Seumas Milne has an article at the Guardian website entitled, “The tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all.” The subtitle reads:
The attempt to drive Islamists and young Asian activists out of the political mainstream is a dangerous folly.
Milne complains about
the punishments being meted out to those who took part in last year’s London demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza.
He concludes:
As long as British governments back wars and occupations in the Middle East and Muslim world, there will continue to be a risk of violence in Britain. But attempts to drive British Muslims out of normal political activity, and the refusal to confront anti-Muslim hatred, can only ratchet up the danger and threaten us all.
And now edited highlights from the below the line commentators, (spelling and grammatical errors have been left in place):
CJCJC:
You may consider violence protest – at least by the groups whose views you appear to find attractive – “legitimate”.
Most people do not.
Inayat [Yes,that Inayat]:
While the courts are handing down disproportionately stiff sentences to young Muslims who took part in protests at the barbaric bombing of Gaza, our government is busy reassuring Israeli officials who are suspected of having committed war crimes in Gaza that they will be immune from prosecution if they visit the UK.
Pairubu:
Seamus seems to keep rather unpleasant company, imo, the other day it was appeasment of the Irish Republicans, today violent demostrators.
“You can tell a man by the company he keeps” I believe the saying goes.
MiskatonicUniversity:
Inayat, you need to brush up on your understanding of English law.
Rioting, smashing up property and attacking the police (and their horse) does not equal “protest” in this country.
Once you have grasped that concept, so much more will become clear to you, I promise.
Recklessfox:
I was actually (completely coincidentally) in the hotel next to the Israeli embassy meeting a friend during one of these protests and had a good view over the event. It was quite terrifying. I saw lots of violence from protestors, I saw injured police being carried away on stretchers, and I was trapped in the building for hours until, eventually the hotel staff led us out via a basement to an opening a block away.
I’ve been on lots of protests myself but I’ve never behaved like the screaming mob that day and don’t have any sympathy for those who hurl rocks, smash shops, and generally fully live up to their (later) confirmation as violent criminals.
NotaTrot:
Having read it again, I am now angrier than I was the first time…. Essentially, it is a call to abandon the rule of law.
South London01:
Of all the rubbish Milne has written, I think this piece might be my favourite.
JRuskin:
You can smell the fear.
Despite the huge sums of money, the tame governments, the well-resourced pressure groups like LFI and the huge military arsenals, the battle for public opinion has been won by the ordinary folk- Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and the secular- who braved the cold at the Gaza demonstration.
And not just in the UK. The tide has turned. The tyrants, the racists, the colonists, the bullies, the oppressors have been exposed.
nemesis2:
what about the rights of the people who work in the Starbucks which was attacked? Or is that an acceptable part of this kind of ‘peaceful’ protest, that everyone else’s’ rights can happily be ignored.
Westcoaster:
Thank you [Seumas] for pointing out that you are demanding we sympathise with people whose objective is to defeat the aims of our elected government by the use of violence. But no thanks at all for describing the rest of us a ‘bigots’ when we dare to express the view that such people may be a touch frightening, and even dare to suggest that it is the business of the police to stop them. Dear me, how could we be so silly.
Peterjackson
As for the suggestion that violent disorder should be disregarded if it involves the right people in the right causes (that is, causes Mr Milne supports), in case more violence should be provoked, I’m astonished to see the Guardian supporting such a view.
In Mr Milne’s case, given his record, not quite so astonished.
Handala:
Just being a Muslim or belonging to a community with a Muslim culture is enough to face arrest and detention while your identity is splashed across front pages without even a nod to the principle of presumption of innocence, to be shot in your own home, threatened with deportation or given totally disproportionate prison sentences such as in the case you referred to of the protesters participating in a legitimate demonstration against the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza.
Danny69:
This is an astonishing article by Seumas Milne that knowingly conflates the political agenda of Islamists with all Muslims, and is clealy calling for such elements of our society as the rule of law and a free press to be suspended where they impact on the agenda of Islamism….. A growing number of Muslims oppose Islamism. If you choose to support this banal, imperialist creed, Mr Milne, you are free to do so. But you have no right to accuse those who disagree with it of blanket racism, nor to call for the suspension of the due process of law and a free press.
CanWeNotKnockIt:
I’ve no problem with Seamus being a political activist and appearing on whatever platforms he likes but it seems pretty clear that his political activities are undermining the standard of his journalism and that of the Guardian.
It might be wiser for the Guardian if Seamus was given the choice of being a journalist, with the responsibilities that carries, or an activist who contributes as a freelancer whose political activity is fairly and openly identified.
His naked misrepresentation of what happened in Bradford in this piece, alone, should be a matter of concern for the Guardian.
Greco1:
To pick up various points:
1. The chairman of Starbucks is well known to be an important financial contributor to Zionism and hence to the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.2. Somebody asks “Are we living in a police state?”. The answer today would have to be yes.
Danny69:
So, the extremely wealthy chairman of Starbucks is a known supporter of Zionism……
….which justifies a baying mob inflicting violence and terror on the customers and staff – mostly on low wages – in any given Starbucks franchise?
muslimproud:
I’m a muslim and no doubt myself and my muslim friends and family feel under seige. We feel targetted, discriminated against, feel we have little rights to express our views. We are targetted constantly in the media, by politicians, by analysts etc. But you know what? This does not bother us to the extend it should. We as a community are very strong. We are without question Britains most powerful minority, and we only go from strength to strength, even with the hatred aimed our way.
MonikerLewinski:
[W]hy is Milne so keen to defend radical Islamists who hold bigotted and extreme views which are the absolute antithesis of leftwing thought?
Why is Milne attacking Dispatches for investigating the extremists tendencies of Islamists?
It really is quite bizarre, this devotion towards Islamist from an avowed leftist, could it be that Seamus could never really connect with working class people here in Britain, so he sought solace and comform within minority groups …
