"Islamophobia" and the War on Terror

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

People's Assembly:
"Islamophobia" and the War on Terror
People’s Assembly Tackles New Racism Aimed at Muslims
The Assembly passed the following declaration unanimously

British Muslim Initiative, Liberty London Rally:
Cross Party, Multi-Faith Rally Demands End to Islamophobia

Canada:
Muslims and the Media - Shunpiking Interview with Sandra L Smith National Leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
Acceptance Speech, 2006 Canadian Islamic Congress Annual Gala Award for Media Excellence

The People’s Assembly, convened by the Stop the War Coalition, took place in London's Camden Centre on Saturday, November 18. Over 1,000 people from many walks of life, different views and beliefs took part to counter the state’s attacks on Islam in the context of its agenda defined as the "war on terror".

There were many speakers, as well as some delegates chosen by the platform to address the Assembly. One of these was the chair of the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition, Roger Nettleship, who delivered a short message.

Roger Nettleship said that one of the most important issues that had been raised in the movement on Tyneside was that an attack on Muslims was an attack on all.  This highlighted the issue that the People’s Assembly should stand for defending the rights of all. 

Muslims were under attack but did not consider themselves victims, he said. On the contrary, they were under attack precisely because they are such a coherent force in Britain and throughout the world and especially in our movement.  He said that it was not adequate to say we were in solidarity Muslims. We are one with them in the movement and our slogan is An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

We are posting below an internet report on the People’s Assembly.

Mathaba, November 18, 2006

Stop The War Coalition today convened a People’s Assembly in Central London to help tackle the new racism in the United Kingdom which targets the Muslim community. The aim of the assembly is to bring people together to discuss the relationship between Islamophobia and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to organise a campaign in response to war and racism. It was convened after the head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said that more than 200 Al-Qaeda cells were plotting at least 30 major attacks in the UK. […]

Opening the assembly, the Chairman of Stop the War Coalition Andrew Murray, described Islamophobia as the last resort of the warmongers to make up for their failure. "George Bush said he was getting ready for one last push. We too are ready for one last push to get the get the troops out of Iraq." Stop The War Coalition widened its aims to opposition to the racist backlash against Muslims and the defence of civil liberties.

Veteran leftist politician and President of Stop the War Coalition, Tony Benn, said there was no war on terror. There is a war on Iraq, Afghanistan and a threat to Iran. If the war were a war on terror, the British government would have called for a ceasefire when Israel invaded Lebanon. "There is a war for power and oil which is being presented as a war on terror."

Tony Benn drew the assembly's attention to invasions by the US marines: four invasions of Cuba, four of Nicaragua, seven of Honduras, two of the Dominican Republic, one of Guatemala, two of Panama and four of Columbia.

He criticised attempts to present Islam as a threat to the British way of life. All the great religions preach that we should live together. Now the definition of a moderate Muslim is one who doesn't mind his country being invaded. Every hospital that has been closed could have remained open if there was no war against Iraq.

"The problem with Great Britain is that is cannot win the war on Iraq. But this presents us with a supreme opportunity to build a world where human rights are respected and we deal with environmental problems and poverty," Benn concluded.

A second-generation British Muslim of Pakistani origin detained at Guantanamo Bay, Moazzam Begg, received a standing ovation when he addressed the assembly. Begg described Belmarsh Prison in south-east London as "Britain's Guantanamo" where terrorist suspects are held without charge or trial.

On his return from Guantanamo, Begg said his greatest difficulty was seeing "the people I come from demonised in a way which has never happened before. I expected Britain would welcome people who had been persecuted but all the intrinsic values of this country which made me British are being eroded. Iraq and Afghanistan have a direct link to what happens in Britain but only Tony Blair does not understand this."

Begg described the ordeal of Ibn Al Shaikh Al Libi, a Libyan captured during Operation Enduring Freedom who was sent to a torture centre in Cairo. After he was raped and electrodes were applied to his testicles, he allegedly confessed that he worked on obtaining weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein. This confession was used by Colin Powell to create a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda and a justification for entering Iraq.

Sumiya Hensi, a fourth year law student at Dundee University, and Esther Sassaman, a Jewish American working as a secretary in the university's social work department, addressed the assembly together with their arms around each other, about a special branch pilot scheme monitoring Muslim students on campus.

"They come to our events, they question students and intimidate them," Hensi said. "My parents have worked hard in this country, the pay their taxes, this is a real slap in the face."

Sassaman described a petition organised by the students to defend liberty. "This is a pilot project which needs to be stopped before it spreads across Britain."

Green Party MEP Jean Lambert warned that the collective right to protest is deeply restricted, freedom of speech is deeply compromised, passionate speech is now an incitement to terrorism and the British government is compromising its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights while remaining shamefully silent about Guantanamo Bay. "We need to defend our right to act against an illegal and unjust war."

Tongue in cheek comedian Mark Steele ridiculed the Muslim threat referring to sawn-off veils and veils with serrated edges. "The British government is brilliant at opposing the racism of the past against the Irish, the black people in America and the Spanish Inquisition but racism is on our doorstep and it is harder to oppose when it is on our doorstep."

"What kind of society asks parents to rat on their children, lecturers to rat on their students?" asked Anas Al-Tikriti, former President of the Muslim Association of Britain. His 20 years of work with Muslim youth forced him to conclude that British society faces a much greater risk from fraudsters, rapists, and paedophiles than from "Muslim extremists". He said that terrorists and extremists are driven by the state of politics (the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, the oppression of the Palestinians) not verses from the Qur'an.

The convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, Lindsey German, said that the Jews were fully integrated into German society yet this did not prevent their persecution. "Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett have told the Muslims to stand up and be counted. They have stood against the war. The people who are being attacked are being demonised and we have to fight attempts to make racism acceptable."

The assembly was also addressed by trade unionists, Sami Ranadani a political refugee from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, playwright David Edgar, Yvonne Ridley of the Islam Channel, Rose Gentle from Military Families Against the War, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, and Ismael Patel of Friends of Al-Aqsa.

The People's Assembly declares its solidarity with all the Muslim people's in Britain facing a hurricane of official and unofficial legal, political and physical attacks in a climate of Islamophobic hysteria.

The Assembly recognises these attacks as essentially racist and anti-democratic. They are driven by the same political agenda as has inspired the disastrous "war on terror" which has laid waste Iraq and Afghanistan and presently threatens Iran and elsewhere.

In particular we condemn the government ministers designed to isolate, demonise and even criminalise Islamic religious practices, choice of dress and cultural expression. We affirm that such diversity in fact makes an important contribution to the overall development of our society.

We condemn terrorist atrocities such as the London bombings last year, which are in all circumstances indefensible. However, this Assembly believes, in common with the majority of British people, that the key to tackling the threat of such atrocities is a change in the foreign policy of the government. it has subordinated this country to the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush government, in its invasion of Iraq, its threats to Iran and its support for Israel's aggression against Lebanon.

We call on the British people to:

1. Oppose all racist violence and rhetoric directed against Muslims.
2. Reject legislation directed against free cultural and religious expression and any legislation seeking to abridge the civil liberties of all citizens.
3. Support the right of Muslims, like any other people to dress, follow their culture and worship as they please, within the limits of the present law.
4. Demand that the government break completely with the foreign policy of the US administration and withdraw its occupying troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
5. Support the open letter against Islamophobia and in defence of the Muslim community, published recently in the Guardian. (click here to see/sign letter)
6. Adopt this statement and win support for it in your appropriate organisation.

Mathaba, November 21, 2006

British Muslim Initiative last night called a public rally in central London, in conjunction with Liberty, to demand an end to Islamophobia and defend freedom of religion, thought and conscience.

The rally, addressed by the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the longest serving Labour MP, Tony Benn, brought together speakers representing all of the main political parties, different faiths, trade unions and peace movements. It is the initial step towards building a new national coalition, similar to Stop the War coalition, to confront Islamophobia.

"Over recent weeks we have seen a demonisation of Muslims only comparable to the demonisation of Jews from the end of the nineteenth century," Livingstone said. "As at that time, the attack on Muslims in reality threatens freedoms for all of us, which took hundreds of years to win – freedom of conscience and freedom of cultural expression. Every person who values their right to follow the religion of their choice, or none, should stand with the Muslim communities today."

The mayor referred to a poll conducted last week which showed that 94% of Londoners supported freedom of thought, conscience and speech as long as it was extended to everyone; 76% said the government has no right to tell them how to live their lives; 98% said Muslim women had a right to cover their heads; 93% said Jews had the right to wear the skull cap and 92% said Christians have the right to wear a small crucifix.

"People do not come half way across the world to Britain to live separately. They come to Britain to be part of the society. London is perceived as a city where you can be yourself as long as you do not interfere with others."

Tony Benn told the rally that there is no difference between a suicide bomber and a stealth bomber. They both kill people for political purposes. "This is an imperial war. America is now trying to replace the British in controlling the Middle East region."

He described a school attended by his grandchildren which has 77 nationalities. "This is the UN – if we divide these children on the rounds of religion we are planting the seeds of hatred."

Kate Hudson, Chair of the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament, pointed out that it is no coincidence that government ministers are stoking an artificial wave of anti-Muslim hysteria.

"The occupation of Iraq was an international disaster which has left 500,000 dead. The hysteria is designed to deter British Muslims from political participation and exercise of their democratic rights in the UK. They have the right to demand an end to this illegal war and future illegal wars and incursions."

Conservative MP for Beaconsfield and Shadow Attorney General, Dominic Greive, said that values of freedom and tolerance underpin the British way of life. He criticised 90-day detention without trial, the introduction of id cards and attempts to fetter freedom of speech. "The country is going through a period of change: change is difficult and multiculturalism is difficult. Tolerance and freedom enable a country to flourish and people made a choice to tolerate those with whom they disagreed."

Labour MP for Dagenham, Jon Cruddas, said that as the centre ground is emptied people are pushed towards extremism. Politicians should tackle economic insecurity, poor housing and health provision and unemployment and transcend the debate about the veil.

Salma Yaqoob, Vice-Chair of Respect, a Birmingham City Councillor and spokesperson for Birmingham Central Mosque, described the debate on Muslim integration as a smoke screen to cover up the failure of the war on terror. "The multicultural model is in danger of being dismantled. I may not like what you do but I will defend it and hope you would extent the same right to me."

Yaqoob believes that Jack Straw’s comments about the veil have given a new lease of life to the British National Party. Teachers have reported a rise in bullying and Islamophobia since the comments were made.

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said that Jack Straw exercised his right to freedom of speech and women were attacked on the streets. He did not accord the same freedom to others. The struggle for democracy in Britain was built on the struggle for religious freedom. Today old-fashioned racism is being dressed up as feminism and secularism.

Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop The War Coalition, said that government ministers are now in the forefront of attacks on Muslims. Jack Straw did not have any objection to women wearing the veil voting for him. The Home Secretary John Reid is telling Muslim parents to protect their children from extremists. They need to be protected from John Reid who is threatening to lock them up for 90 days. The Jews in Germany were the most integrated community but this did not stop their persecution.

The rally was supported by the Mayor of London, the Muslim Council of Britain, Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament, the University and College Union, the National Assembly Against Racism, Sikhs in England, the National Coalition of Black Led Organisations, the Islamic Forum Europe, the Islamic Human Right Commission, Islam Channel, Islamic Times, Dawatul Islam, Assembly for the Protection of Hijab, Friends of Al Aqsa, the Muslim Safety Forum, Operation Black Vote, Black Londoners Forum, The Society of Black Lawyers, IslamExpo, Muslim Voices and the National Black Student Alliance.

Shunpiking Interview with Sandra L Smith

On October 26, Tony Seed, editor of the Canadian Shunpiking Magazine, interviewed Sandra L Smith on the topic of Muslims and the Media. Sandra Smith is the National Leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and editor of the party's daily newspaper TML Daily, from which the text of this interview is taken.

***

On the question of Muslims and the Media, I want to make several important points. I will stay away from the examples of media disinformation that are prevalent and well known to us all, especially to Muslims who are its victims. Instead, I want to highlight aspects of the modus operandi and underlying premise of this media disinformation.

According to the political theory that informs the European nation-state, many nations have existed since time immemorial but only those nation-states of a European style have history. This European nation-state was brought into being and established in the 19th century on the backs of the peoples of the colonised nations. It was then further imposed on various colonised peoples who were marching towards liberation and independence in the period immediately following the Second World War. The Eurocentric view that only those nations that accept the European nation-state have history was used to justify smashing the striving of the colonised peoples to determine their own way of life. In the 19th and 20th century this Eurocentrism played a dirty role to undermine the ability of the colonised peoples to base their nation-building projects on their own thought material and establish nation-states that served their own interests. Today at a time when European nation-building projects are in profound crisis, their imposition on the peoples fighting for liberation is causing disasters of unprecedented proportions.

History is Memory

Think about this for a moment. History is memory. Memory is intelligence. Thus, only those peoples who accept the European nation-state have intelligence and are worthy to join the international community of nations. Only they are worthy of respect.

If you have no history, you have no intelligence. You are therefore not human. Even though the cultures of the east -- itself a Eurocentric geographical rendering -- are millennia-old civilisations, unless they submit and form states acceptable to Anglo-American dictate and its ruling elite, and adhere to ways of life agreeable to it, then those states must be eradicated. This is what informs the Anglo-American "war on terror" and media disinformation.

Unless we understand this basic premise and are able to reject it by providing ourselves with a guide to action that favours the interests of the peoples, we remain vulnerable to the demand to prove that various countries are worthy members of what is called the international community of nations. Without such a guide to action, our conviction and beliefs, constantly bombarded with lies and attempts to sow doubt, will be undermined.

Revenge-Seeking Against those Who Will Not Renege on Their Conscience and Beliefs

We have to understand further that what we see today in the "war on terror" is a failure of the nation-building projects of the Anglo-American imperialists and their Zionist offensive to dictate the ways of life of others. Their perseveration in pursuing failed projects seriously hampers the ability of the U.S. imperialist-led forces to achieve world domination. Thus, what we see is their revenge. In desperation, their own morbid preoccupation with defeat makes them rabid and leads them to commit any crime to extinguish the human spirit that defies them. If they are going to come tumbling down, then they are determined to bring everyone else down with them.

There is nothing rational about their policies, behaviour and responses. The "war on terror" is not an expression of war as politics through other means. It is revenge-seeking against those who will not renege on their conscience and beliefs. Revenge is the basest emotion and motive. It leads to outright wrecking of all norms of civilised conduct. The fact that revenge in the "war on terror" is backed up by the most powerful states and military machines humankind has ever seen makes it truly dangerous. But if we clearly understand how Anglo-American imperialist disinformation works, and oppose it with nation-building projects of our own, then the peoples can prevail.

A Government's Duty Is to Guarantee the Rights of the People and Look After Their Well-Being

We should take a close look at the modus operandi of the institutions of that moribund nation-state given rise to in the nineteenth century. It was meant to protect the way of life of the white men of property who took possession of the lands, resources and markets of others at that time. They imposed a theory of government according to which political parties are primary organisations whose role is to organise the people to vote for one of them. Then, through the election of Members of Parliament, the clear and coherent political will of the people is expressed in the form of party government. A party elected to rule receives a mandate to turn the political will into the legal will. Whether the system of representative democracy was parliamentary or presidential or a mixture of the two, the political theory informing the system is the same.

Political parties were and are to be the gatekeepers of the power of the property owners. The mission of parties was to keep the people themselves from coming to power while the property owners chose which party best represented their interests. The people were to have no role in making the actual decisions guiding the societies upon which they depend for their living and their well-being. Today these political parties have for the most part degenerated into cartels. The rank and file have been deprived of power by a mafia in control of the parties' affairs. Similar to the polity as a whole, the rank and file have been reduced to a vote bank designed to provide the ruling mafia with a veneer of legitimacy.

The people's conception of a political party and democracy that promotes a vision of society which favours the people is anathema to this system. The people's vision of a ruler and government whose duty is to provide the rights of the people with a guarantee and look after their well-being is likewise abhorrent to such a system. When the people's conception of democracy finds its expression in an election, the imperialists will not accept the verdict.

They spend oodles of money in what they call democracy-building to impose their own conception and bring to power in the oppressed nations, those who will build on the old colonial European model nation-state that submits to foreign interests. This explains why anyone who opposes foreign rule or truly stands for the well-being of the people is labelled a terrorist, why various countries are labelled "rogue states," "axis of evil," "dictatorships" and so on. It also explains why the imperialists and their media are so eager to promote sectarian violence between and within political parties or between communities, and why they have their secret services commit terrorist acts and blame the people for them. By imposing a state of civil war, all coherence is lost unless the people build a bulwark against it.

The promotion of sectarian fighting between one religious sect and another, between one nationality and another, between one community and another, between one political party and another is the act of a reactionary state, native or foreign or both. Self-serving explanations that blame the people for sectarian violence hide whose interests this violence serves, who is behind it and its aim.

People's History, Memory and Vision

The peoples' history reveals that different communities have come together since time immemorial. They formed nations and provided themselves with public institutions and formed states. They have every interest in doing so on a broader and broader basis in the future as well, until indeed it is possible to conceive that humanity itself will break down all borders and establish itself on an entirely new basis, determined by what is required to affirm human rights under those conditions.

For lack of a future on the old basis, societies die and dying societies degenerate into corruption, crime and violence. In contrast, societies striving to build a future for themselves give rise to those ways and means, forces, and thought material that provide the problems they face with solutions. It is to stop the people from finding solutions to the problems they face that the Anglo-American imperialists are imposing their outdated model of a European nation-state through violence. They, not the people, are behind the sectarian violence of all kinds. Disinformation, whether from the media or any agency of the state is precisely this -- the work of secret agencies of the state to wreck the people's coherence, whether in terms of their ability to think or their capacity to act in a manner that favours them. State terrorism uses its secret services to attack civil targets and then blame the people. Propaganda is spread to sow doubts about the motivation of certain personalities or the truth of events. These methods are used to smash people's ability to find their bearings and to think rationally.

Thus, the only thing that stands between us and the wrecking taking place, the corruption, crime and violence which have replaced all norms of civilised human conduct, is our own ability to find our bearings by promoting what serves our interests and opposing those of our detractors. We must build our own unity on that basis. This is what we mean by having our own nation-building project. Only we can provide ourselves with a vision on which our societies can move forward.

Opposing Disinformation

The aim of disinformation is to dis the form -- to destroy the social, political, cultural, religious and other forms people have established. Those forms include the organised societies and cultures they have given rise to, which permit them to flourish as a people. Those forms, in which our lives and cultures find expression, stand between the imperialists' dreams of dominating the world and the actual realisation of their dark dreams. The imperialists must target the forms and we must defend them. But far from hankering for the past and seeking to re-establish forms that the imperialists have smashed through state attacks, by defending our being we give rise to new forms, better forms. Only thus can we flourish.

Far from apologising for the peoples' historical forms and the thought material that lies behind them, we must defend them as the Muslim resistance is doing. And this is also the role of the media to in-form, to provide new content in a form that is coherent and helpful.

We must study and discuss the aim of both information and disinformation and their methods, not for purposes of complaining, as if the gods of plague have an interest in changing their ways, not for purposes of lamenting what has passed away, but to strengthen our own resistance to the wreaking, until we can turn things around and go on the offensive. Then, instead of having to daily establish what we are not, we will be able to proudly proclaim what we are.

Infidels Are Those with No Fidelity to Their Way of Life

Permit me to comment on one of the many lies used to disinform our resistance struggle. According to the imperialist media, Muslims consider all non-Muslims to be infidels and their enemy. In my opinion, this is an outright lie. It can be ascertained a lie because such an interpretation cannot be reconciled with the proud tradition of tolerance established by Islam through the centuries. Conquered peoples were not only permitted but also encouraged to continue their own religions and cultures. This remained the case until such a time their nation-building projects lost their way for lack of renewed visions.

More important than historical truths however is to consider that this lie is designed to overwhelm the profound thought-material that gave rise to the Mohammedan nation-building project in the first place.

At that time, as tribal warfare was replaced with the need to engage in nation-building, the corruption of a few sought to undermine the coming together as one people. The times faced the call of history to build an authority commensurate with the conditions and the needs of the people under those prevailing conditions. A series of corrupt individuals blocked the call of history. They used their positions to impede the coming together of the people as one people. It was then that Islam defined infidels as people who had no fidelity to their own way of life, be it Islam or any other. Such people had no consciousness of their social responsibilities and thus no conscience or convictions. They were cowards, persons with no fidelity to principle of any kind.

Philosophy in those days served to explain the relations among people and the relations between people and nature. It should do so today as well. Such a philosophy was not one of marauders whereby the truth is what works and the ends justify the means.

The peoples from other cultures, political systems and religions who proudly adhere to their own beliefs and way of life and respect the right of others to do the same are not considered infidels. Today the imperialists are the marauding infidels. And always, once the real infidels fail to achieve their aims through one method, they adapt in order to survive. This is because for them, there is no principle, there is no culture, only their rabid self-serving belief that the end justifies the means.

Thus today, these infidels are adapting. They failed to rally people to their "war on terror" by demonising those who refuse to submit to their dictate. So now they claim to respect all religions and cultures, while they denounce "Islamic fundamentalism" or "Islamo-fascism" and communism as hate ideologies and declare that all those who they say espouse these hate ideologies are to be outlawed. In this way, the imperialists are using their state power and institutions to criminalise conscience.

The mental constructs, which they call "Islamic fundamentalism" or "Islamo-fascism" are for purposes of establishing a precedent whereby they can outlaw all Muslim resistance to the Anglo-American imperialist attempt to take over the countries of Asia and Africa and suppress the resistance of all within the heartlands of imperialism as well. Today, any belief which hampers the imperialist cause is attacked under the guise that it is hate ideology. The Anglo-American imperialist agenda today is to criminalise all those who refuse to accept its values, way of life and dictate. They are called fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists.

Unite in Defence of the Rights of All

In my opinion, we are facing ever-greater challenges to speak out in the coming period. But this battle is one the imperialists cannot win. Survival is the activity of the animal kingdom, not of human beings whose ability to cognise, abstract absence, think and plan is not about survival through adaptation. It is about living, growing, flourishing. If someone wants to have fundamentalist beliefs, and another liberal beliefs, it is a matter of conscience. Politicising belief and making it a matter upon which the state rules, is not acceptable. Only those matters that the public accepts to make public, deliberates on and develops conviction of what is good for the society as a whole, can be made matters of award and punishment. And it is we the people who are the public. It is our deliberation that matters. The media have an important role to inform, lead deliberation and the development of conviction. A starting point would be to accept the world as is, not as we would wish it to be. To accept the conditions as they are is for purposes of changing them. It does not mean we agree with those conditions but that we must base ourselves on what is. In this regard we cannot afford to become overwhelmed by an ideal of what we would like the world to be because we do not agree with how it is. We must pay attention to our direct experience, draw warranted conclusions and provide ourselves with guides to action that unite us in our common cause. We must unite by defending the rights of all.

These are some of the conclusions that I and the TML technical and editorial staff and the journalists who write for TML from the ranks of the fighting workers and people are drawing. We do whatever we can to seek truth from facts by paying utmost attention to the call of history. The imperialist line of end of history is intended to deny memory, which means to deny intelligence so that the peoples cannot unite on the basis of providing the real problems they face with viable solutions that serve humankind. We are determined to march on in the coming year so that together we take the necessary bold step in defence of the rights of all.

(Originally published in Shunpiking Magazine, November 2006, http://www.shunpiking.com.)

Tony Seed, October 30, 2006

The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) at its 2006 Annual Gala presented several awards including its Community Media Award, Lifelong Community Service Award, Youth Community Service Award, User-Friendly Mosque Award and Islamic Arts and Literature Award.

The CIC 2006 Award for Media Excellence was presented to Tony Seed of Halifax, editor and publisher of Shunpiking, Nova Scotia's discovery magazine and its supplement the Dossier on Palestine. For the information of our readers, WDIE is posting below the text of his acceptance speech.

***

Mr. President, honoured guests, brothers and sisters and friends: Assalamu Alaikum.

It is a matter of great joy to be here together to celebrate the political, artistic, social and humanitarian achievements of the Muslim community in Canada. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, people of Muslim faith stand second to none in their contribution to what it means to be Canadian. They do so today under the most difficult circumstances of state-organised attempts to marginalise them, humiliate them and extinguish their being. Every minute of every day Muslims suffer the indignity and humiliation of the pressure that they must overtly prove that they are worthy Canadians by accepting what are called Canadian values. They are supposed to prove through every word and action that they are moderate, not extremist; civilised, not medieval; democratic, not lovers of despotism, theocracy, terrorism and all kinds of other buzz words on the basis of which reaction tries to criminalise belief, culture and being.

Knowing that this is the case, the celebration hosted by the Canadian Islamic Congress takes on even greater meaning. It gives expression to the work of not only the CIC but all Muslims in Canada to defend their dignity as human beings in the most profound sense of what it means to be human and Canadian; in the true sense which recognises that being Canadian means to accept all languages, cultures and beliefs as equal and the contribution of all human persons as essential to the well-being of the society upon which they depend for their living.

In this regard, I profoundly thank the CIC for this esteemed award so generously conferred to me and my publication, Shunpiking and the Dossier on Palestine. On behalf of all those who have contributed to dispelling the disinformation on the life, work and struggle of the peoples of Palestine, all peoples of Arab origin and who espouse the Muslim faith, I thank you very much for recognising our efforts.

Our work is difficult, but not impossible because together we stand for a just cause. It is a just cause for many reasons. But perhaps the most important reason is that it is a historic cause, a cause intimately tied up with the future of not only the people of Muslim faith worldwide, who number more than a billion, but with the fate of humankind itself. The fact that all of us stand together in these difficult times, united in our desire to see a favourable outcome to the disasters which are being created for our peoples and our homelands, is the most important ingredient. No matter what our differences in terms of beliefs or ways of life, our unity must be treasured and strengthened and it will prevail.

On this occasion, I have been asked to speak briefly on the topic of Muslims and the Media. Well, it is a topic that you know better than I because you are the Muslims who are victims of the media! I was nonetheless going to venture some remarks from the angle of what motivates media disinformation. However, due to the length of the proceedings and the many interesting speakers, it is perhaps best to leave my remarks for another occasion.

Before I conclude, permit me to personally thank both Dr. Mohamed Elmasry and Dr. Ismail Zayid for their active interest, participation and assistance in the specific media work which won us this award, especially the Dossier on Palestine and against media disinformation. Above all, I would like to express my gratitude to my comrade and friend, the late Hardial Bains whose guidelines on journalism which seeks truth from facts and analysis on the role disinformation continue to guide my work. Disinformation, he pointed out, is organised by the agencies of the state to wreck the coherence of the polity, so as to make sure people cannot achieve the required social change and realise their aspirations.

In February 1971 when I was unjustly fired by the Globe and Mail nine days after being nominated for a national newspaper award, following which I was blacklisted across Canada for the next 35 years, Hardial encouraged me to march on. "If the Globe and Mail won't tell the truth, you will tell the truth," he told me at the time. If the need to tell the truth was great in 1971, it is even greater today at a time the dangers facing our world are greater and more and more of our people are made to die and suffer at the hands of darkest reaction. One feature of this reaction is that all that humankind holds dear is profaned. Since the 1991 first invasion of Iraq, some 400 journalists have given their lives in the quest to tell the truth. Thus, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who contribute to opposing media disinformation, including the journalists and editors of Montreal Muslim News and all the others developing independent media or media which helps us develop true and proper public opinion about the unfolding events, and the courage and conviction to take stands worthy of human society and development.

The work of media against disinformation requires sacrifice but what is irresistible is the spirit of basing ourselves on our own strength. This is the strength of our numbers, organisation and our own intelligence behind the justice of our cause, with full confidence that together we and our allies, all those whose interests are favoured by opening society's path to progress, have the knowledge and the ability and, most of all the courage and conviction, to identify what is possible within any particular circumstances and increasingly complicated situations. It is this spirit which gave rise to the Dossier on Palestine and brought it to fruition and which enables all our common efforts in defence of the rights of all.

In this regard, this award which recognises the need to tell the truth, as a guide to action which liberates us, is truly gratifying. It overwhelms the humiliation of being blacklisted by the monopoly media for 35 years and of being deprived of the chance to receive that award all those years ago.

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for recognising our work. Without you and everything you stand for it would not be possible. You represent the very finest convictions and emotions humankind has given rise to. Thank you; Assalamu Alaikum.