July 2005Being Muslim or being British“The Muslim community is no different to any other community in this country and they should not be treated as any different. Once you treat a Muslim community differently in the way it is being perceived, as though it is a criminal community, a troublesome community, then we will not get the support we would want from them.” – Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain. Responding to London police chief Sir Ian Blair's proposal of a hotline for Muslims to report on their community. 16 July 2005.
It's retaliation, stupid“At the beginning of the G8, Blair suggested that “poverty was the cause of terrorism”. It is not so. The principal cause of this violence is the violence being inflicted on the people of the Muslim world. And unless this is recognized, the horrors will continue.” – Tariq Ali. Writing in the ‘Guardian’ on the day after the terror attacks in London. 8 July 2005.
The best democracy is far from home“This is unprecedented in this country and a serious attack on democracy. Mr Blair and President Bush talk about democracy. Yet people are denied their democratic rights in [the UK].” – Gill Hubbard, spokeswoman for G8 Alternatives. After police banned a protest march to Gleneagles, where G8 leaders were meeting. 6 July 2005.
The logic of the ‘war on terror’ sinks home“The growing US awareness, sharply reflected in polls, that the Iraq war is a loser (or perhaps even wrong) is simultaneously stymied by a mounting drumbeat for more American troops to fight insurgents whose only casus belli is the presence of American troops.” – James Carroll, in the ‘Boston Globe’. 5 July 2005.
War for war's sake“As our president demonstrated last week, we have become a people who wage unending war—killing and maiming our young ones and theirs—without being remotely able to say why.” – James Carroll, in the ‘Boston Globe’. 5 July 2005.
Co-opting the feel-gooders“At the Make Poverty History march, the speakers insisted that we are dragging the G8 leaders kicking and screaming towards [progressive] demands. It seems to me that the G8 leaders are dragging us dancing and cheering towards theirs.” – George Monbiot, in the ‘Guardian’. After the Live-8 events to draw attention to poverty and to the positive role G8 leaders could play in alleviating poverty. 5 July 2005.
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