Category Archives: Left Wing

In defence of militant secularism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A strange alliance has arisen: from conservative members of the Muslim Association of Britain, the SWP, to London’s Mayor, all are in an uproar about ‘Islamophobia’. Ken Livingstone has taken it upon himself to criticise the French move to ban wearing ostentatious religious symbols in schools. He has also given lessons on religious freedom by defending a cleric, al-Qaradawi, who supports female genital mutilation. This bloc draws support from the mainstream of the Anglican Church and Prince Charles to, with rare exceptions, the bien-pensant pages of the Guardian.”

Andrew Coates in What Next? No.29

Dialogue with a man of peace

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Dialogue with a man of peace

Ken Livingstone

Tribune, 21 January 2005

PETER TATCHELL has spent six months denouncing me for meeting a person, Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is described by the Muslim Council of Britain, the main Muslim umbrella group in this country, as “the most authoritative Islamic scholar in the world”.

The fact that he has been so been vigorously supported in his campaign by newspapers like the Sun, the Star and the Daily Mail – which have never distinguished themselves by anything other than bigotry in relation to lesbian and gay rights – should have given Tatchell pause for thought.

As Mayor of London, I have a responsibility to meet the leaders of all of London’s many faiths and communities, irrespective of the fact that I disagree with them on particular issues.

Tatchell wages an unrelenting campaign, most recently in the 7 January Tribune, to paint Islam as a uniquely homophobic and reactionary religion. Yet I find that I disagree not only with Muslim leaders, with whom Tatchell seems to be obsessed, but also with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Evangelical and other religious leaders on this issue.

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Making Hussein safe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“How can it be right to stir up hatred against people simply because they belong to a particular religious group, or because they don’t share your religious beliefs? How can it be right that this remains unchallenged, particularly when it can lead to violence? Some of the most vocal criticisms against our proposal come from the left – the very people you might have thought would be the most ardent supporters. They deride it as an attack on free speech …”

Fiona MacTaggart argues that religious hatred laws are needed.

Guardian, 21 January 2005

The AWL and Tariq Ramadan: A case history in left-wing Islamophobia

Posted on by Eddie Truman

In October 2004, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty supporter Alan Clarke persuaded the national executive committee of the National Union of Students to adopt a resolution calling for leading Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan to be banned from speaking at the European Social Forum, which was to be held in London later that month. It quickly became clear that the motion had been based on an entirely false account of Professor Ramadan’s views.

Documented by Bob Pitt on the What Next? journal website

Qaradawi is welcome

Posted on by Eddie Truman

“Ever since Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi was welcomed to London’s City Hall by Ken Livingstone last July, Peter Tatchell and the gay rights organisation Outrage! have waged an obsessive campaign against this respected Muslim scholar. Unfortunately, their obsession is not matched by an equivalent concern for accuracy. The picture of Dr al-Qaradawi presented by Tatchell in the November issue of Labour Left Briefing (‘‘Qaradawi Not Welcome’) is nothing but an Islamophobic caricature which he uses as the basis for a more general attack on Muslims, their beliefs and their organisations.”

Peter Roberts on the What Next? journal website

Jilbab: AWL defends ‘those who insist on oppressing themselves’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The ironic thing is that the increased wearing of overtly Islamic dress is due to the increase of fundamentalist influences, some of which pay no attention to democracy at all, especially when it comes to the rights of women. The language of those who demand the right to cover themselves in order to establish themselves as the property of men is that of the feminist movement of 1970s Britain. They call for ‘a woman’s right to choose’. This is quite bizarre.”

The Alliance for Workers Liberty on the jilbab ban in Tower Hamlets. But, let’s be fair, the AWL does argue that “those who insist on oppressing themselves” should have the right to wear Islamic dress.

Solidarity, 2 December 2004

On Theo Van Gogh’s assassination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I must admit when I heard the news I did not know Theo van Gogh and had not read anything by him. I read and found out that he had criticised Islam and made a film, which exposed Islam’s misogyny.”

Ajar Majedi of the Worker Communist Party of Iran backtracks from her expression of solidarity with the late Dutch racist Theo van Gogh.

WPI TV broadcast, 7 November 2004

So, to be fair, Ajar Majedi didn’t consciously endorse Van Gogh’s racist views – she just heard he was against Islam, and that was good enough for her.