Category Archives: Secular

Report on GALHA meeting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yusuf Smith has posted a report of a public meeting on Friday evening organised by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association on the subject of “Gays, Women and Secularists in Post-War Iraq”. The platform consisted of Peter Tatchell and Ali Hilli of OutRage! and Houzan Mahmoud of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq.

Yusuf reports that the first question from the floor was whether the speakers considered that Islam itself was to blame for the situation they were facing in Iraq. Ali Hilli replied that he did not accept this, that Islam was a religion of peace and love – at which point Houzan Mahmoud “interjected that this was not true” – but people use it for whatever purposes they want, as with other religions.

So it would appear that at least some members of OutRage! are capable of a rather more nuanced approach to Islam than the group’s most prominent figures.

Yet more self-justifying nonsense from Tatchell

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outrage Protest (2)Peter Tatchell has a letter in the latest issue of Tribune, replying to Kirsten Hearn’s criticism of OutRage!’s call for Unite Against Fascism to exclude the Muslim Council of Britain and its general secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie from the platform of February’s UAF conference. Tatchell says that Hearn’s article “symbolises the political dishonesty and opportunism of the pro-Islamist left”.

Kirsten Hearn wrote, in opposition to OutRage!’s position on the UAF conference: “To suggest we jettison the Muslim community from the anti-fascist movement at a time when the fascists are advancing by attacking Muslims is obscene…. Specifically, the MCB is an umbrella and mainstream body representing more than 450 Muslim organisations and therefore must be central to anti-fascist unity in this country.”

In reply, Tatchell claims that he merely criticised UAF for inviting Sacranie as an individual, on the grounds that he had made homophobic comments: “My objection was to Sir Iqbal Sacranie. I suggested replacing him with a liberal, progressive Muslim speaker. To me, that does not sound like ‘jettisoning’ the Muslim community.”

But the Outrage! press release called for a ban not just on Sacranie but on the MCB as a whole. OutRage! urged UAF to “withdraw your invitation to Sir Iqbal and the MCB”, on the basis that “the MCB is not a liberal, progressive organisation. It represents only conservative, reactionary opinion. It is not a suitable partner organisation for the movement against fascism”. Tatchell cannot claim that he is unaware of the representative character of the MCB. He himself has described the MCB as “a mainstream organisation … which is the umbrella organisation of all Muslim groups in this country”. Yet this was the organisation that he wanted excluded from the UAF conference platform, to be replaced by one of several suggested individuals none of whom represents any significant force at all among Muslims in Britain. What does that amount to, other than “jettisoning the Muslim community”?

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Tatchell ‘defends the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination’!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter Tatchell continues his campaign against the Muslim Council of Britain. He writes: “I defend the Muslim community against Islamophobic discrimination” and adds: “we still hold out our hands in friendship and solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters”. Clearly, Tatchell’s brain is an irony-free zone.

Comment is Free, 4 May 2006

Drink-soaked popinjay may initial Euston Manifesto

Posted on by Eddie Truman

HitchDrink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay (not our description) Christopher Hitchens today teased the 977 lonely hearts the Euston Manifesto has brought together with a suggestion he may consider initialing the document. “So call me a neo-conservative if you must: anything is preferable to the rotten unprincipled alliance between the former fans of the one-party state and the hysterical zealots of the one-god one.” Hitch reveals that he has “been flattered by an invitation to sign it, and I probably will”.

There will be sighs of relief amongst many on the left who were likewise flattered to be asked to sign an attempt to establish a left neo-conservative grouping in the UK but read the manifesto and instantly realised what was going on.

See Christopher Hitchens, “At last our lefties see the light”, Sunday Times, 30 April 2006

Martin Sullivan adds:  And now Mad Mel has declared herself “delighted” by the Euston Manifesto – “it’s great to see such a brave statement of decent principles and an open denunciation of the left for being on the wrong side of history. Such a challenge from within its own ranks is essential if the left is ever to stop causing so much lethal damage to the west”.

Meanwhile, online signatories to the Euston Manifesto have been outlining their motives for signing. Harriet Baber explains that “we liberals need to take back the Enlightenment” – which apparently means supporting human rights, “not peace, non-interference in the business of sovereign nations or respect for other cultures”. Neil Denny has signed in protest at a situation in which “to declare a support for Enlightenment values is to seemingly out oneself as an Islamophobe and a racist”. And Aidan Fleming adds: “The curse of democracy is the Qur’an. All supporters of the Euston Manifesto Group should read, The Sword Of The Prophet by Serge Trifovic. It should be declared that ISLAM is not a religion but a non-democratic political organisation.”

Liars and their lies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fascist at MFE“Brett Lock of Outrage is free and easy with accusations of lies, when tilting at the Socialist Action windmill. He would do well to observe that there is little point in lecturing others about your own sins. Notwithstanding his claim that the BNP ‘boycotted’ the rally over ‘free speech’, the BNP’s own site, and its Civil Liberty front, are quite clear. They supported the rally and their members attended. One of the bourgeois liberals that Lock makes mention of, Johann Hari, is quite open about the fact that he marched with fascists.”

Letter from Tony Greenstein in the Weekly Worker, 6 April 2006

See also the letter from Ian Donovan.

Meanwhile, having backed Tatchell’s decision to share a platform with hard right-wingers and racists, Lock continues to defend Outrage’s call for the Muslim Council of Britain to be denied a speaker at the Unite Against Fascism conference in February. There is, Lock explains, no real difference between the MCB and the fascists: “a BNP success in the local elections would be catastrophic, but frankly, given current indicators, the success of an MCB-aligned candidate could be equally disastrous for gay people”.

Lock & Load, 6 April 2006

‘Freedom of speech’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Padraig Reidy of the New Humanist has a go at Denis Fernando, Socialist Action, Respect, the Muslim Association of Britain and Eamonn McCann – all in one short Tribune piece. Needless to say, they’re all guilty of “selling out political ideals to religion”. By which, of course, he means “Islam”.

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Discord cannot deal defeats to fascism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On reflection, perhaps I’ve been a bit harsh on Tribune. Having got hold of a copy of the current issue, I find that it contains an excellent reply to Peter Tatchell by Kirsten Hearn of Regard (even if they manage to mis-spell her name).

Kirsten demolishes Tatchell’s article which rejected anti-fascist work with the Muslim Council of Britain on the grounds that the MCB is homophobic:

“To suggest we jettison the Muslim community from the anti-fascist movement at a time when the fascists are advancing by attacking Muslims is obscene. Today, in Europe, among the many communities being attacked by fascists and the extreme Right, it is possible to find many differences. We must instead seek the basis of common ground and effective opposition. Specifically, the MCB is an umbrella and mainstream body representing more than 450 Muslim organisations and therefore must be central to anti-fascist unity in this country.”

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‘March for Free Expression’ wash-out

Posted on by Bob Pitt

damp squibLenin’s Tomb has coverage of the pathetic “March for Free Expression” protest in Trafalgar Square this afternoon. It drew some 300 people at its peak and that had fallen to around 150 by the time this would-be mass demonstration reached its rain-soaked end. The hard core who remained gave an enthusiastic reception to Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance when he criticised the supporters of “free speech” who had backed Jyllands-Posten over the cartoons but had failed to give similar support to Nick Griffin and David Irving during the recent court cases against them.

Tatchell and ‘free expression’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tatchell and NamaziePeter Tatchell justifies his decision to support Saturday’s “March for Free Expression”:

“Some of my friends on the left are refusing to take part. Preferring to remain marginal but pure, they object to the involvement of right-wing groups like the Libertarian Alliance and the Freedom Association. I share their distaste for these groups. But my participation on Saturday is based on supporting the statement of principle, not on who else is taking part. I will not let the dubious politics of others dissuade me from supporting what are important, progressive humanitarian values.”

March for Free Expression website, 23 March 2006

Odd, then, that Tatchell argued for banning the Muslim Council of Britain from the Unite Against Fascism conference last month. Presumably it’s OK to form an alliance with racists to oppose Muslims, but out of the question to form an alliance with Muslims to oppose racists.

Sacranie is a fascist, moderate Muslims issue death threats – Namazie and Tatchell claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

maryam namazie 2“The fifth annual Peter Tatchell Human Rights Fund meeting was held in London last night despite the pulling out of the guest speaker, the liberal Islamic theologian, Sheikh Dr Muhammad Yusuf due to death threats. Instead the main speaker was the Iranian born secularist Maryam Namazie who claimed that supporters ‘should pay more to hear me speak than some Imam’…. In a vocal attack on the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, she said: ‘He may be a “Sir” but he is still a proponent of political Islam, the fascism of today.’ Reacting to public charges of Islamaphobia, she asked: ‘how can it be Islamophobic to say that people should be able to live a 21st century life.’

“Peter Tatchell, making his annual address to supporters of his human rights fund, expressed his disappointment at the absence of Dr Yusuf: ‘I was looking forward to giving a platform to a liberal Islamic cleric. Sheikh Yusuf is afraid of very serious retribution to him and the ones that he loves. The threats came from people who are members of so called moderate, mainstream Muslim organisations. This shows the scale of the threat from even these moderate groups’.”

Pink News, 21 March 2006