If we don't act now, we have already signed democracy's death knell

If there's one thing to be learnt from 2016, it's that the concept of democracy is faltering. First we had the Brexit vote; a situation where large chunks of the population made an uneducated decision based on disinformation, and in many cases gave them license to unshackle their inner bigot. Now we have a real estate mogul being elected into the fabled job title of "the most powerful man in the world" and white supremacy is being propelled into the political mainstay. Meanwhile, an estimated 11,000 Americans voted for a dead gorilla to become the president.

As much as it pains me to say it, I prefer to see Trump in the White House than another Clinton presidency. Hillary is an efficient maniac, whereas Trump is an incompetent one. I also think I speak for everyone reading this when I say a world war with Russia is generally best avoided, something which would have been far from guaranteed if Clinton had been elected.

The most worrying aspect about Trump's victory is, like several other events which have occurred in recent years, further fuel has been pumped into the veins of racists and extreme nationalists worldwide. The French presidency is up for grabs in the spring of next year, and I am wholly expecting the vulgar Marine Le Pen and her xenophobic Front National to triumph. This is made all the more likely by the fact that half of the French people are currently petrified or disgusted by anyone wearing a hijab.

It's not just the US and France that is embracing authoritarian ideology either; fascist parties are on the ascent all over Europe and anti-immigrant/Islam rhetoric is only becoming more animated. As in America, the racist right can and will be defeated in Europe. But we must start grinding them back into the dust now. With every victory or event that provides them with encouragement, intolerance will only grow stronger if it doesn't receive a reaction.

I am in no way suggesting that democracy should be eradicated, but if we keep electing lunatics and hatemongers to the forefront of politics then what future do we have. I despise all forms of fascism but I would rather have a benevolent dictatorship, if there is such a thing, than to see a consortium of supremacists rule over us all. Trump is not the worst candidate to become president but his victory should serve as a bitter warning.

A new and sinister era has been ushered in

Originally posted on 29th June 2016.

The warning signs that we are entering a new epoch have been a long time coming, but the events which have occurred in the last few weeks have hurtled us towards it. The epoch I speak of, is one where casual racism and extreme nationalism rules and dictates the political weather.

If you've been living under a rock and haven't noticed, just take a look at the hate reports that have come flooding in over the past few days. Polish-origin schoolkids get cards calling them “vermin”, who must “leave the EU”. A halal butchers was petrol bombed in Walsall. A BBC reporter was called a paki in her home town. A TV correspondent notes that within five minutes three different people shout, “Send them home.” Neo-Nazi stickers being posted all over Glasgow. An 11 year-old girl racially abused in Sussex. Another child being told to go back to Romania, in the girls toilet at a school. More Nazi graffiti being daubed on walls in Belfast. Numerous people saying they voted to leave the EU to "keep the Muslims out". I've even seen someone post that their sister was racially abused and assaulted on the day we voted for Brexit. The list goes on.

No surprise, then, that anti-Muslim abuse soared by 326% last year. But this isn't just about Islamophobia anymore. The fetid build-up to the referendum and the result itself, has brewed a multi-headed attack; not just on Muslims, but anyone else who looks like their ancestry hasn't dwelled in England for the past 500 years. It's tempting to say, the solution would be to just legalise the execution of any human filth caught spouting racial abuse, on the spot. Although they don't deserve anything better than that, the catalysts for such wretchedness runs much deeper.

As it always has, xenophobia trickles down from the top. This is what happens when influential politicians and prime-ministerial wannabes (you know who I'm talking about), sprinkle their campaigns with the seeds of intolerance and bigotry. They don't just sprinkle it, they outrightly indulge and encourage their vulgarity. In times of uncertainty, there is always a place for a scapegoat. Disabled people had their benefits cut and were labelled as skivers by ministers last year, que a rise in hate crimes against people with disabilities. This time, the intensity has been cranked up and now, not just immigrants, but anyone who looks like one of their ancestors was an immigrant, has been made a target.

So, what can we do? Very little, unless we decide to burn the establishment overnight. That being unlikely, we need to prevent these quasi-fascist fuckwits, on all levels, from producing any more fertile ground. The referendum has been a masterclass in 'divide and conquer' tactics - I don't think the nation has ever been so carved up in my lifetime. But this must stop now. Without sounding a little bit sensationalist, hyper-nationalism and economic turmoil have had cataclysmic ramifications before. We are only a few false moves away from allowing that to happen again.

The inevitable state-sponsored attack

Originally posted on 14^th November.

What happened last night in Paris wasn't a random act of violence by a group of unorganised Islamic extremists; it was a meticulously planned attack designed to kill scores of people that was sanctioned by the state.

Before you jump on the conspiracy theorist bandwagon, let's look at the reasons why this could be; after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, France's security levels was understandably placed at its highest possible level. Paris has some of the most advanced surveillance in the world, so how have eight militants managed to rampage through the city killing at least 128 people without the state receiving any information beforehand?

A few months ago, I saw a post claiming all the pieces were in place for another fake terror attack in or near the UK; at the time the mainstream media was howling about the refugee crisis and the possibility of extremists infiltrating Europe. A few months down the line and look what's happened.

Yes, ISIS have taken responsibility for the attack, but how many of you know the true nature of the extremist group? A group which was created and trained by the CIA, further funded by the US and Saudi governments. ISIS are a fabrication of Western governments, that's not a conspiracy but stone cold fact. So where does that place the West's role in the latest "terrorist" attack?

By this point any sane minded person will be asking, why would our own governments inflict such pain and terror on its own people? The same reason it always has, to rule through fear and make a profit. After 9/11, the West invaded Iraq and created a pantomime villain of Al Qaeda (also created by the US) and made a profit of $39.5 billion through Iraq's oil.

Now this attack has occurred, the government and media will no doubt whip up a shit storm of scare-mongering and abuse towards Muslims and refugees trying to enter Europe. This will serve the purpose of creating further divides between different ethnic groups. They also finally have an excuse to put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria, once again making a profit through war at the cost of more innocent lives. The only winner from this attack is the West, and if they are not successful in creating more war in the Middle East I worry the UK is next.

For those who think this was a religiously motivated attack, you are wrong. As fanatically religious as IS are, at the end of the day they are nothing more than marionettes to the real warlords who pull the strings behind the scenes. If they are funded by the West, they are not going to be pursuing their own agenda.

I hope that people will start to understand the true nature of the "war on terror" and IS, because the truth is that the gravest threat to our society is not Islamic bogeymen, but the governments that claim to protect us.

When does an immigrant stop being an immigrant December 2014

This is the question Haji Jaba challenges the right-wing factions of Britain. Jaba is the Imam at the Al-Madina Jamia Mosque on Waterloo Road, Middlesbrough. When I spoke to him recently he asked of those who are pursuing a mass exodus of migrants, amidst the immigration storm which has thrust into British politics this year, this question. Which leaves you to think, does racism still exist in society? 

For whatever reason, and most would say because of UKIP's emergence to the scene, the debate on the UK's immigration policy has been omnipresent throughout the penultimate year to the general election. It has resulted in the largest parties such as the Conservatives and Labour into altering their immigration policies. If the debate is effecting the heavyweights to this extent, what precipitation is it having on the smaller parties such as the right-wingers? It seems to be having the desired effect as popularity for UKIP has soared and the extreme Britain First has gained notoriety.

The enduring problem in Britain that Jaba believes is that a “severely unenlightened minority feel like they must have a constant adversary, an ethnic or political group to differentiate from”. Over the course of the last thirteen years, it has shaped up to be the Islamic community to take the role of the antagonists in the UK. I say the last thirteen years because it appears this newfound hatred of Muslims among far right-wing sectors began to stem following the 9/11 attacks. However, over the last year or so events which have occurred have caused tensions to reach boiling point.

The first of which transpired on 22 May 2013.  British soldier Lee Rigby was mowed down by a car and then stabbed and hacked to death in the street, by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, two British Muslim converts. The incident caused a nationwide uproar, with popularity almost simultaneously increasing for right-wing groups such as the EDL and BNP. On the day of the killing I visited a friend’s house as it was making breaking news, and his mother declared she was joining the EDL in protest to Britain’s stance on Muslims. This was also one of the first instances in which right-wing groups used events such as this as a totem to rally support against the apparent threat of ‘Islamification’ in Britain.

It is not out of the ordinary for sane people to lurch towards an extremist point of view, as a result of them being so shocked or frightened by the actions of other extremists. In the fifties, unions organised marches in London against immigrants from the Caribbean they feared would take their jobs. Admittedly, that wasn’t ‘Islamification’ but it was a protest based on race/colour. The film my beautiful launderette examined the racist attack on a Pakistani man in London and was made in 1985.  The Jam’s anti-racism 1978 single “Down at the Tube Station at midnight” was about an attack on a Pakistani man by jack booted right wing thugs. Clearly racial divisions were an issue then just as they are once again now.

Racial tension which developed following incidents such as that last year only seem to have been exasperated in 2014. This boils down to two factors; the immigration debate and the rise of ISIS in the Middle East. As already mentioned, this has led to a surge in fame for UKIP and smaller right-wing factions. Haji Jaba believes the media is partly to blame for this. He said that “After World War 1 the large German population in Britain came under heavy criticism and received lots of abuse from the British public; then when Hitler came to power in the thirties he used propaganda via the media to turn the population against the Jews; now the British media are doing this to Muslims.”

Jaba was born in Middlesbrough in 1961 and has lived in the town his entire life, but said he still gets called an immigrant and receives prejudice based on his appearance. It was at that point he asked “when does an immigrant stop being an immigrant?” He then added, “Unfortunately because some people always want to have an enemy or someone to oppose these national front groups will continue to exist, just as they have throughout the last few decades.”

Nonetheless he feels that racism is kept to a minimal in towns and cities, but on the outskirts of the towns in more rural areas racism is still very much alive. As well as being the Imam at his local mosque Jaba is also a landlord and a gas fitter. He therefore often has to travel to the likes of Brotton, Skelton and Guisborough on the outskirts of Middlesbrough for work. He said in these places the locals have a completely different attitude towards migrants. He is still subject to racial abuse when in the area, having being called “a member of Al-Qaeda” or “Bin Laden”. The only explanation he can give for this is that the people from these areas do not often come in contact with anyone of Asian descent, and so therefore stereotype him as the extremists that are depicted in the media.  

However, those who are compelled to hold xenophobic attitudes are far from restricted to rural areas. Earlier this year it was revealed that 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, by gangs of mainly Asian men. This inevitably and justly led to a media frenzy over the story and did nothing but expand support for the right-wingers, in particular the EDL. They were quick to demonstrate a protest which resulted in them attacking police and luring out the most intense of the right-wing factions; three different Nazi groups were spotted at the protest.

As well as Rotherham, the EDL have also conducted protests in Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Luton and Middlesbrough over the last year. During their march through Middlesbrough, certain members of the EDL contingent chanted “scum, scum, scum” at some passing Asian men. They were also spotted throwing glass bottles and a firework at another group of Asian men, one of whom had a child on his shoulders. Based on this one would come to the conclusion that these small-minded folk are far from confined just to seeing Muslims being portrayed on the television.

However, to get a balanced view on the situation I spoke to the Regional Organiser of the North East EDL faction. Although I asked them fairly judicious questions such as whether the party’s support has grown in light of recent event this year, and what their views on immigration are, he did not reply to them and merely outlined what the EDL’s ‘fight’ was. He said, speaking of a small group of Muslim extremists who mocked the sacrifices of service personnel during a homecoming parade in Luton that “these actions reflect other forms of religiously-inspired intolerance and barbarity that are thriving amongst certain sections of the Muslim population in Britain. These include the oppression of women, the molestation of young children and the committing of so-called honour killings.”

Baring the Regional Organiser’s comments in mind, I live in a predominantly Muslim area of Middlesbrough and I have seen no criminal activity in the time I’ve lived there, let alone heard about some of the accusations he has said are brewing in these communities. In comparison, the estate of Grove Hill located just a few hundred metres down the road, which has a considerable white population, is notorious for being a ‘rough’ place to live. I know where I’d feel safer.

The Regional organiser went on to say, “British Muslims should be able to safely demand reform of their religion, in order to make it more relevant to the needs of the modern world and more respectful of other groups in society.” Now I don’t know about you but I find this comment pretty disrespectful. Why should Muslims have to alter their religious concepts because it doesn’t agree with the intolerant? I’ve never heard a Muslim ask a Christian extremist to revamp his views because they don’t agree with it. The vast majority of the Muslim population are peaceful people who go about their day-by-day activities without affecting anyone.

I also asked them about the behaviour of some EDL participants during the protest in Middlesbrough towards Asian men, and whether are not they considered themselves to be a racist party. The Regional Organiser refused to comment on either, only stating that the group were not ‘political’ or a ‘party’. Whatever that means. In conclusion it would appear that, although the hierarchy of the EDL factions try to avoid causing offense in stating what their motives are, and not particularly well, racism is still piercing its ugly head through the surface of our society. Whether or not they only exist in certain contingents of right-wing groups is still to be seen, but there is no doubt that the xenophobes are still alive and kicking amongst us, and still do not understand when an immigrant stops being an immigrant.