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When a Muslim optician told me of the hate crime committed against her, it was her flippancy that shocked me most. She was driving to work when a man parked his van in front of her. When she objected, he yelled: “You’re a fucking Muslim – leave the country.” But her tone was one of casual resignation: it was just one of those things, an unfortunate occurrence to be met with a weary shrug. She didn’t respond, because she felt she would simply reinforce a narrative of being “an aggressive Muslim”. It didn’t end there. Later, at work, a couple had to be persuaded to let her see to them – again, because she was a Muslim. These are not just terrible examples of bigotry, of hatred directed at people having the audacity to get on with their lives. Those responsible are not just bigots, but recruiting sergeants for Islamic State. When Isis executes its attacks, it has a script. It knows that Muslims will be blamed en masse in the aftermath. One of its key aims, after all, is to separate western societies and their Muslim communities: if Muslims are left feeling rejected, besieged and hated, Isis believes, then the recruitment potential will only multiply. Some of the media’s attacks are beyond sinister. A Daily Mail cartoon provoked understandable comparisons with 1930s Nazi propaganda after portraying gun-toting Muslim refugees entering Europe amid rats. It is generally more subtle than that, of course. But it helps create an atmosphere where anything goes; where bigotry seems officially sanctioned and legitimised. Muslims become seen as the enemy within, a fifth column, a near-homogeneous group defined by their hostility to western values – or indeed the west full stop. “Muslim” becomes synonymous with “extremist” and “potential terrorist”. OWEN JONES - Journalist
I visited aceh three years after the Tsunami with a group of other students from my school to stay in an orphanage for a week. The people that we met over that time were some of the kindest, most appreciative, welcoming people I have ever met. I wish that the papers and the media would sometimes take the time show this side of these ‘corrupt’ countries where the majority of people are Muslim. Izzy Drake - Student, 22
Gee Thomson - Editor
The left hate their own country: that’s been a slander of the right ever since the nation state became a thing. The haters of tradition; the exponents of the idea that everything is wrong about the country and nothing right; the servants and apologists of foreign powers; you get the gist. The current status quo and Britain are treated as synonymous. That’s why the Daily Mail went for Ralph Miliband – a Jewish refugee who joined Britain’s armed forces to fight Nazi Germany – as “the man who hated Britain”. He objected to institutions they liked, like the monarchy, you see; never mind the fact the Daily Mail seems to hate so much about Britain, from the NHS to the BBC to women they disapprove of (which is a lot of them). What is more loving of one’s own country than wanting to rid it of injustice? What is more patriotic than wanting the majority to have a fairer share of the country’s wealth and success? And conversely: what is patriotic about wanting British supermarket workers and lollipop ladies to pay for the greed and error of a tiny elite by slashing their tax credits? What is patriotic about leaving hundreds of thousands of citizens of one of the wealthiest countries that has ever existed to depend on food banks in order to feed themselves? What is patriotic about helping to prop up a murderous dictatorship like Saudi Arabia which exports extremism that threatens our citizens? What is patriotic about chipping away at a welfare state, the NHS and workers’ rights our ancestors fought so hard for? David Cameron launched an extraordinary attack on Jeremy Corbyn for having a “security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology”, building on the Tories’ initial attempt to define the Labour leader as “a threat to national security”. Imagine a foreign leader was describing the main opposition figure like this. But Alastair Campbell is right when he says the attack is “not fair” but likely to be “effective”, and initial polling seems to bear this out. OWEN JONES - Journalist
Money money money All I ever hear these days Every song that the DJ plays Talking of a similar situation Aint got none and got to get some Gotta have more than I had before Gotta have more than the man next door Every day I gotta have some more some more some more Now do I Live to work or do I work to live And do I Give to earn or do I earn to give And if I Do my best for society Will it care about money or will it care about me He works early in the morning till way past dark And the people in power say that he’s doing his part If he works real hard might make it to the top But we all know that’s not true so stop Talking this bullshit And face facts Almost all the money owned by the fat cats While they Tell lies to justify war They’re making all their money selling guns to the poor - Billy Rowan, Musician
POWER FAME DISASTER SEX
Gee Thomson - 2008