A Corbyn Victory Will Undermine Islamic Fascist Groups

In Britain, as previously in France, Spain and elsewhere, fascists are committing atrocities in an effort to destabilise elections and provoke a stampede to the right. The fact that these are Islamic fascists doesn't alter that fact. They know that a Labour victory under Corbyn could offer young people real educational opportunities and worthwhile jobs. They are hell-bent on preventing it, because that would at last give young Muslims hope, and thus eat into their potential support base. Roger Silverman London Socialist         

Some Muslims are OK

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

I am not religious. I do not believe in gods of any kind. In addition to that I do not blame a person’s religious beliefs for what are fundamentally political issues. When I came to the US, many co-workers and Americans in general when the subject of Northern Ireland came up, would immediately say that those Catholics and Protestants just can’t get along.  I would say this myself at one time. But what Catholic or working class person could detail the theological differences between these Christian sects?  I was the only Catholic in an English village that was overwhelmingly Protestant, I never faced any discrimination based on my religious background. Northern Ireland conflict is not really about religion

While hostility may be expressed through religious channels, fanned by religious leaders, in league with the ruling class as a means to divide workers just like racism is here in the US; the cause of this tension is in the last analysis, economic and political. The problem is that on the issues that matter, housing, jobs, security, welfare, opportunity, and political power, people are denied rights afforded others based on their religion, color etc.

I don’t know how many people have said to me that Jews and Muslims have been at war for thousands of years.  But Jews and Muslims lived for centuries in relative harmony, especially compared to Europe. It was Christian Europe that tried to eliminate the Jewish presence not Palestinians or Muslims. My Yemeni friend, apart from saying Yemen is “no more” thanks to the US and Saudi’s bombing the crap out of the place, says Jews are his cousins.  It is western imperialist meddling and through that, the modern state of Israel, essentially a European colonial settler state that has brought about the present situation. And I traveled through the entire length of Iraq by train to Baghdad and bus to Basra. Not once was I threatened or harmed. They were Muslims then----- back in 1971-----and they are Muslims now, so something else happened and I think it is not difficult to figure out what it is. Like Yemen, Iraq is no more.

Only a few hours ago a gunman in Florida killed five people. I haven’t even read the details it is so common here in the US. He was a Christian and a white/European. More importantly if we are to understand people, he was a veteran. There is no indication that the man was a member of any organization or that the shooting was an act of terrorism, the local sheriff said according to the New York Times. Will ISIS take credit for this one I wonder?  In many other cases where Muslims have committed such acts there is not much evidence they belong to anything either except Islam which is enough to put them in a certain category. The Orlando shooter's Christianity will not be classified as an “organization”.

The authors on this blog are in complete agreement with the statement from Roger Silverman at the head of this post that the only way to combat these actions is to undermine the pool of disenfranchised and alienated youth, the “support base” of the Islamo-fascists. Like the Zionists that cannot exist without the anti-Semites, the Islamic fascists need these youth and they know a rising movement to the right, to nationalism and the racism that goes with it, will increase this base.

Sadly, in the case of the recent attacks in Britain, some workers will fall prey to the British fascists, Britain firsters, and groups like the English league whose xenophobia, racism and religious bigotry offers no future for working people. We must combat these movements.

In response to the killings in London, British Muslim leaders have issued a letter condemning the killers:

“We, as Muslim Imams and religious leaders, condemn the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London in the strongest terms possible. Coming from a range of backgrounds, and from across the UK; feeling the pain the rest of the nation feels, we have come together to express our shock and utter disgust at these cold-blooded murders. We are deeply hurt that a spate of terror attacks have been committed in our country once more by murderers who seek to gain religious legitimacy for their actions. We seek to clarify that their reprehensible actions have neither legitimacy nor our sympathy.”

You can read the entire letter and see the signatories here