Next time, Mr Blair, you won't carry British Muslims with you
'It is not only Muslims - I have not met one Briton of colour who supports military action in Iraq'
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The Independent (UK)
01 April 2002
What do British or European or American Muslims think about the Bush 'n' Blair Axis of Deceit? Do they support the planned invasion of Iraq by the US and its very good friend the UK? Does anyone know? Do these powerful men and their apostles care? Of course not. We are hardly the people who matter when these big and important decisions are being made. Whatever objections and fears we have, our role as defined by this state is only to provide the nods, to be the chorus of approval or else be banished to the hinterland with the label "supporter of terrorist" branded on our receding backs.
Blair is rumoured to be rethinking his planned re-education campaign (he was going to give us a "damning dossier", apparently, not on proven links between the Iraqi regime and al-Qa'ida but on how evil Saddam is) to deal with all those faint hearts who are openly expressing disquiet about Cowboy Bush Jr and his arbitrary notions of a just war. Perhaps he has been unnerved by that passionate kiss between Saudi Arabia and Iraq at the meeting of Arab states last week. Or it may be the steady and incontrovertible arguments against the Bush line which are finding their way into public debates.
The Moral Maze, in an illuminating programme last week, had several unexpected people – the libertarian Claire Fox, the academic Dr Eric Herring for example – calmly providing factual evidence to show how there is no moral justification for US attacks on Iraq. Meanwhile, among western Muslims, emotions are rising in ways I have not seen before. They live as free citizens in a powerful democracy, but feel powerless to stop the destruction of Palestine by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or to demand answers on what exactly is going on in Afghanistan (surely one of least reported of all wars) or at Camp X-Ray, and now to arrest an unjustifiable war against the crushed people of Iraq. They know, too, how smoothly this fury will be managed once the decision has been made to go for Iraq and that makes them even more incandescent.
After the action has started, some of the rapidly proliferating, self-made "community" will be summoned and placed before cameras to smile vacuously and shake the hands of our top chaps, sometimes their nice wives, often in the beautiful rooms of 10 Downing Street or the White House.
Ah, to be so close to teacups used by those who own the world, to stand under priceless paintings of the previously powerful white men, to experience fleeting moments of inclusion, how can this fail to turn their heads? These are, after all, petite bourgeoisie folk, still crawling up, always open to new opportunities for self importance.