Let us take a moment...

'Oh my God. HORRIFIED and TERRIFIED by what's happening in Paris. Any person involved in this terrorism who claims to represent Islam is a LIAR. Islam is a religion of PEACE. Muslim people are a BEAUTIFUL people of peace. These acts are an outrage against ALL people, Muslims included. Allah IS great and is MERCIFUL. These murderers do NOT represent Allah. They represent no one but Satan.'

Sinead O'Connor

In light of recent events, I knew that I had to write about it, but there are so many elements to this that I'm not entirely sure where to start, what angle to take or where exactly I'm going to go with it. In fact, at the time of writing this first paragraph I have not yet given this blog a title, because I think my mind will be a lot clearer once my thoughts are down.

I suppose I should start by saying that I am absolutely, without any question of a doubt, thinking of anyone who has lost a loved one in France or in any other part of the world recently. I have a couple of friends in France myself - thankfully, all are fine - and I honestly cannot imagine the worry that must have inhabited so many people's minds over the last couple of days. I think that these events have emotionally affected everyone who has heard about them, whether they had any sort of personal involvement or not.

I think a lot of people who know me will (whether they would appreciate this or not) expect me to write this blog in the angle of pointing out the many other terrorist attacks that do not get this level of coverage, such as in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and any other country in the world. I will quite truthfully hold my hands up and say that this is how I normally respond to this kind of occurrence and the reactions that it provokes from the media. On this occasion, however, I would say that this is only partially true. Whilst I do absolutely believe that it is disgraceful that the world seems to believe that this is tragic in Paris and normal in other countries, I would not say the reaction to the events in Paris is in any way extreme. I would say more that the reactions to terrorist attacks normally is unnecessarily low-key, rather than reactions to specific situations being extravagant.

For me personally, I feel that senseless acts of violence are senseless acts of violence, and are not indicative of any sort of wider problem in our society. I am of course entirely disturbed by the question of what causes a person to commit a suicide bombing or a mass shooting, but I am almost as disturbed by the way in which casual news consumers in the West react to something like this. Very quickly, I start to see new stories in my Facebook news feed: 'Islam is an evil evil cancer', 'Deport all terrorists' and most unpleasant of all, 'Let's close all our borders'. The fact that anyone would use the deaths of innocent people to bolster their own twisted political agenda is so disrespectful that it makes me feel physically sick. There is of course the argument that most of these people don't realise how disrespectful this is, but if anything I think that makes it even worse. There is a deliberate attempt to mislead people into scapegoating a minority group (in this case Muslims), even though anyone with any sense is aware that these people do not represent Islam in the slightest. I was going to give a lot of information on this blog about how they don't represent Islam, but frankly I actually can't be bothered. I feel like I spend half my life explaining this to people, and right now I'm just too angry to feel any motivation to change anyone's mindset. All of the information is out there, if you actually want to find out anything (and feel free to ask me for any material on the subject if you wish, I will happily oblige). If you don't, just remember that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and if Islam was actually a terrorist organisation, the rest of the world would probably be dead by now.

I now know a lot more about this blog than I did when I started (and I have named it now). I had expected this to be a lot more informative than it has turned out to be. I suppose in that way you could argue that it isn't exactly one of my better blogs. There are other elements to this to discuss, and I may well write a more cohesive blog tomorrow or in the next few days to go into detail about them, but I feel that right now is not the time. On my Facebook profile, I generated quite a lot of controversy a couple of days ago for explaining that I don't wear poppies or actively contribute to the silence on Remembrance Day. I'm not going to go into detail about the reasons for that now, but it ultimately boils down to the fact that I think that reflection should be done in one's own time, on one's own terms and in a way that breeds positive action to prevent the things one is reflecting on from happening again. So for the moment, I would like to invite all of my readers to take a moment with me, in one's own time, to reflect on anyone who has been hurt in any way by any form of senseless violence, whether in France or any other part of the world, whether in a medium commonly described as terrorism or not. And then let us wake up to a world that we are ready to make better, not by espousing hate or prejudice, not by alienating sections of the community, but by realising that we are all human beings and ultimately share a common goal of peace and love.

I started this with a quote from Sinead O'Connor. Out of all the quotes that I have read about this, I chose hers for two reasons. One is that Sinead sums it up amazingly, as she of course always does. The second is that she is a Catholic priest, and still understands about Islam. This is the attitude I think we could all do with adopting a little bit more just now - the attitude of celebrating one another and learning, regardless or whether or not we consider ourselves to be within the same individual group. And much as I love Sinead, I'm going to finish on a Katrina and the Waves song. Enjoy!

Peace and love x

Criminalising peaceful protest

There have been many instances in recent times when I have felt that peaceful protest is being cracked down upon, both here in the UK and internationally. This is obviously something that threatens those in command, which is precisely why we must stand up for these rights no matter what is thrown at us. I'm going to focus on two things that have struck me about the subject this week.

Firstly, I read a report posted by an acquaintance on a Facebook page supporting solidarity for Palestine  (complete article here) concerning the convictions of a group of Palestine solidarity activists for publicly encouraging people to boycott Israeli products. The actions took place around five years ago, and from what I can tell, essentially involved the campaigners congregating around supermarkets and educating the public about exactly what these products are funding and how to recognise them. The activists were initially acquitted, but were eventually sentenced under an old law prescribing up to a year in prison and large fines for anyone who 'provokes discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or a group of people by reason of their origin or their membership or non-membership in a specific ethnic group, nation, race or religion'. This sentence is even harsher than what would be given in Israel, which at least restricts itself to fines, and not jail.

This form of action is no more than that in which I myself have participated in the UK. Fortunately I have never been arrested or charged for it (although I was kicked to the ground by a police officer once). Personally, I absolutely cannot understand how the boycott of items supplied by a nation which commits international war crimes against civilians can be considered under the umbrella of 'discrimination'. I feel that were this Iraq or Syria, no one would bat an eyelid. At what point does something stop being fact or opinion, and become discrimination? I would argue that it is at the point where an individual or a group is victimised for something which causes no one harm. In the numerous anti-Israel demonstrations that I have attended, I have rarely heard anything said against people who come from Israel itself; merely against the brutality that Israel has inflicted upon the people of Palestine.

One cannot prevent people from issuing warnings about where the profits from certain items ends up; if we do that, we start crossing even further into territory whereby the people are controlled by the powers that be. I have not written much about Israel and Palestine in the last year, simply because I have not come across very much new material to write about. I still do what I can; I continue to boycott all produce from Nestlé, Starbucks, Hewlett-Packard and any other brand which I know to support Israel, and anything that I know to come from Israel itself, and I encourage others to do the same. The reason why this form of action is targeted by those who benefit from cruel regimes is because it works. This right must never be given up.

Well done to all my friends and acquaintances who were at the #grantsnotdebts London demonstration yesterday. As people may or may not have seen (given the low numbers of news sources who reported it even in a negative light) it has the perception of being quite violent. Unfortunately, I had to pass on this one, but I know from personal experience that when political demonstrations are put across in this way, it is often a vast exaggeration. Therefore, I contacted an acquaintance who was at the demonstration to get some more accurate information.

This is what my acquaintance said:

'The demo yesterday wasn't violent at all, literally all that happened was flares thrown and some stink bombs. Police presence was entirely unprecedented and they got so hands-on. They essentially stopped the demo. Most people were kettled, and a lot of us were running from cops for a long time. Other than that though, it was a wonderful demo! Fantastic turn out and brilliant solidarity/atmosphere/enthusiasm. Some amazing chants as well. When we got near any parliamentary buildings the police came down hard, and some people started chanting "fuck the pigs, but not like that'.

Now of course this is the experience of one person and so cannot be said to be reflective, but having attended many such events only for the news media to put across that my side behaved appallingly violently, I have no trouble believing that there is a great deal of truth in that. An official statement of the events from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) can be found here. I admire the fact that no one is giving up on this. There is a big part of me that wishes that I had been there, but it appears that the next event is on November 17th. I believe I will be able to attend that one! I shall write more about it nearer the time.

As with France's reaction to the Israel boycott, this is another example that stinks of an unnecessarily heavy-handed reaction to those people who are merely sticking up for what is right. I feel that this ought to be recognised for what it is. History teaches that people who involve themselves in social protest are the ones who generally tend to be remembered as heroes. The recognition comes, in hindsight possibly but it comes. We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated and bullied into a place from which we cannot fight injustice. I certainly do not intend to be, anyway.