Socialist Outlook : SO/09 - Spring 2006

Britain

Solidarity with Muslim communities - Against Islamophobia and racism

Socialist Outlook on the Cartoons
The Editors

The publication by the right-wing Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and later other European newspapers, of cartoons that among other things, depicted the prophet Mohammed as a suicide bomber, was a racist attack on Muslim communities. It was a provocation against people already angry over Bush and Blair’s ‘war on terror’, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the construction of the monstrous wall.

In Denmark, Muslims already felt threatened by harsh anti-immigration laws introduced by the right-wing government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, which depends on the far-right and xenophobic Peoples Party in order to govern. Immigrants under the age of twenty-four are banned from marrying and husbands and wives of Danes who are not EU citizens are excluded from the country. The cartoons must have seemed to many Muslims as the final straw especially when the Rasmussen government refused to disassociate itself from their publication. Across Europe, the publication of the cartoons is also useful to all those who want to stir up and build on the racist idea of ‘Fortress Europe’ and particularly at this time, one which excludes Turkey and by implication all Muslims and immigrants from the EU.

In Britain there has been a wave of physical attacks on Muslims, incessant witch hunting of ‘extremists’ and draconian assaults on civil liberties, primarily directed against that community, but which can also be used against other groups, including working people as a whole in the future. The duty of all those who oppose the war, racism and bigotry is to stand in solidarity with the Muslim communities in the face of this racist, islamaphobic attack. We support the right of self-defence and the slogan ‘self-defence is no offence’.

Democratic rights and freedom of speech

But while we unconditionally support the right of the Muslim communities to organise against these attacks, we do not politically support all the demands that have been raised during such mobilisations, much less the religious organisations and parties that have called some of them. Along with important voices from within the Muslim communities, we believe that some of the slogans used, such as, ‘death to those who insult the prophet’, have been damaging and divisive.

Right-wing Islamic leaders and governments have used the cartoons to promote protests in order to strengthen their grip. They have renewed the divisive discourse about a ‘clash of civilisations’ which plays into the hands of both Bin Laden on the one hand and Bush and Blair on the other.

Whether we support a particular mobilisation depends both on the slogans it is called under and its social and political character. The question of democratic rights and freedom of speech are not secondary questions. We do not give uncritical support to demonstrations where slogans such as, ‘Free speech go to hell’, predominate along with calls for the extension of the blasphemy laws. On some occasions, where a reactionary dynamic is likely to predominate, we do not participate at all. On others, we participate primarily in order to get across our political ideas over the heads of those who argue that free speech means the freedom to insult. We argue that the promoters of such slogans should be careful, since radical Muslims are the most likely victims of any restrictions to free speech. This is one of the reasons why we oppose the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill.

Marxists support religious freedoms, but maintain a secular standpoint. We also oppose any curtailment of the right to criticize or satirize religious or philosophical belief. We support the separation of church and state, and oppose the attempts of any religion to impose their views on other religions or non-believers. We also support the democratic rights of young people to make up their own minds. We resist all attempts to demonise Muslims but at the same time combat the attacks by Islamic and Christian reactionaries alike against women, lesbians, gay men and transgendered people.

The crusading Christian fundamentalists have been aided and abetted by Islamic fundamentalist minorities, who now cynically exploit and mislead the anti-imperialist discontent in West Asia. In this new political/religious atmosphere, religious hierarchies and fundamentalists of every kind are jumping on the bandwagon. We have seen violent Sikh protests successfully prevent Gurpreet Bhatti’s play Behzti (Dishonour) from running, while their Christian counterparts attempted to intimidate the BBC and its staff for broadcasting Jerry Springer, the Opera, a hard hitting satire on Christianity.

In the United States today Muslims are harassed and arrested without charge, at the same time many academics and other professionals are in danger of losing their job if they are too outspoken in their atheism.

This right wing, anti-science, anti-rational fog is crossing the Atlantic. Tony Blair continues to promote faith schools - a retrograde separatism. Worse, Blair is a supporter of the Christian fundamentalist Vardy Foundation schools - which now have two city academies in Gateshead and Middlesbrough, with plans to impose another at Thorne, near Doncaster. The official school curriculum of his academies teaches that evolution is ‘unproven’ and therefore creationism, or intelligent design theories are accorded equal status: in other words, they are promoted.

Unfortunately some on the far left, notably the SWP, now seem to regard secularism as well as free speech a shibboleth, which can opportunistically be set aside for the sake of maintaining political alliances. Correctly identifying the cartoons as ‘racist’ and Islamophobic whose context was the war in Iraq and the growth of racism in Europe, the SWP and Galloway at a recent public meeting on the issues downplayed civil rights in the form of freedom of speech, instead simply attacking the hypocrisy of the BBC on such freedoms – an easy target.

Alex Callinicos in Socialist Worker, February 11, argued that freedom of speech is not an absolute and that it should not apply to either the BNP or people who insult Islam. He does not say whether he is therefore in favour of censorship in such cases. It is true that free speech is not an absolute, but it is a very important and hard won democratic right and it only ever becomes an issue when someone objects or feels insulted.

Callinicos further argues that it was the issue of free speech that let the fascist Nick Griffin off his race hate charges. The jury were unable to reach a verdict because he claimed he was attacking religion and not race. Behind Callinicos’ argument and the SWP’s support for the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill is the mistaken idea that we can rely on state institutions - state bans or proscriptions - to deal with the far right and defend the oppressed. What he fails to appreciate is that such bans on free speech or proscriptions can also be used and will be used in the future against the working class and the oppressed.

Defend the Muslim communities and freedom of speech

The Iraq war has fostered attacks on democratic rights, while the continued political weakness of the workers’ movement in many countries and a lack of a clear socialist response, has allowed religious fundamentalism, nationalism and racism to flourish. The way to combat racism, nationalism, and religious bigotry today is through mass mobilizations that defend the Muslim communities and democratic rights, while continuing to build the anti-war movement. We support the unity of all anti-imperialist and working class struggles and call for a united front approach to combat racism and Islamophobia.

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