Bradford: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Frank Natter | 27.08.2010 09:11 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Terror War
There is a war going on. Its effects are not just manifest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – but also in our localities. Police intimidation and racial profiling on the one hand, mixed with a rise of racism and nationalism upon the other. Either can be seen as the domestication of NATO’s logic: pre-emptive action must be taken to stem the tide of (radical) Islam – the enemy at the gates just waiting to kick down the doors. Large swathes of our population are convinced that Muslims aspire to one day reign supreme in Britain; many are fearful that Sharia will be the way of life for all and great ‘English traditions’ will be eradicated with the establishment of the caliphate.
A lack of tolerance within our society is leading many to support the forced assimilation of Muslim communities. The colonially minded within our society are disturbed by the fact that allegiance to God can supersede that the nation-state, and that brotherhood with the Umma means the average Muslim does not support the death of their brethren abroad.
In response to the “impending threat” posed by what Education Minister Michael Gove refers to as Britain’s “sleeper cells” (a euphemistic turn of phrase that denotes to Islam – as all Muslims are, in theory at least, receptive to the call of Jihad), the English Defence League (EDL) have formed. Their key aim is to “get on the streets” and affirm English “resistance” to the incursions of the Islamic world – attack being the best form of ‘defence’.
Their idea of Englishness is manifest in their actions: get up – start drinking – get on a coach (continue drinking) – reach destination – shout racist abuse – break police lines – get into a few scuffles, if not full scale violence – go home brandishing themselves as ‘heroes,’ pissed as newts…‘English liberty’ indeed. They are being met on the streets by the “commies” and the “Mussies” – an alliance hated by both the state and the far-right. Britain’s ever so troubling alliance of the left and Islam is the only bulwark that has come to actuality to confront the imperialism and domestic colonialism we are seeing emerge.
This weekend the EDL intend to travel to Bradford – a city which is 19% South Asian. Provocation is the aim – racial abuse and rioting are the means. The EDL want to provoke the youth of Bradford Moor, Toller and Manningham – areas with high concentrations of South Asian inhabitants – the majority of whom are Pakistani. The attempt is clearly to echo the race riots of July 2001, when the National Front (NF) and affiliate groups protested in the town centre which stirred up tensions within the community – leading the police to attack the Muslim areas. This year, any such provocation is deeply inappropriate. Many in the community are in a sense of trauma due to the events unfolding in Pakistan, on top of that – it is Ramadan; the holy Month – a time of deep spirituality and introspection.
The two predominant leftist groups that have mobilised to address the potential riot are Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and HOPE Not Hate (HNH). The mixed allegiances of our schizophrenic “left wing” have left their mark profoundly on the run up to Bradford. The community has been split by what type of action to take. HNH worked through state channels to ban the march, getting the support of local papers and councillors. The UAF on the other hand have applied the same process that they did in Tower Hamlets – starting the “We Are Bradford” counter rally by appealing for all sections of the community to come out and stand in solidarity with their Muslim neighbours. Months of bickering have ended with the banning of the march, but the allowance of a rally. Therefore, the aim now is to unify the community – which is being plagued by divisions between a vigil, a Manningham ‘multi-cultural event’ and the “We are Bradford”. A far more incendiary situation has been avoided by stopping the March, if and only if the police do their job – and given their history in Bradford, one should be wary of such thinking.
It is clear that some forces are extremely receptive to the EDL’s logic. In Bolton back in March, 74 arrests were made by Greater Manchester Police – around 50 of which were of the anti-fascist protestors and local Muslims – with the organisers being detained under anti-terror legislation. In the run up to Bradford, West Yorkshire Police have threatened Weyman Bennett and Martin Smith (organisers of the Saturday’s “We Are Bradford” event) with police action for ‘conspiracy to incite disorder’. The Police have clearly been against the mobilisation proposed by the UAF claiming it is more likely to induce a riot. Such language has been echoed by HNH, who continue to oppose the tactics of UAF and regurgitate the state’s account of what happened in July 2001. It is an error to rely on the state to tackle the EDL, especially the police who are colloquially dubbed “the real EDL”.
Presence on the streets of Bradford is of absolute necessity. It cannot be forgotten that 2001’s riot was essentially started by the police , who – after years of antagonistic relations with the South Asian youth – used the pretext of a disturbance outside a pub to invade Muslim communities in force[1]. The blatant scapegoating cannot be allowed to happen again, it is vital that the UAF do not allow the police to separate the Muslim community from the “lefties”.
Saturday will dawn very soon and we cannot HOPE for anything unless unity is maintained. If people manage to transcend their ideological divides, their geographic obstacles and an EDL friendly police force, then the EDL will be swatted away like they were in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Tower Hamlets and Harrow. However, if disunity prevails and the left are split from the local Asian youth – race riots will ensue, of that there can be little doubt. In such an eventuality, the EDL will get bloodied, as will the Police – yet it will be another great excuse for the state to further repress Britain’s Muslim community.
[1]
http://www.irr.org.uk/2001/october/ak000003.html
A lack of tolerance within our society is leading many to support the forced assimilation of Muslim communities. The colonially minded within our society are disturbed by the fact that allegiance to God can supersede that the nation-state, and that brotherhood with the Umma means the average Muslim does not support the death of their brethren abroad.
In response to the “impending threat” posed by what Education Minister Michael Gove refers to as Britain’s “sleeper cells” (a euphemistic turn of phrase that denotes to Islam – as all Muslims are, in theory at least, receptive to the call of Jihad), the English Defence League (EDL) have formed. Their key aim is to “get on the streets” and affirm English “resistance” to the incursions of the Islamic world – attack being the best form of ‘defence’.
Their idea of Englishness is manifest in their actions: get up – start drinking – get on a coach (continue drinking) – reach destination – shout racist abuse – break police lines – get into a few scuffles, if not full scale violence – go home brandishing themselves as ‘heroes,’ pissed as newts…‘English liberty’ indeed. They are being met on the streets by the “commies” and the “Mussies” – an alliance hated by both the state and the far-right. Britain’s ever so troubling alliance of the left and Islam is the only bulwark that has come to actuality to confront the imperialism and domestic colonialism we are seeing emerge.
This weekend the EDL intend to travel to Bradford – a city which is 19% South Asian. Provocation is the aim – racial abuse and rioting are the means. The EDL want to provoke the youth of Bradford Moor, Toller and Manningham – areas with high concentrations of South Asian inhabitants – the majority of whom are Pakistani. The attempt is clearly to echo the race riots of July 2001, when the National Front (NF) and affiliate groups protested in the town centre which stirred up tensions within the community – leading the police to attack the Muslim areas. This year, any such provocation is deeply inappropriate. Many in the community are in a sense of trauma due to the events unfolding in Pakistan, on top of that – it is Ramadan; the holy Month – a time of deep spirituality and introspection.
The two predominant leftist groups that have mobilised to address the potential riot are Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and HOPE Not Hate (HNH). The mixed allegiances of our schizophrenic “left wing” have left their mark profoundly on the run up to Bradford. The community has been split by what type of action to take. HNH worked through state channels to ban the march, getting the support of local papers and councillors. The UAF on the other hand have applied the same process that they did in Tower Hamlets – starting the “We Are Bradford” counter rally by appealing for all sections of the community to come out and stand in solidarity with their Muslim neighbours. Months of bickering have ended with the banning of the march, but the allowance of a rally. Therefore, the aim now is to unify the community – which is being plagued by divisions between a vigil, a Manningham ‘multi-cultural event’ and the “We are Bradford”. A far more incendiary situation has been avoided by stopping the March, if and only if the police do their job – and given their history in Bradford, one should be wary of such thinking.
It is clear that some forces are extremely receptive to the EDL’s logic. In Bolton back in March, 74 arrests were made by Greater Manchester Police – around 50 of which were of the anti-fascist protestors and local Muslims – with the organisers being detained under anti-terror legislation. In the run up to Bradford, West Yorkshire Police have threatened Weyman Bennett and Martin Smith (organisers of the Saturday’s “We Are Bradford” event) with police action for ‘conspiracy to incite disorder’. The Police have clearly been against the mobilisation proposed by the UAF claiming it is more likely to induce a riot. Such language has been echoed by HNH, who continue to oppose the tactics of UAF and regurgitate the state’s account of what happened in July 2001. It is an error to rely on the state to tackle the EDL, especially the police who are colloquially dubbed “the real EDL”.
Presence on the streets of Bradford is of absolute necessity. It cannot be forgotten that 2001’s riot was essentially started by the police , who – after years of antagonistic relations with the South Asian youth – used the pretext of a disturbance outside a pub to invade Muslim communities in force[1]. The blatant scapegoating cannot be allowed to happen again, it is vital that the UAF do not allow the police to separate the Muslim community from the “lefties”.
Saturday will dawn very soon and we cannot HOPE for anything unless unity is maintained. If people manage to transcend their ideological divides, their geographic obstacles and an EDL friendly police force, then the EDL will be swatted away like they were in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Tower Hamlets and Harrow. However, if disunity prevails and the left are split from the local Asian youth – race riots will ensue, of that there can be little doubt. In such an eventuality, the EDL will get bloodied, as will the Police – yet it will be another great excuse for the state to further repress Britain’s Muslim community.
[1]
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Frank Natter
Homepage:
http://Franknatter.wordpress.com
Comments
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Educating the uneducated from Middle Class uni grads
27.08.2010 12:43
70% of Asians in Bradford are Pakistani Muslims from Mirpur, which is about the same latitude as Southern Europe/The Med. It's about as far as North Asian as you can get.
Someone that was taught geography at school, not media studies.
South Asian
27.08.2010 14:09
Someone who knows how to use Wikipedia
Jeff Marsh's A Changed Man
28.08.2010 04:18
Anti racists should please take note, Poor Jeffrey is a changed man, and would no longer like to be thought of as the social pariah who has rallied football hooligans to violently assault people with darker skins for kicks. Neither does he want to murder socialists or anarchists, or people who don't like racialists. In-fact, he now claims to be a champion of the working classes, despite raking lots of money in from EDL merchandising and the sale of his Cardiff Soul Crew memoirs (Cardiff Soul Crew - think soul music made by coloured people - if this isn't proof that Jeffrey is no-longer racist, you anti-fascists are heartless monsters).
In-fact, after visiting prison, Jeffrey has also gone easy on his rampant homophobia. Since being banged up with twenty-stone, well-oiled fellow prisoners, with a penchant for baby oil massages, he tries to not label gay people as being "poofs" and "lessies". He actively supports Trevor Kelway's EDL Gay And Lesbo Division, as they operate safely out of sight behind closed doors, and never dare walk through Wetherspoons.
Life was hard in prison for Poor Jeffrey, and he grew up fast when he was repeatedly jailed for mutilating rival football fans with sharp knives for fun. His mind was sick, like all mental sufferers, and due to Jeffrey being male (gender-wise), he has had a phobia of doctors which has stopped him from being sectioned by trick cyclists, and he was repeatedly spanked by his father for telling too many lies, and multiple-personality disorder, which is why the poor lad has been trolling on Indymedia under the names of "Gerry Gable", "Martin Smith", "Whitechapel Anarchists" and "Anarchist Antifa".
Jeffrey Marsh wasn't just doing this to divide and conquer the anti-fascist opposition. He does honestly think he is more than one person, and libellously adopting fake personalities, Martin Smith for instance (posting pro-violence comments so he gets arrested), is his active therapy, now that the quacks no-longer carry out the full-frontal lobotomy that the sick lad needs.
Ritalin hadn't been invented when Poor Jeffrey hung out with the wrong sort of boys. He only got involved in the serious football hooligan scene because he wasn't able to get a girlfriend, thus, like any lonely boy, he needed to earn friends, which he did by beating up strangers senselessly for wearing the wrong football coulours, inflicting fear in the hearts of innocent families hoping to watch a safe and friendly game of footie.
Jeffrey only famously viciously stabbed the Manchester United fan like a raving madman, not for fun (apart from harmless kicks), because voices in his head told him to "fight the devil" to make peace with God. So, being the changed man he is, he slashed a "Red Devil" like a beetroot, hoping he would breathe his last, and his reward for "fighting the good fight" would be a free season ticket to heaven, as well as increased book, video and download sales.
Jeffrey Marsh doesn't hate all Muslims. Well, maybe he loathes the ordinary ones who just try to go about their ordinary everyday lives and are clobbered by drunken gangs of EDL racists, but actually, in a perverse way, he admires the spunk of Islamic Religious Extremist minority, such as suicide bombers in War-Torn Afganistan, who talk about being rewarded by marrying virgins in the next life. Don't let him know I said this, but my dear little Jeffrey...., well how do I say this without making him feel like "one of those", isn't entirely comfortable at the thought of finally losing his virginity.
The EDL do now have a Ladies Division, he tells me, but they are not ladies, and neither are they liberated or non of that nonsense. Like their idol the Charley's Angels, like proper little housewives, they are ordered what to do by men, and know their station. The lads of the EDL told them not to travel to Bradford's railway stations, and like good girls not the Carling-infused "cheap slags" the communists like to view them as, they do what they are told. Women, coloured people, self-loathing Sikh Poster Boys, they are all salad dressing for the "meat and two veg" of the ordinary white working class male that Jeffrey now swears to give a shit about.
Violent brutal football casualism is his only religion, but Jeffrey isn't as thick as he often appears. He tells me he has heard of Buddhism and Ying & Yang (sounds foreign, Asian-even, so much for being a racialist). Since going berserk with the knife on that Man United fan, Poor Jeffrey Marsh has had daily nightmares since famously stabbing that God will allow rival football thugs to get even with him, in a fatal way, waking up in a deep sweat about being chased down the street by cannabalistic Combat18-loving Chelsea Headhunters.
He decided not to travel to Bradford, not so his comrades would walk into the dangerous scenarios he himself has brewed-up via his peacemaking, unifying Casuals United website, as Poor Jeffrey isn't a gay coward. Jeffrey took the very difficult decision to lead the casuals from behind the safety of his keyboard, to show his patriotic support for the British Institutions of Law And Order.
Poor Jeffrey does not wish to give more pleasure to Her Majesty, (figuratively speaking), so he is going to be a good boy from now on.
Jeff Marsh indeed is a changed man!
Jeffrey's Long Suffering Mum
Willem
28.08.2010 08:28
EDL's Paul Marsh shot & killed by muslim!!!
re: Jeff Marsh's A Changed Man
01.09.2010 14:35
Kudos to whoever took the time to write it.
anon