Zuzu: New music from Liverpool

It's not often that I take an interest in new music from the UK as the current chart scene bores the pants off me so it's nice to come across a decent new artist like Zuzu who hails from Liverpool apparently.

I came across an advert for a Zuzu gig at Dingwalls on Facebook and took a chance to look her up on You Tube and was pleasantly surprised.  There are quite a few of her videos on-line and I've played three so far all of which I found entertaining.

Zuzu also illustrates comics apparently so I'll look out for her work and you might see Zuzu on my comics blog in the near future.

She currently has a 10" LP on sale via her website and I've decided to order a copy. 

Please go to: www.thisiszuzuofficial.com

Mobilise dissent against religious laws

Cross-Post by Maryam Namazie**

I started Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and One Law for All more than a decade ago to publicly mobilise dissent against religious laws. An expression of “not in my name” and a challenge to the Quran, Islam and Islamism as the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of the emancipation of women, freethinkers and others (if I may “paraphrase” US Suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton)*.

Having fled the Islamic regime in Iran - where there is a deep-seated anti-Islamic backlash and women’s liberation movement - I found it astonishing how Sharia courts, apostasy laws and women’s subservient status were legitimised as a defence of “minority rights” in Britain and the west.

How Machiavellian to promote a defence of fundamentalists as a defence of a presumed homogeneous minority “community”! How patronising to assume that those of us from minority backgrounds are so “different” from everyone else that we can only be expected to live within the confines of predefined patriarchal structures.

In any religious or tribal court, the odds are stacked against women who are viewed as the property and honour of the men in charge and not as individual citizens with rights.

The fact of the matter is that Sharia law violates women’s rights, including here in Britain. As do Ecclesiastic courts, the Beth Din or Loya Jirgas. In any religious or tribal court, the odds are stacked against women who are viewed as the property and honour of the men in charge and not as individual citizens with rights.

Sharia courts legitimise and encourage violence against women whether by considering a women’s testimony as worth half that of a man’s, normalising polygamy and child “marriage” or considering marital rape as the prerogative of the husband, amongst others. Sharia court jurisprudence and practice violate every article of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), including by promoting the concept of “zina” which criminalises sex outside of marriage.

Sharia law also violates the rights of religious minorities, freethinkers, ex-Muslims, atheists, apostates, blasphemers and LGBT... In more than a dozen countries under Sharia, apostasy, blasphemy and homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty. In Britain, too, Sharia judges have made statements justifying the killing of apostates; the apostate label alone carries with it the grave risk of shunning and honour-related violence and death.

The establishment of CEMB and One Law for All were efforts to be heard and to be seen and to insist on our equal citizenship and individual rights and freedoms in the face of a cultural relativism that erases any dissent and only recognises “group” and “community” rights. Given that it is those in power that determine the “rights” of an in-group, a defence of an essentialised “Muslim community” ends up becoming an exercise in defending the fundamentalists and blaming the victims. Make no mistake. Defending Sharia courts or for that matter the veiling of children and sex segregation at schools or opposition to the “No Outsiders” programme is a defence of the Islamist project to control women, dissent and doubt and has nothing to do with promoting religious freedom or combating bigotry.

A brief look at the founding organisations of the oldest Sharia court in Britain, the Islamic Sharia Council, for example, clearly shows the transnational Islamist links. The organisations include:

London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre (whose Trustees include officials from the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brunei, Qatar, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan – many of which punish apostasy with the death penalty and have discriminatory family laws).

Muslim World League (which propagates Saudi Wahabbism, the Muslim Brotherhood played a role in its founding).

Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith (involved in promoting sectarianism and jihad in the Indian sub-continent).

UK Islamic Mission (inspired by Jamaat e Islami and Syed Abul Ala Maududi and shares the same ideology as Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood).

Dawatul Islam, UK (UK branch of the Bangladeshi Jamaat e Islami. In 1971, some of the Jamaat e Islami were implicated in running death squads and organising lynchings against people demanding independence).

Jamia Mosque & Islamic Center, Birmingham (where protestors marched from the mosque after Friday prayers to the Bangladesh High Commission in Birmingham after the execution of a Bangladeshi Islamist convicted of atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan following the country’s war crimes tribunal).

Muslim Welfare House, London (was founded by Kamal Helbawy of the Muslim Brotherhood who has praised Osama Bin Laden. They have fatwas defending polygamy and prohibiting Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men as well as campaigned to stop the selling of alcohol).

It’s where we each stand when rights are violated and fundamentalists appeased that counts.
Contrary to the far-Right arguments that aim to promote anti-Muslim bigotry and xenophobia, this is not about a clash of civilisations but a clash between theocrats and secularists everywhere, with believers and non-believers, including minorities and migrants, on either side. Identities are irrelevant and beside the point though; it’s their politics that matters. It’s where we each stand when rights are violated and fundamentalists appeased that counts. As the refrain from the old labour movement song says: “Which side are you on?” Are we all, as the song continues - “on the side of those who fight for freedom”?

Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born writer and activist and joint winner of the Emma Humphrey’s Memorial Prize 2019. She is the Spokesperson of One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. She hosts a weekly television programme broadcast in Iran on Saturday evenings in Persian and English called Bread and Roses.

For more details on Sharia courts in Britain, see a One Law for All submission to the Home Affairs Select Committee: https://onelawforall.org.uk/6997-2/

For more details on the work of Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, click here: https://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/2019/12/cemb-timeline/

Get your tickets here for CEMB’s upcoming March 8 event for International Women’s Day on Apostasy, Shunning and Survival: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/no-longer-without-you-film-and…

* US Suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton [1850-1902] said: "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation."

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** Originally posted on: www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk

Iranian students statement protesting shooting down of civilian airliner

Iran is in the midst of protests on the streets. The illusion that the majority of people of Iran are in support of the clerical-fascist regime is gradually being broken down and thousands have already died fighting the regime. thousands more languish in jails being tortured raped and murdered by the Islamist regime.

And yet there are no protests in support of the ordinary people of Iran. The so-called Stop the War Coalition brought together a coalition of Islamists and their apologists to listen to speeches from those like Corbyn and Lyndsey German who have taken money from Press TV the mouthpiece of the dictatorship and in the case of the leaders of the StWC German and Rees still do.

The support they give to the regime shows how corrupted the far-left has become with it's distorted version of anti-imperialism.  They betray the ordinary people of Iran.

The following statement was issued by  Amir Kabir (Polytechnic) University in Tehran and is published here in solidarity with those fighting the clerical dictatorship. 

#Statement by a collective of protesting students present at today’s gathering on the campus of Amir Kabir (Polytechnic) University in Tehran to protest the calamitous downing of a passenger flight by a defense missile.

These days, Iran is drowning in sorrow and grief. We wash away blood with more blood, we pile suffering upon suffering, we wash the corpse of one martyr with the blood of another. It’s as if history has been compressed; one crisis follows another and threats respond to threats. We, the children of Iran, do not see ourselves as separate from the people of the country. Their pain is our pain. The grief that has settled in their hearts weighs heavily on our chests as well. The tragedy reached its peak on Wednesday morning, when only one day after the killing of tens of fellow citizens in Kerman, Iran once again witnessed its children fade into the horizon. We had not yet been given an opportunity to mourn the deaths of the Aban martyrs when we were given yet another reason to grieve.

Today, “evil” flanks us from every shore. While economic policies and political repression suffocate the people, the shadow of war looms over our heads. What has been lost in the current political climate, amidst ongoing threats from military powers, is the voice of the people. A people who, above all, long for freedom and equality. In Aban, they brought the sound of that voice to everyone’s attention in the best manner possible. The events of the past two months have been a clear and complete manifestation of the incompetence of the ruling order in Iran. An order whose sole response to every crisis is repression (sarkub). Today, it is incumbent upon us to target the totality of our oppression (sarkub) whether in the form of a repressive government or an imperialist power.

In recent years, the presence of the United States in the Middle East has done nothing but sow chaos and disorder. We have long understood where we stand in relation to this aggressive power. Nonetheless, we also understand that U.S. adventurism in the region cannot be an excuse to justify domestic repression. If these days “national security” is on the tip of everyone’s tongue, the time has come for us to ask what they mean by security, for which groups, classes, and social strata? We are not afraid to cry out, “The security of impoverished, excluded, and deprived Iranians has been pillaged for years!” The economic policies of the past three decades, in conjunction with the rentier class, the wealthy, and the corrupt, have created an enormous number of have-nots and outcasts. The situation is made all the worse by the fact that a corrupt and totally dependent opposition has developed outside of our borders with the aid of the media and financial support of outside powers. Yes, today we are surrounded by evil on all sides.

People of Iran:

The only way out of our current crisis is a return to popular politics.

A politics that neither clings to the coattails of (imperial) arrogance [istikbar] from fear of oppression, nor legitimizes tyranny in the name of anti-imperialism and resistance. Indeed, the only way out of our current predicament is the simultaneous rejection of both domestic despotism and imperial arrogance. We need a politics that doesn’t merely claim security, freedom, and equality for a select group or class, but that understands these rights as inalienable and for all people. Today, the urgent need for social democracy has become clear to all. In such a democracy, the government will not be inattentive to the needs of the people, but will safeguard security, freedom, and equality for all.

We, the children of Iran, extend our condolences to all of the people of our country for the death of hundreds of our fellow citizens in Kerman and in the downing of the plane, and we swear we will not allow their blood to have been spilled in vain. History will never forget the spilled blood of the innocent. History will return with force to take revenge on the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed.

Farewell to Ladybaby

The Japanese all-girl band Ladybaby a favourite of mine and posted more than once before both on this blog and my Facebook page have decided to disband. Sad but they have produced this farewell video.

I wish the ladies success in their future endeavours.



Ladybaby's music is available in the UK via: jpurecords.com 

The Real Enid Blyton: A Review

The Four children stared out to sea. They had all been so interested in exploring the exiting old castle that not one of them had noticed the change in the weather.

Another rumble came. It sounded like a big dog growling in the sky. Tim heard it and growled back. sounding like a small round of thunder himself 

"My goodness we are in for it now" said george, half-alarmed. "We can't get back in time, that's certain. It's blowing up at top speed. Did you ever see such a change in the sky?"

(Five on Treasure Island - 1942)

The Real Enid Blyton - Nadia Cohen (Pen & Sword HB £19.99)

Over the holidays the BBC Home Service which we now know as Radio 4 broadcast a half hour programme featuring the life of Enid Blyton as seen through the eyes of Nadia Cohen writer of a  biography of the children's writer. This short but comprehensive book manages gives the reader a very concise as well as comprehensive account of Enid Blyton's career.

Like many children I grew up reading the adventures of The Famous Five in the sixties. The books seemed a little dated even then not that we children would have noticed. They were simple fun adventures with characters doing the things we'd like to do without coming to any harm and getting home for tea.

Not the sort of thing one sees this days in the gritty world of social realism that began even for children with shows like Grange Hill which showed the side of life our parents desperately tried to protect us from. Growing up in a small market town in Surrey Enid Blyton's adventures did appeal even though my background was far from middle class. Even here in the Tory heartlands were council estates.

Up till now my only knowledge of the writer herself was from snippets in the press and that adaptation of her life starring Helen Bonham-Carter on BBC 2 some years back. It's ironic that both my points of reference are with the BBC as for years her work was "banned" by the snobbish BBC grandees as "unworthy" and not very simple writing.

And yet to date Enid Blyton's books have had some 800 Million copies printed in over 40 languages around the world. Noddy has become big business with a Chinese company producing 100 episodes of the character and his mate Big Ears.

And yet campaigns against Enid Blyton were regular features of the literary establishment with Librarians criticising her books and for a while taking her titles off the shelves. Ironically like all forms of censorship this backfired as children were now able to  buy her books themselves with their pocket money.

Enid Blytons prolific writing saw over 800 books see print and make substantial fortunes for both her and the publishers despite whatever what criticisms were thrown at her. Yes the tales and language were old fashioned but "lashings of ginger beer" has surely entered the English language as a phrase that still means something today.

Yes there is a lack of "wokeness" to use the modern term and thank the gods for that. Even though "George" is actually a girl and even the terms "Mother and Father" seem outdated. And don't mention Aunt Fanny, that name is long out of use and is now a rude word in common parlance.

Do any of us care though? Enid Blyton certainly didn't care about critics unless they were under twelve and these young fans simply wanted more and still do today apparently as her books still sell several million each year. Some terms have been changed and Golliwogs have disappeared from Noddy's adventures. Racist apparently not that children ever associated the toy as such.

Enid Blyton brought much joy to millions of children all over the world through her books though sadly not her own two daughters who were cast aside by the task-orientated Enid.

I have one simple recommendation to you the reader. Before you pick up this worthy tome I do implore you to read a Famous Five novel first just to remind yourself of the wonderful world Enid Blyton conjured up for us to lose ourselves in adventure and of course lashings of..




More info at: enidblytonsociety

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man ft. Elton John

I first heard of this collaboration on Planet Rock radio yesterday and was intrigued so when it was published this morning I thought I'd share it here and blog later.

Just enjoy.

Scandal: New album due in February

The band that introduced me to the Japanese music scene have released a video of a new song from their upcoming album Kiss from the Darkness which is due out in the UK from JPU Records on Valentines Day this year.

An excellent track from one of the best selling bands in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Scandal are:  Haruna Ono (lead vocals/Guitar), Mami (Gitaur), Tomomi Ogawa (Bass) and Rina Suzuki (Drums)



Order via: JPU Records

More info at their official website: scandal-4.com