Nottingham Workers Liberty
Oppose the war in Iraq and the terror of political Islamists

Condemn the bombings

The bombings on the 7th July were atrocious acts against the civilian population. Those who planned and carried out the attack knew whom the victims would be, innocent working people on their way to work. No civilian deserves to die no matter how many countries have been invaded or occupied by the armies of the superpowers.

Don’t just blame the foot-soldiers of Al Qa’ida

Whilst we must unconditionally condemn this atrocity we must make every effort to oppose and neutralise the very ideas that might encourage, excuse or in any way justify it.

The bombings were not protests against war. They were a glorification of war revelling in the deaths of innocents.

They weren’t protests against imperialism’s inhumanity. They were acts of inhumanity themselves.

Millions of people, Muslim and non-Muslim, oppose the occupation of Iraq but find ways of protesting that don’t lead to mass slaughter. The bombers had a political ideology and that ideology is political Islam. That ideology has to be opposed if more Muslim youth are not to find themselves pulled in the bombers’ wake.

Political Islam

Since its emergence and particularly its triumph in Iran, political Islam has been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Political Islamists, similar to Al Qa’ida, have ruled Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and fought brutal wars in Algeria.

Political Islam is a movement which wants to create an "Islamic state", restore the Caliphate, impose Sharia law (instead of laws which are democratically debated).

In Iran it has led to the torture and executions of well over 100,000 people. It terrorises atheists, other religions and even believers of other variants of Islam. It puts to death the young, women and homosexuals who break the moral code.

Of the thousands of deaths that political Islam has caused, most of them have been Muslims. It does that in order to terrorise the poor, deny democratic rights and keep wealthy elites in power. Osama bin Laden after all came from a family of Saudi Arabian multi-millionaires.

Political Islam demands religious obedience to silence criticism. It should be every individual’s right to practice his or her faith, whether it is Islam, Christianity or another. But it is every individual’s right to think and decide for themselves without threats.

Fight against racism and for civil rights

Kamal Raza Butt was beaten to death in the Meadows only 2 weeks ago. His death shows that there are vicious right wing forces who want to exploit the London tragedy to witch-hunt ordinary Muslims. There are also politicians who will probably want to do the same.

We here pledge ourselves, and call on the labour movement, to physically defend mosques, Muslim community organisations or neighbourhoods if threatened by racists feeding on the backlash against the bombs.

Against Segregation

We should not retreat each back into our communities. We should defend the right of Muslims to talk, work, be educated, debate, teach and learn with all other people. Only in that way can we unite against racists who want to divide us and create fears of other religions and beliefs.

Oppose the occupation of Iraq

The US and UK governments have carried out a brutal war in Iraq that has led to 100,000 deaths. It is not a war for ‘democracy’ or ‘human rights’. It is a war for oil and political influence over the oil-rich Middle East.

The US/UK war in Iraq is not a war ‘against Islam’ or for that matter against ‘political Islam’.

If the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine or the actions against Al Qa’ida are presented as a war against Islam then it only encourages those who want to exploit young Muslims to fight a religious Jihadi war.

The US would be quite happy to leave Iraq similar to Saudi Arabia, a country governed by an undemocratic dictators who claim to be Islamic. They have only one concern that Iraq is allied to US oil business interests.

What is wrong about the occupation of Iraq is that it subordinates the interests of Iraqi people to the interest of US business profits.

The acts of Iraqi Resistance militias are similar to the London bombings. On average every day for the last six months the Iraqi Resistance have killed as many innocent civilians in Iraq as were killed in London on 7/7. Most of those killed have been ordinary Iraqi civilians.

We should support those fighting for democracy in Iraq, fighting both against the occupation but also against religious fundamentalism and sectarianism. Those forces are found in the new Iraqi trade unions, in the Organisation For Womens’ Freedom of Iraq and elsewhere.

Unite

All people, Muslim or non-Muslim should be encouraged to campaign and fight for democracy and against war and occupation.

We need to unite from whatever religious background or none.

We need to fight to create a united democratic movement, not based on religion, but on democratic values. That unites ordinary people of all races and religious backgrounds against imperialism, racism, religious segregation and inequality.

In short, we need a movement that unites us on the basis of our shared interests as working-class people, against all those – imperialist governments and political Islamist terrorists alike – who seek to divide us.

Contact us on:

Phone 07949336546

Email: awlnottm-owner@yahoogroups.com

Visit out website: http://www.workersliberty.org

Other useful websites

Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

http://www.equalityiniraq.com/english.htm

[1]

Labour Party of Pakistan

http://www.laborpakistan.org

[2]

Iraq Union Solidarity

http://www.iraqunionsolidarity.org

[3]

US Labor Against the War

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org

[4]