Religionists do not want parity - they want
special treatment and an unacceptable influence
over policy.
We have lift off, emailed Sunny Hundal delightedly
after he launched our New Generation Network
manifesto. Flying in a balloon on an optimistic
breeze I contemplate the possibilities we have
freed up. Too many wretched years have been
wasted under communal political management which
skilfully divided and relabelled black and
Asian Britons to disable progressive politics.
This operational model was used effectively
during colonialism and worked splendidly for
New Labour and "ethnic" henchmen until
recently, of course, when both have been panicked
by home grown terrorism and self -segregation.
I can't remember when unelected religious and
community leaders, politicians and institutions
decided the religious identity was primary and
that the broad black political movement was
dead as was any claim to multiple identities
and complicated allegiances. But they did and
it was without our consent. Once human rights
and equality activists mobilised to stand up
for all victims of racism and the internal oppressions
within groups, particularly violence against
women and children. Our compassion and action
were not rationed, colour-coded or preserved
for our own kind. When Joy Gardener, a young
black mother, was killed by immigration officers
in front of her young boy, we didn't see her
as an Afro-Caribbean cause; when a Hindu wife
was burnt to death because she didn't bring
a big enough dowry we didn't consider that to
be a little local difficulty to be sorted by
the community.
We believed in universal standards and rights
which are enshrined in the UN Human Rights charter.
Citizens were autonomous individuals with not
creatures owned and controlled by rigid traditions.
My dearest friend Gary Younge is worried that
we are against group entitlements. We are. Fighting
racism doesn't require designated and preserved
rights for communities. In South Africa individuals
are protected not self defined, demarcated groups.
We were not reverential towards faith or cultural
practices that violated the human spirit and
yet passionately campaigned to topple white,
middle-class, male domination over the country
and its institutions. Organisations like the
Southall Monitoring Group and Southall Black
Sisters worked to promote a collective agenda
to combat injustice and inequality. Yes, I do
think those were halcyon days even though the
struggles were hard and the state more resistant
to change.
Today the enemy of equality, freedom and justice
is as likely to be within. Broken up into simple
tribes which compete for attention and resources
(who is the most oppressed of us all?), commonalities
are negated, differences fetishised. Religionists
- Muslim, Catholic, Hindu, Protestant- want
not parity but special and exceptional treatment
and unacceptable influence over policies. The
responses of Salma Yaqoob and the Muslim Council
of Britain to our manifesto make those demands
without a blush. The country is held to ransom
if objections are raised to practices that violate
deeply held principles. Community leaders use
diversity to silence democracy. We are not permitted
to question the maltreatment of some women and
young people within enclaves.
The MCB and several others put out a joint
statement on their website over the veil controversy:
"The veil, irrespective of its specific
juristic rulings is an Islamic practice and
not a cultural or customary one as is agreed
by the consensus of Muslim scholars. It is not
open to debate (my emphasis). We advise all
Muslims to exercise extreme caution in this
issue since denying any part of Islam may lead
to disbelief...we recognise the fact that Muslims
hold different views regarding the veil but
we urge all members of the Muslim community
to keep the debate within the realms of scholarship
amongst people of knowledge and authority in
the Muslim community." These authoritarians
also decide who is a real Muslim and who is
not. They have excommunicated my Shia community
and many others who reject their conservative
and anti-modernist Islam.
This is what Mr Bunglawala thinks is freedom
in a democracy? Sikh, Hindu and Christian "leaders"
using faith as a weapon, instead of respecting
faith as a guide to life and spiritual solace?
Finally, international issues of grave importance
are being grabbed by these separatist anti-democrats.
It is a shame and scandal that the antiwar movement
which brought together all Britons is today
throwing in its lot with MCB and others defending
the divisive status quo. The injustices heaped
on Palestine and Iraq are not examples of "Muslim"
suffering but political and military annihilation.
Many who have given their lives to these causes
are not Muslim.
We have lift off. Now watch as these obscurantists
try to shoot us down.
