Kiddy Lines and Clichés

'Innocent until proven Muslim'

One of the things that kids used to love saying, I dunno, maybe they still do, is 'I can do what I want, it's a free country'. Even now, in relation to politics and revolutions, we often use the word 'freedom'. Why is it so important yet it remains so elusive? Not just in terms of actually gaining this thing called freedom but what it actually means. One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter, typifying that the definition is not clear.  Free doesn't cost anything yet it is still being fought for (by people) and is so feared (by governments).

When we are finally 'free' like we are in good ol Blighty, we tend to follow the law senselessly anyway. 'The law of the land', another cliché we like to cite, especially when it comes to immigrants and bearded clerics who we barely register as human beings equal to ourselves. We regard 'the law' so highly, but lots of laws are shit. They are chopped and changed by shitty people when it suits them. Current government: let's change the law to make life more shit for the bottom but not for the top, because the reason the country hasn't got any money is because of the poor, oh wait, hold on, that's not right.... we've actually given all our money to remedy the bad investments made by millionaires, that is LAWFUL but over-claiming benefits is not. Yup that makes sense. Oh never mind, law is still really important, especially when Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond comes on Question Time and says if we don't like the law we should just change it, we meaning white men in suits who do not know about the normal struggles of normal people. That's how important our laws are, he says we should just change the law and chuckles.

The right-wing press and our right-wing government are baying for Abu Qatada's blood. They have already blatantly ignored the law of the land and our free country by keeping him in prison for a whopping six and a half years without charge. It has taken that long for the European Court of Human Rights to rule his detention unlawful, I could have told the government that in six and a half seconds, not that they did not know his detention was unlawful. Now he has paid by losing six and a half years of his life because of the nature of our free country, a prolonged justice system. Not only has his detention proven we don't need Guantanamo to ignore the laws of our land but the government also want to deport him, because of the huge symbolism that would represent; that WE are in charge of our borders and not Brussels/ Strasbourg or whoever else can be possibly blamed for our 'problems'. If you are brown/black and especially bearded, and you don't like our country you can get out! proving that we still have not moved passed the 'let's just move all the criminals to a country we don't care about (Australia)' theory. Our government are bullies, and as much as they can try and infuriatingly and patronisingly deny it, they have still not moved on from their colonialist tendencies. WE can go into other countries and basically do what we please, or even put a stranglehold on their economies from the safety of our free country but if one 'hate preacher' comes to our country and denounces us, Cameron forbid!

It is obvious that 99% of governments are more into the glory and symbolism of being able to kick so-called extremist clerics out than real governance, but if we really had to fear him, wouldn't it be best to keep him here and keep an eye on him? Until they can kick him out (pshhh we'll see), that is exactly what they are going to do, enforcing a 22 hour curfew, a phone, internet and Mosque ban on him, which will inevitably be ruled illegal anyway. If there is anything that would make me want to terrorise, it would be exactly what they are doing to him, no? Proving that mind over matter is only right to a certain extent. But how oh how would the government be able to avoid the inevitable headlines such as 'Qatada is costing the taxpayer millions'? Hmmm it's a tough one, let's just pass him onto our Western puppet, sorry I mean buddy, and then we can rub our hands of him and claim a victory against terrorism. Terrorism, that thing we were fighting remember? In order to preserve the law of the land and our free country.

Right-wing Daily Maily reading apes are in agreement that this country is a bit of a joke, but for totally different reasons, the top rated comments on the Abu Qatada story include,

'If the horrible creature refuses to recognize the western culture surely he should refuse their protection on principle? He obviously is a hypocrite and a fat ugly one at that.'

'Just DEPORT the nerd,i have to get up 6 mornings a week on just above minimum wage to pay my taxes for people like him to live in comfort.I have not had a holiday for three years for my three children and wife.Come on lotto please get me out of this country.'

I started to write about these comments but where do you start?! Of course the worst rated comments luckily remind me that there are people who have common sense in my beloved country.

'Actually, the case against Abu Qatada is very weak. I mean, I don't like the things the guy says, but I also don't like a lot of things other people say, so should they all be locked up too? There has been NO EVIDENCE ever provided where we can see or hear him telling people to kill Jews, or kill Brits. So until someone shows me the evidence, he is innocent, because unlike my fellow brainwashed Brits, I don't believe all the nonsense that the politicians and media pump into our minds to keep up perpetually scared.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100070/Abu-Qatadas-release-imminent-Downing-Street-says-considering-options-remove-him.html 

 

 

'Blue Bra Girl' Egyptian Protester Beaten By Police

This is a shocking display from the SCAF whose head is decidedly nonchalant and dismissive about this type of brutality, clear for the world to see. The fact that Russia Today labelled this video as 'girl' and not woman or protester is the least of my worries.

One of the root causes of this state brutality is the cultural exclusion of women in political power, as what is at the top of society drips down to the bottom. Islam is compassionate to women because women are generally more compassionate people, therefore Islamic states would flourish if women were involved in the interpretation and implementation of true Islam. Simple as.  

Women's Role in the Arab World

*Inspired by the encircling & protection of women protesting in Tahrir Square*

Many in the West deride women's rights in the Arab world or lack thereof, I am not defending it but everywhere in the world there is sexism in various different forms.

In Yemen, the current president Ali Abdullah Saleh criticised women for protesting because this indicated that they were fraternising with the opposite sex. Firstly, this statement was clearly made in a pathetic attempt to deflect criticism from his own actions onto Yemeni women and secondly, any footage you see will show that the women protest only with each other and their children.

Women are oppressed in Nepal, a Buddhist country for goodness sakes, through avenues such as inheritance rights and access to education. There was even an incident where a nun was expelled from her sect and refused treatment at a state-run hospital, what was her crime? Having been gang raped then robbed by a bus driver and four others who were pretending to help her.

In Saudi Arabia, in 2007 a woman met up with a man, unaccompanied, apparently to retrieve some photos of her from him. They were then set upon by a gang of seven strong who gang raped her. The gang was inevitably punished with imprisonment for up to a measly four years, yet she was also sentenced to six months imprisonment and 200 lashes for meeting up with a man who was not her relative. She was eventually pardoned by the King of Saudi because of the media furore and global criticism it caused.

There was a recent report of a woman in Afghanistan who was raped at the age of 18, as fate would have it, she became pregnant from this rape. She reported this to the authorities, who charged and imprisoned the perpetrator. However the rape victim herself was imprisoned for her role in the 'moral crime', about half of the female Afghan prison population are there for similar so-called moral crimes. She has been in prison for over a year with her child in tow and she was offered early release if she marries her attacker. She was unwilling of course at first, but she says she is now willing to do so for the sake of her child to not be incarcerated any longer.

Although thank goodness there is not such overt atrocities in the UK, sanctioned by the state anyway, there is sexism in every country. Here, like other countries that continue to ignore legislation, women are still paid less for the same job as a man. They are also exploited nationally every day in the most popular 'news'paper in the country. Women in the entertainment industry must look as good as possible and say as little as possible, that is meaningful anyway. Despite all the advancements of women's rights in this country, what is the first thing that a man will say to a woman who he is having a conflict with? I have lived in a working class area my whole life and when any couple has a domestic on the street, even with kids in tow, the first thing he will call her is a slag, whore and the ilk. This sexism crosses class divides, a self-proclaimed Conservative activist hash tagged a North African journalist referring to her as an 'Arab whore'. The police refused to investigate the case, she cited selective investigation compared with the recent racist football spat. (see 'Why Are We All Racist?'). Also, let us not forget the worst atrocity against females, the biggest genocide in the 20th Century; the selective abortion of female babies.


Just as men would have women believe that they are all terrible drivers or they cannot do this or that, women will conform to stereotypes that men create. Women should not let men define what they should be, that should be for us to determine. One of the most important steps in the Arab revolutions, if not the most important, is for women to play a greater role, for when you educate the women, you educate the whole nation*.





See also http://raraproductions.blogspot.com/ & http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/

*Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)