Harry’s Place welcomes two new blogs to the idiotsphere.
The kids from the MCB’s Youth Committee have started a new blog called The Platform.
So far, it is an anodine affair, with a pretty weedy article on – you guessed it – the Caliphate:
Khalifa is often translated as ‘vicegerent’, denoting a representative of a higher authority. But a better term in English is ‘trustee’, conveying the idea of human beings carrying the amana or trust to be ‘caretakers’ of the Earth. Everyone of us is a ‘khalifa’ of God, the objective of which is the establishment of social justice: “We sent aforetime Our Messengers with Clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), that men may stand forth in justice.” (57:25)
In addition, the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions are replete with clearly delineated principles of just community governance, such as: mutual consultation between elected leaders and communities; freedom of speech and association, including the right to dissent against a ruling authority; freedom of religious belief; equality of access to means of economic production; equitable distribution and investment of public resources for sustainable development; responsibility to the most deprived classes through various social welfare policies; policymaking based on knowledge and research; compassion and flexibility in implementation of penal injunctions.
In summary, then, we are collectively responsible for working together as custodians of the Earth in God’s Name. This trust extends into the social sphere as a collective duty of the community. Islamic politics entails that communities should govern themselves, and that we are all responsible to cooperate with our fellow citizens (our “brothers in faith, or in humanity”, in the words of the fourth Caliph, Hazrat Ali) in creating and maintaining just, compassionate and accountable social institutions from the ground-up.
Uh huh. If you say so.
Let’s see if it turns itself into an MPAC/MAB/iEngage style rant-fest about organ-harvesting “Zionists”, protests about McCarthyite witchhunts against Hizb ut Tahrir, puff pieces about FOSIS and songs of glory to Hamas.
Socialist Action, the entryist rump of the now deceased International Marxist Group who became Ken Livingstone’s pet Trots, have finally acknowledged a fact that everybody in the world already knew. They exist.
Appropriately enough, the announcement that Socialist Action was not just a figment of Martin Bright’s imagination took the form of an obituary of Redmond O’Neil, Ken Livingstone’s former right hand man. After that, Socialist Action’s website went quiet.
However, it has now sprung into life again, and offers a selection of gems. “Frances Davis” argues that the US’s mercy mission to Haiti is, in fact, a military takeover. There is also an article by King Fidel Castro I of Cuba.
That’s what you get if you let a small Trot party into the London Labour Party!
Welcome to them both!