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Archive for the ‘UK’ Category

I was invited to a conference to launch the Alternative Leveson Inquiry into Islamophobia in the media on the 9th of January 2012.

An “alternative Leveson inquiry” is being set up by an Islamic TV channel in order to investigate the way in which British media report on Muslim and Islamic affairs.

The Islam Channel is planning to appoint a judge with an independent panel of assessors – just like Leveson – to carry out the inquiry. Read the rest of this entry »

Gavan Titley and I wrote in The Guardian that Shortly after the end of the Stephen Lawrence trial, Abbott’s remarks are being used as a chance to restore white victimhood.

Read more on The Guardian website

Finally, after 18 years two of the killers of Stephen Lawrence have been found guilty. Too little, too late perhaps but an important day for justice for the victims of racism.

Franklyn Addo is a talented black teenager from London who is making a name for himself as a rapper and has been lauded in the liberal press for getting into Cambridge. He wrote in The Guardian on Monday to set the record straight. He did not choose to study sociology at the LSE instead of Cambridge because he wants to stay close to a music scene (these days it’s all online, duh!), but because academically the LSE meets his needs better. He is undoubtedly a bright guy and I one for one am delighted he has a passion for sociology. It’s a pity then that he had to say this:

People from deprived areas must assess their way of thinking and begin to understand that society is becoming increasingly meritocratic and that anything is possible with hard work.

Would his personal achievement be any less commendable if he were to admit that because he had luck and good guidance on his side that he has not been a victim of institutionalised discrimination? Just because he has not, does not mean it does not exist. There are at least a few good sociologists at the LSE who will hopefully put him to rights!

Stolen from the brilliant Steve Bell

So David Cameron has been given Marine Le Pen’s blessing. As the new head of the racist French party, the Front national, she says,

It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life [in France] for 30 years… I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him.

Marine Le Pen is right to point out that what used to be beyond the pale, is now acceptable speech. White Europeans everywhere are now ‘daring’ to say what they always thought about black people, migrants, and Muslims having been given the go ahead by their politicians. As Seumas Milne points out in the The Guardian, Cameron’s anti-Muslim racism is nothing new: “much of the ground for Cameron’s neocon turn was laid by Tony Blair and New Labour – and politicians such as Phil Woolas, who unsuccessfully tried to play the Islamophobic card to save his skin.” Read the rest of this entry »

We need ‘a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.’

David Cameron has announced that the ‘doctrine of state multiculturalism’ has encouraged different cultures to live separate lives. He went on to say that, while we are quick to condemn white racism (really?), we are ‘too cautious’ when someone who isn’t white holds ‘equally objectionable views’. Read the rest of this entry »

Excerpt published on the Muslim Council of Britain site

Ours is a righteous cause,” says Stephen Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) of the English Defence League, “Alright, OK,” replies Jeremy Paxman, anchor of BBC2′s flagship news programme Newsnight, “A lot of people are worried, I believe you.

The decision to invite the EDL to appear on Newsnight on February ahead of the its march on Luton planned for February 5, touted as the “the biggest demonstration in its 18-month history” according to The Guardian, was ill-informed. Those interested in engaging in the ‘no platform’ debate may do so. However, what was more striking about the Newsnight appearance was Paxman’s ultimate inability to counter the incendiary, anti-Muslim statements tripping off Lennon’s tongue. Inability or unwillingness? Read the rest of this entry »

As the Con Dem government in the UK bring in draconian cuts to public services including slashing the higher education budget by 80%, cutting funding to the arts and humanities by 100% and increasing student fees to £9,000 a year, students as young as 13 are fighting back. A third day of action has been called for November 30th. I am watching as a new generation springs into action and it gives me hope. Watch this video. The speaker is 15 years old and he should be an inspiration to us all.

Nick Griffin was right about one thing: Churchill would have felt at home in the BNP.

The appearance of Nick Griffin, leader of the British Nartional Party, on BBC Question Time on October 22, 2009 has led to massive debate across the UK. Those in favour of freedom of speech advocated for Griffin to be allowed on the programme in the interests of exposing him. Those opposing said that there should be no platform for fascists and that Griffin and the BNP would only benefit from the publicity, no matter what was actually debated. I agree with the latter position and have always done so. Rare words of sense were written by Gary Younge in the Guardian reminding us that the other panelists, in particular Jack Straw, as the representative of New Labour is as guilty (if not more so) of encouraging racism in Britain as Griffin, especially considering Straw’s incendiary 2007 remarks on the niqab and the direct link between this and rising Islamophobia.

The panelists on Question Time were literally falling over themselves to show themselves to be tolerant and non-racist in the face of Griffin’s blatant racism. However, the mechanisms they chose to do this by resorted to the tried and tested recourse to patriotism (critiqued by Paul Gilroy in There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack with regards the Anti-Nazi Leagues in 1987). Read the rest of this entry »