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UK: Walking a tightrope: Between the pro-Islamist Left and the far-Right
Namazie, Maryam
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article30410Date Written: 2013-11-22 Publisher: Europe solidaire sans frontieres Year Published: 2013 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX15379 Opposing Sharia and Islamism in the west is like walking on a tight rope most of the time -- thwarting attacks from the Left, refuting cultural relativism, preventing alliances with the far-Right, explaining the issues ignored by government and the media, mobilising support for secularism and citizenship whilst opposing racism and xenophobia, and making linkages with the many fighting Islamism on the ground in countries across the world. Abstract: - Opposing Sharia and Islamism in the west is like walking on a tight rope most of the time – thwarting attacks from the Left, refuting cultural relativism, preventing alliances with the far-Right, explaining the issues ignored by government and the media, mobilising support for secularism and citizenship whilst opposing racism and xenophobia, and making linkages with the many fighting Islamism on the ground in countries across the world. It’s easy to fall off the tight rope and doesn't surprise me when it happens given all the pressures involved. Most disconcerting for many are the pressures from the Left; it is particularly hard when your "natural allies" betray basic human principles whilst using the language of rights and tolerance to defend the denial of rights and the intolerable. ... I’m against the war on Iraq as is Al Qaeda but we’re against it for different reasons. I'm against Sharia and so is the EDL and the supposedly reinvented Tommy Robinson but we’re against it for different reasons. I oppose Sharia in Britain and everywhere because universal rights, secularism, women's rights and equality mean something to me. The EDL and Tommy Robinson oppose it because they want to defend their "homeland" (which I am reminded is a human right recognised by the UN) from "the changes and dangers brought to it by mass influxes of people from cultures they don't understand or recognise." Can you not see the fundamental differences in position? Theirs is a xenophobic position that blames immigrants and minorities for everything wrong with Britain. It's a racist perspective that sees the teeming masses as the "other" trying to change white, British, Christian culture. But people's "culture" is not based on their immigration or citizenship status. Not every white European represents enlightenment values -- as the EDL clearly proves. Nor is every immigrant or minority a regressive theocrat. This is not about a clash of civilisations between a regressive "east" and a secularist "west" but a clash between theocrats and the religious-Right on the one hand and secularists and democrats, including Muslims and immigrants on the other. Where we each stand is based on our politics and choices not on our "identity" or immigration status. I too am one of those teeming immigrant masses after all as are many who are at the forefront of doing much of the dirty work of defending secularism in Britain and elsewhere. Subject Headings |