Ramping up Islamophobia, sowing division, attacking Solidarity with Palestine
JVL Introduction
Zarah Sultana MP writes here about the way demonisation of Muslims is being used to denigrate those working for a ceasefire in Gaza and other acts working for peace and justice for Palestinians. It is also part of the attempts to clamp down on our right to protest more generally. But the flagrant Islamophobia is a dangerous development being ramped up exponentially and making a bad situation for our Muslim citizens and residents even worse. The media is playing its part and Ms Sultana refers to a “2021 report that found that articles antagonistic to Muslims outnumber supportive articles by a ratio of 7:1.”
In the last week Mosques have been receiving more abuse and even threats of violence. As is said here we are fighting to “build a world where everyone — Muslim and Jew, Christian and Hindu, those of all faiths and none — can live with freedom and dignity…As the bombs continue to fall on Gaza and the world’s eyes turn on Rafah, we can’t let their Islamophobia distract or divide us.”
LL
This article was originally published by Tribune on Thu 29 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
Zarah Sultana: Islamophobia Is Being Used to Demonise Palestine Solidarity
The use of Islamophobia to depict peaceful protestors as violent mobs isn’t just an attack on Muslims — it’s an attack on all of our democratic rights.
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Just came across this piece on Stop the War Coalitions website posted earlier today (well yesterday now):
‘Our series of peaceful mass protests have seen unprecedented restrictions’
The organisers of the national Palestine marches have sent two dossiers and one letter to the Metropolitan Police of examples of restrictive, politicised, heavy-handed and violent policing during demonstrations.
From the negotiation process through to the attitude of the officers on the ground the policing has been much more hostile than is usual for large public protests……
The Metropolitan police have very publicly mobilised record numbers of police from across the country for the pro-Palestine demonstrations. This is despite the fact that the demonstrations have been overwhelmingly peaceful and without incident as the police themselves admit and as the Parliamentary Committee Report underlines.
As we have repeatedly said, one simple solution to the problem of the drain on police resources is to scale down the police intervention to normal levels for peaceful protest. And yet the over-mobilisation of police continues.
To give a sense of the imbalance and prejudices at play here, it has come to our attention that members of the Campaign Against Anti-semitism, a group deeply hostile to the marches, have been present in the police control rooms during demonstrations……
The Met has been conducting a Twitter campaign against our demonstrations, using language that implies they are threatening or dangerous when they are in fact overwhelmingly peaceful and disciplined.
https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/the-police-and-the-palestine-protests-discrimination-and-special-measures/
Please read and circulate far and wide. Thanks
WELCOME TO RUSSIA?
Every Friday evening for the past few months there has been an entirely peaceful demonstration outside the residence of the Israeli Ambassador in London. No violence. No arrests. No aggravation. This evening, in the wake on Sunak’s announcement in Downing Street, the police announced that the demonstration was illegal and anyone who did not disperse immediately would be arrested.
Today it is Islam that is taking over and tomorrow it is Jews who are taking over. What is taking over is ignorance.