Where are the Feminists in the fight against Islamism?

In the seventies the Feminist Movement seemed to be everywhere, challenging everything from wages for housework to opposing the veil and burka. Today the only group that seems to stand against religious fascism is FEMEN, an organisation that originated in the Ukraine and is now spreading  to other countries.

One doesn't have to agree with all their actions or ideas but their bravery and commitment to standing up to Putin, Le Pen and the Islamists has to be admired. They show up the so called radical activists like the Lindsey Germans of this world for the appeasers and right-wingers they really are.

But what has gone wrong with the Feminist movement. They are alive and kicking.

When the "comrade delta affair was exposed feminists were at the forefront of condemning the Socialist Workers Party and rightly so, even pushing for the SWP to be banned from college campuses.

At the same time the feminists seem oblivious to the growth of misogynist Islamism which poses far more of a danger than a small political sect like the SWP. 

It's not just in the UK. Phyllis Chesler writes

The upcoming annual conference of the National Organisation for Women (NOW) does not list ISIS or Boko Haram on its agenda. While the most recent Women's Studies annual conference did focus on foreign policy, they were only interested in Palestine, a country which has never existed, and support for which is often synonymous with an anti-Israel position. Privately, feminists favour non-intervention, non-violence and the need for multilateral action, and they blame America for practically everything wrong in the world......

Feminists are, typically, leftists who view "Amerika" and white Christian men as their most dangerous enemies, while remaining silent about Islamist barbarians such as ISIS.

Feminists strongly criticise Christianity and Judaism, but they're strangely reluctant to oppose Islam — as if doing so would be "racist." They fail to understand that a religion is a belief or an ideology, not a skin colour.

The new pseudo-feminists are more concerned with racism than with sexism, and disproportionately focused on Western imperialism, colonialism and capitalism than on Islam's long and ongoing history of imperialism, colonialism, anti-black racism, slavery, forced conversion and gender and religious apartheid.

And why? They are terrified of being seen as "politically incorrect" and then demonised and shunned for it.

To be frank they are "politically incorrect" but not in the sense they would understand. They are just plain wrong. 

To tell them that would probably result in accusations that their critics were "oppressing them".

The feminist left should take some lessons from FEMEN. 

Go to: http://femen.org/news

Defend the Kurds from Turkish President Erdogan

The rise of ISIS has given birth to a renewed Kurdish movement across the Middle East. The Kurds are probably the largest nation not to have a state of their own with them spread across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Their aspirations for nationhood have always been suppressed by the occupying countries, but having faced their "Stalingrad" in Kobane the fight for the self determination of the Kurdish people has now entered a new era.

Whilst neither Assad in Syria or the beleaguered regime in Iraq are in a position to stop the establishment of Kurdish "cantons" and other autonomous areas, the Turks are certainly not happy with the prospect of a Kurdish state on their borders.

The International Business Times reports:

Syrian Kurds have been fighting the group also known as ISIS on the Turkish border for the past year, and their recent advances have worried Turkey, which is opposed vehemently to a Kurdish state on its border.

“I am saying this to the whole world: We will never allow the establishment of a state on our southern border in the north of Syria,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech last Friday. “We will continue our fight in that respect whatever the cost may be.”

The Turkish government has not confirmed or denied the reports, but said the announcement would be made on Tuesday.

Erdogan is still smarting from his failure to gain the parliamentary majority he needed to establish his own form of Islamist dictatorship in the recent election. The advance of the Kurdish opposition part saw the defection of support from the more "pious" section of the community from Erdogan. There are some 19 million Kurds in Turkey and there has been a long and protracted war with the militants of the PKK over the last few decades.

The World Affairs Journal writes:

Twenty five percent of Turkey’s population is Kurdish, and Erdogan—like most of his ethnic Turkish countrymen—are terrified that Turkey may lose a huge swath of its territory if Syrian Kurdistan liberates itself alongside Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Kurdistan could very well be the next domino.

They are not crazy to fear this.

But they’re reacting by treating as ISIS the lesser of evils. If ISIS can keep the Kurds down, Turkey’s territorial integrity is more secure.

“ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all,” a former ISIS communications technician toldNewsweek, “because there was full cooperation with the Turks and they reassured us that nothing will happen…ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria. The Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey.”

Apparently the Turkish government will be making a decision on their actions shortly as the International Buisness Times report continues:

"We have a MGK [National Security Council] meeting tomorrow; we will make the necessary announcements afterwards,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said, according to the state-run news outlet Anadolu Agency.

The Turkish Government must not be allowed to stab the Kurds in the back. 

Remember this is a country which committed the first industrialised genocide of the twentieth century and massacred one an a half million Armenians. It remains a crime in their country to even call this for what is was, a Holocaust.

The world did not act then, but we must act now to defend the Kurds against Erdogan's Islamist intentions for which he will also get the support of far right Turkish nationalists.

If Turkey intervenes against the Kurds we must protest. The traditional left/anti-imperialist brigade cannot be relied on so it will be up to the "decent" left to raise the issue.

There needs to be a nationally (and internationally) co-ordinated Kurdish Solidarity Campaign with protests held outside the Turkish Embassy both here, across Europe and the Western world.

The Kurds have been fighting on the front line against ISIS almost alone. 

They are in need of our help.

Freedom for Kurdistan!

Gay Marriage "it's all the Jews fault"

The annual Gay Pride march took place yesterday and the participants had plenty to celebrate given the decision of the US Supreme court to legalise Gay Marriage across the whole country. Britain is also one of the most tolerant and safe places to be gay according to one participant on the march yesterday, but it's far from over there are still those with banal and intolerant views not just in the UK but around the world.

Take one anti-Semitic Lutheran preacher and give to the Iranian fascist government Press TV station and off the bigots go:

“The key Jewish role played in the mainstreaming of abortion, LGBT, and pornography in the United States may be documented in Google search, especially in looking at the Frankfurt School and its Institute for Social Research,” he added.

“The provable Jewish role in destroying the older Christian cultures of the United States and Europe is now a dagger pointed at the Islamic World and the revival of Eastern Orthodox culture in Russia,” the analyst noted.

“I believe Russian President Putin understands this, and will resist the cultural, economic, and military coercion of the Anglo-American-Zionist Empire with all of his country's national resources and will,” he observed.

“I believe Mr. Putin is a key ingredient in destroying this global threat, and restoring cultural integrity and national sovereignty to his country, and providing a model for defeating the Zionist agenda globally,” he concluded.

Now remind me again who works for Press TV. 

Would that be John Rees of Counterfire and the Stop the War Campaign. And isn't it the StWC who deny any Russian aggression in the Ukraine and elsewhere.

It's always the West's fault.

Freedom for gays. Such Western deviationism indeed.

How do the anti-imperialist brigade live with themselves?

They ARE the new far right.

Musical Tribute - Patrick Macnee with Honor Blackman

Patrick Macnee sadly passed away at the age of 93 last week. Famous for his role as John Steed in The Avengers particularly when Diana Rigg was his co-star, the original series is somewhat overlooked.

Most of the original shows with Honor Blackman have been lost but one little piece of their collaboration does remain. A short song which bombed on it's initial release suddenly became a hit in the seventies.

So in way of a tribute to a fondly remembered actor, here's the video of Kinky Boots from Top of The Pops.

Once more on Islam and violence

The news that Islamic extremists had struck tourists in Tunisia this afternoon killing at least 37 people including 5 Britons shocked everyone this afternoon. This was Followed by the disgusting terrorist outrage in France where a man was beheaded .

It didn't stop there. Suicide bombers struck a Shia Mosque in Kuwait murdering (lets call it what it really is) at least 25 and injuring scores more.

Prior to this ISIS launched suicide bombers at the Kurds of Kobane in revenge for their criminal organisations lost ground at the hands of the Peshmerga and other Kurdish forces who seem to be the only people currently engaged in the Middle east capable of confronting these criminals.

Where do these so-called religious men get their inspiration?

They themselves say the Koran.

Earlier this week I cross-posted a statement from the National Secular Society welcoming the publication of an anti-terrorism edict by a certain Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.

Almost immediately it was pointed out to me by David T of Harry's Place that the same man was "the prime mover of the legislation that declared Ahmadiyya Muslims "non Muslim" in Pakistan, which resulted in their official persecution and repression.".

Today Left Foot Forward publishes an expose by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid who writes:

... back home in Pakistan, Qadri proudly takes ownership of formulating Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which has been abused to suffocate and intimidate religious minorities through blatant mob violence.

When addressing western audiences, Qadri claims that the blasphemy law does not apply to non-Muslims. Back home in Pakistan he has advocated ‘killing blasphemers… like dogs’.

This video highlights his contradictory stance on the blasphemy law, and showcases his claim that he incorporated section 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code which sanctions the death punishment for defiling Islamic scriptures or insulting Prophet Muhammad.

Qadri is renowned for saying whatever sells, whether it’s anti-government fascism through his politics and a bigoted version of Islam back home, or apologism in the garb of Islamic ‘moderation’ in the West.

It's worth reading the article in full.

Once again we are reminded that Islamic scholars are not always as they may seem.

Islam remains a source of religious intolerance and until that is addressed this mindless violence will continue.

Size doesn't matter

photo wikepedia

The anti-austerity march held last Saturday was quite obviously one of the larger demonstrations held in a while but how many people attended and does it actually matter?

There is never any agreement on the number of people who attend a demonstration or protest. Most are fairly small. Some however are clearly quite big but the estimates of the number of participants  differ wildly. Socialist Worker and the rest of the "left" press always exaggerate. The largest demo I have ever attended was the pensions one called a few years back. Probably similar in size to the anti-austerity march with one difference.

It was marred by the banal actions of a few score of anarchists who I saw mask up and tool up as we entered Trafalgar Square and then deliberately kicked off in Piccadilly causing pointless damage and mayhem which diverted attention from the purpose of the march (to defend our pensions) and put off some of the members we had bought along to a march for the first time.

The event was hijacked and the media focused on the violence. The hard work of the trade unions disrupted by a few ideologically motivated "children" (a few well into their fifties) who were not even trade unionists themselves and couldn't even be described as "workers" in any shape or form.

The pensions march failed. We lost.

So did the anti-austerity march. The newly elected Tory Government simply announced another £12 Billion of welfare cuts. They were not going to be pressurised by a demonstration no matter how large (or small) just after they had won a general election on a platform that included the prospect of cuts.

But demonstrations don't often win their demands. The anti-war march over a decade ago was the largest in British history with "over a million participants" failed to achieve their aim. The war they protested about wrongly or rightly (I didn't support the StWC then any more than I do now) went ahead.

The purpose of demos, rallies and other public forms of protest perform other functions than just putting forward "demands". They also bring together people who have a fairly common purpose to form "movements" that allow people to realise they are not alone.

Demonstrations are an important part of the democratic process. Without them our rights would be curtailed.

I have no idea how many people turned up on Saturday. They met, they made a point (ignored by government) and returned home knowing they were not alone.

Was it worth it?

Yes has to be the answer.

So whether there were 70,000 or 250,000  protesters it was right to make a point. The size of a demonstration doesn't matter, it's whether we have the right to make a peaceful protest that counts.

Democracy is constantly under threat. Free speech, the right to strike, the right of assembly and not just from the government. 

The mob rule of "twitter". The easily offended brigade who believe that any disagreement with their views is automatically "oppressing" them.

The right to disagree is always worth defending.

Say NO to Neo-Nazi's in Golders Green on July 4th

 From a press release by EO Anti-Semitism.



The Campaign 4 Truth together with affiliated grass-roots organisations from a spectrum of different communities will be taking direct action under the banner:

NO NAZIS ALLOWED

A peaceful counter demonstration to:

• oppose fascism

• expose anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism as anti-Judaism

It is rumoured that the "UAF" and BDS will attend supposedly to stand against the Nazis.

Campaign 4 Truth question how that ties in with their raison dêtre to de-legitimise Israel by picketing Jewish owned shops in the UK two of which were forced to shut – see Ahava, Kedem, Ecostream.

George Galloway of ‘no Israelis in Bradford’ notoriety tweeted his intention to come to Golders Green on the 4th July.

 
Campaign 4 Truth question his motives considering his links to Hamas.

With well over 800 people already signed up to attend on The Campaign 4 Truth event page we expect that this peaceful demonstration will make it clear that:

• racism in all its forms is unacceptable

• anti-Semitism in all its forms will exposed

Say No to Nazi's in Golders Green!