to
their strategy of domination in the region. That is why, for
very different reasons to Tony Blair, Stop the War believes
the issue of Palestine is directly linked to our campaign
opposing the war policies of the US and British governments.
And it is why we urge all our supporters to participate in
Saturday's national demonstration.
NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION FOR PALESTINE
SATURDAY 10 MAY 2008
FREE PALESTINE - END THE SIEGE OF GAZA
FOR THE RIGHT OF RETURN - END ISRAELI OCCUPATION
ASSEMBLE 1PM TEMPLE UNDERGROUND STATION
VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, RALLY IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
Organised by: British Muslim Initiative, Palestine
Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain.
For further information: http://tinyurl.com/4kqjcv
**************************************
2) CRITICAL MOMENT FOR THE IRAQ OCCUPATION
In an exclusive interview with Stop the War, Patrick
Cockburn from The Independent newspaper, one of the best
informed, "non-embedded" commentators on the war in Iraq,
explains why the war - which has now lasted longer than
World War 1 - is a disaster for American foreign policy,
what the prospects are for progress towards peace and the
role of Muktada al-Sadr and his movement in the resistance
to the occupation armies. To see the 10 minute interview,
go to: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
**************************************
3) THE "UNINTENDED" MURDER OF CHILDREN
The picture of two year old Ali Hussein's limp body, covered
in debris and dust and held by his father, just after he had
been dug out of the rubble of the family home, may well
become the iconic figure that captures in a single image the
brutality of the US-UK invasion of Iraq, just as the picture
of Kim Phúc, aged 9, with her skin peeling away from the
napalm that US bombers had rained on her village, became the
picture epitomising US crimes against humanity in the
Vietnam war.
Ali's home and the homes of a least three other families
nearby, were devastated on April 29, when the US military
fired numerous 200 pound missiles into a densely populated
area of Baghdad, killing dozens of civilians, many of them
women and children. The mainstream media across the world
carried Ali's picture. For one all too rare moment the
reality of America's continuing war against the Iraqi people
was revealed. See http://tinyurl.com/3qkbrp
These deaths, said the Pentagon, were "unintended", just as
the British army said it was an "accident" that its tank
shells killed two children in Afghanistan last week.
All such attacks on civilian populations and their property
are illegal under international law and the Fourth Geneva
Convention. But, as a former US Attorney General in the Bush
administration said, these laws are "quaint" and "outdated",
only there to be disregarded by the US and British
governments, confident that their violations will be ignored
by the rest of the so-called "international community".
**************************************
4) WHEN DID WE BECOME A TERRORIST TARGET?
Not content with the carnage it has brought to Iraq and
Afghanistan, the US government turned its attention last
week to Somalia, where dozens of civilians - most of them
women and children - were killed when US missiles struck the
town of Dusamareebnorth. Half the town's population turned
out to protest against the mass murder, which once again was
a violation of international law. Thirteen-year-old Nour
Ahmad spoke at the protest rally: "The US strike killed my
brother, my sister and also wounded my grandmother. We are
refugees and fled from Mogadishu. When did we become a
terrorist target?"
SEE http://tinyurl.com/45z8nm
**************************************
5) THE RISING TIDE OF RACISM AT HOME
The "war on terror" has been a disaster for US and British
foreign policy. As the situation worsens for the occupying
forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the propaganda assaults on
Muslims continue unabated in the media, fuelled at every
stage by politicians desperate to divert attention from
their collusion in war crimes that have lead to the deaths
of hundreds of thousands. Stop the War is co-ordinating a
series of rallies with high profile speakers to help defend
the Muslim community against this rising tide of racism. The
first will be in London on June 3 and will be followed by
meetings in Birmingham, Manchester and in cities and towns
across the country. More details of venues and speakers will
be published shortly.
**************************************
6) BROADENING THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
The Stop the War Coalition is committed to strengthening and
broadening its organisation. We are planning regional
activist meetings to discuss how to sustain and strengthen
local organisation. The first will be in London on Thursday
22 May and we are asking every London Stop the War group to
encourage all of their activists to attend:
LONDON STOP THE WAR ACTIVISTS MEETING
THURSDAY 22 MAY, 6.00PM
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornaugh Street, Russell Sq, WC1
**************************************--
To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | Permalink