| The Blackburn Demo |
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| Written by A Brother in Blackburn | |
| Thursday, 13 April 2006 | |
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Sat 1st April 2006 Blackburn, UK - A diverse and vocal group of protestors up to nine deep gathered in front of the Town Hall in Blackburn, to object to the visit of the most powerful woman in the World, Condoleezza Rice. As expected the protestors consisted of hardened anti war activists but this protest also brought forward protestors who had never previously been involved in making political protests - they were the men and women of the local community whose children attend the school and the Mosque which had been placed in the limelight to serve the PR exercise of this visit. These mothers had kept their children off school rather than have them paraded in front of a woman who has been at the forefront of the evil foreign policies executed by the Bush government which has killed tens and hundreds of thousands of innocent people since 9/11 and have deprived them of a life let alone education. On a cold showery Blackburn morning, the motorcade of Ms Rice arrived and she strode briskly past the long line of protestors only to pause on the steps and embarrassingly wave to the cameras as if to wave to a make believe welcoming party of locals which had failed to materialise. During the two or so hours she spent in the Town Hall with local 'dignitaries', the crowd were unaware that their protests could be heard inside the stage managed press conference to the extent that both Rice and Straw passed comment on the noisy protest. As could be clearly seen later on the news programmes Jack Straw was noticeably shaken and in losing his composure made infantile comments which included "call that a protest, I could have done better than that if they'd asked me for help". He added to that a little white lie about the number of people who had come to welcome her was "as large as the protest". Mr Straw, I guess that once you have lied to the British public about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, a lie such as this one is neither here nor there. The speakers at the Protests Rally outside including the chair of the Stop the War coalition and Yvonne Ridley and a number of female Muslims who were now activists and who all denounced the visit with the central feeling and theme being one of shame. Locals ashamed of hosting a woman they felt was a war criminal and cries of "shame on you" greeted all those associated with the visit including the Muslim 'leaders' and other dignitaries who had taken part in this PR exercise at the Town Hall. Local Muslim scholars such as Mauland Hanif and Mufti Hamid who were present at the protest spoke eloquently of their disgust at the actions of so called Muslim leaders such as Ibrahim Master and Lord Patel and the others who unbelievably had sought to further their own personal ratings under the guise of 'diplomacy'. An Arab TV station sent back interviews to the Middle East which would give a sense of brotherhood, camaraderie, comfort and hope to the orphans and widows who had suffered at the hands of US military invasions. This was in stark contrast to the message Ibrahim Master and his cronies were looking to send back which would have been "We don't care about you in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine, we would much rather be seen to be important and have the company of an important person such as Ms Rice visit our Mosque". Mr Master tried to justify the visit to the Mosque on grounds of "We need to show them Muslims are good people and Islam is not a religion of terrorists and we need to let them know that". On that point Mr Master, do you not think they know so little about Islam that it needed a person such as yourself to open their eyes? - naivety in the extreme Mr Master. Do you think the point of their evil foreign policy has not been made to them by Muslim intellectuals the world over and was instead waiting for your intellect to make the point? You used your intellect in front of the world media and the term "invade the mosque" was uttered by yourself; this intellectual comment of yours referred to Muslim brothers attending the Mosque for Fajr instead of it referring to the woman whose country has attacked Afghanistan and Iraq in the past five years and who has now given Iran 30 days before passing UN resolutions which will undoubtedly include "if necessary by use of force". Time and again our so called Muslim 'leaders' fail to understand the depth of the situation and fall into traps of PR exercises. In December 2002, US ambassadors across the world invited Muslim 'leaders' to an iftar dinner and I wrote then to some of the misguided 'leaders' who attended the dinner about the global PR exercise trap they were falling into three years later we are none the wiser. There is a time, a place and the right personnel for such a discussion. We seem to fail to recognize PR for PR's sake and fail in asking for discussions on our terms. Mr Master, if the diplomacy of yours and our other Muslim 'leaders' inside the Blackburn Town Hall with Rice and Straw was genuine then can I ask about the results of your diplomacy with Jack Straw since 9/11? Have you managed to exert any influence on him at all? Let's see since 9/11... • we have had an attack on Afghanistan So Mr Master and the other Blackburn Muslim 'leaders' who attended Blackburn Town Hall on Saturday, please please put me out of my misery and inform me what exactly have you managed to achieve for the Muslims Nationally and Internationally with your diplomacy? Let me just reiterate, I am not a man of protest alone and believe that there is a time and a place for diplomacy and with the right personnel. Blackburn Town Hall on Saturday for the Visit of Rice was not the time nor the place. Lastly your record of zero influence on your good friend of many years, Straw, shows that you were not the right personnel to even contemplate engaging in such diplomacy with Rice. To view and discuss the situation in Blackburn why not visit the Blackburn section of our discussion forum by clicking here, or alternatively tell us what you think below.           Readers have left 6 comments.
Mr Truth:
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Superb article! Im glad i know that some brothers and sisters in Blackburn are finally standing up in Jihad!
(1)
2006-04-18 15:22:14
Abdul:
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As well as Ibrahim Master the group of individuals who met Ms Rice included, Labours Councillors Suleman Khonat, Akhtar Hussain, Mohammed Khan, Yusuf Jan-Virmani, IPPC Commissioner Naseem Malik, Kamruddin Kothia, Saima Afzal, Farzana Kauser, Farook Desai, Junaid Qureshi, Shamaila Qureshi, Faizal Patel and Adam Vika.
Members of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, Professor Mohshin Ali and Coun Salim Mulla were invited but did not attend.
(2)
2006-04-19 09:13:31
Rachida:
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Salam Alakum brother, who wrote this article :)
I feel your article is highly 'emotionally charged''. I beleive (as a practicing Muslim) that the protests were wrong!!! You can not place all of the blame on the actions of the enemies of Islam on a few people i.e man ''Ibrahim Master and his cronies'' as you put it!!! If Muslims are angry at the wars and US foreign policy it would have been enough to just ignore her (Rice) visit. The problem is not with Rice, straw or even Master in fact - its with us Muslims who can not even agree about how to handle a situation. By showing them how 'angry' Muslims were, serves no purpose at all, in fact it may please them 'stupid Muslims always emotionaly charged'!!! It would have been better to just ignore her, through and through. The prophet (saaw) experienced many trials and tribulations (attacks) but he was very diplomatic and patient in how he dealt with them. There is no point in blaming Ibrahim Master your Muslim brother (may I add) for things beyond his control - the blame is on us Muslims for not clubbing together and for not using examples from the sunnah to deal with this situation. Keep your friends close - but keep your ememies closer :) ws Rachida
(3)
2006-04-20 00:36:34
5a1mah:
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i was at the Blackburn Protest, having lived in Blackburn all my life. i have to admit for the first time in my life it felt good to have my voice herd in the political picture. So many times I have been angered by events that have taken place in the world and have done little about it. Rachida you say we should not have held a protest, you consider this, somebody coming into your town that has a part responsible for so many deaths, and the whole world is watching what your reaction will be and you do nothing about it. It’s like saying welcome I’m totally with what you are doing and I’ve turned my back on my fellow brothers and sister whom are suffering because of you!!
(4)
2006-04-21 11:21:48
Rachida:
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Salam Alakum 5a1mah,
Jazaka (i) Allah khairan for taking the time to respond You might ‘think’ it’s like saying: ‘‘welcome I’m totally with what you are doing and I’ve turned my back on my fellow brothers and sister whom are suffering because of you!!’’ But I can assure you that it does not always have to mean that (by not holding a protest). You have proved my point about an emotionally charged reaction. A protest is brilliant if it is going to serve some purpose and help to achieve an objective! (Like the labour laws in France), But what did the demo in Blackburn achieve? What if that had been (Rice) first ever encounter with real Muslims? What is her opinion of Muslims now? Is it possible that we have reinforced any negative opinions she may already hold about Muslims and more importantly Islam? If Rice and other politicians are partly responsible for the war and the deaths of so many Muslims; (Allah (swt) will take care of the innocent victims) how much more are the powerful Muslims (our so called Muslim leaders) of this world responsible for the War? Why are you not just as angry if not more angry at them? It seems to me all too easy to blame the US/British foreign policy for the war in Iraq! Who protected the Iraqi people from Saddam and his army? Who protected the rights of women and men under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan? Why is Palestine not independent yet? In the case of Iraq, the US took Iraq while the Muslims were asleep in bed dreaming about this ‘wonderful’ life. Please let me know if I am in the dark, but which influential political Muslim leaders have mobilised their resources without fear to aid the plight of the Iraqi people? Which politicians if any, should we really be protesting against? So the issue is greater than (Rice) coming to Blackburn for a visit, actually it’s a free country she can go wherever she likes and on top of that, she was here to see Blackburn not to meet Muslims anyway! You say that ‘so many times I have been angered by events that have taken place in the world and have done little about it’. I know the feeling and it’s not easy to know what to do or even how to change things, but we all try to do what is best and what we can personally manage but what we can’t change with our hands, we change with our tongue, and what we can’t change with our tongue we do with our hearts. We must ask Allah (swt) to help us, because he is the powerful and all-knowing, to know how to help others - and we are all his servants and salves. Allah (swt) always knows best. Salam Alakum Rachida
(5)
2006-04-21 23:30:09
cecil rades:
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Mr Truth, we know all too well how you stand up in Jihad in Blackburn. We learned that last July. What an unsafe place the UK has become. When I read things like that I really understand where the BNP is coming from.
(6)
2006-04-28 13:07:27
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