LIBERTY AND THE SMELLY CAUSES.

A Boys Own Adventure? 

 "Recently, as a result of events in Iraq, some have called for powers to seize people’s passports at the border and to leave people stranded if they’ve been foolish enough to go on some ridiculous Boy’s Own adventure." Shami Chakrabarti, Director of the Human Rights Organisation, Liberty.

I want to start with, what Martin Amis called, a thought experiment. I want you to imagine an organisation established in the US and Canada, let us call it Aryan State. It’s an outfit that has already kidnapped a number of Imams, human rights workers and journalists. Several of these prisoners have been beheaded in the most savage way imaginable, video made of the event which was then posted on social media. Further decapitations are threatened unless the security services back off.
The groups programme, the establishment of a state for Aryans only, no Muslims, Jews or people of colour, has attracted the attention of white supremacists across the world. From Europe alone extremists in significant numbers are finding their way to the Canadian US border region. Groups of English skinheads, excited by social media chatter and by the prospect of taking part in a pogrom against non-whites are making their way to the newly established AS. How might the Director of Liberty describe these young men? Would she say that they were engaged in a “ridiculous Boy’s Own adventure.” I leave the question hanging.


Shami Chakrabarti
Now Ms Chakrabarti has raised the profile of Liberty considerably. Telegenic, media savvy, highly articulate and persuasive she has often pushed back against the growing demand of governments of all persuasions for ever greater surveillance powers and legislation to curb civil liberties.
But am I the only one to detect a problem in the somewhat selective causes that Liberty adopts. Where for example was Liberty when a Christian Couple were prosecuted after arguing theology with a Muslim Woman, or when a man is jailed for burning a poppy or alternatively a copy of the Quran? What about all the prosecuting of those who tweet unpleasant things, are they not worthy of Liberty’s support? The suspicion is that Liberty have concluded they are not. In short does Liberty have an aversion to the smelly causes?

As Shami says “People do care about their own. It’s other people’s that are a bit more challenging.”

Yes, that is true, but only half the story, it’s when the nasty and unpleasant people have their liberties denied that one’s resolve to defend liberty and free speech is truly tested. It’s the EDL or UKIP member, the unpleasant tweeter or xenophobic bigot whose freedoms we must also defend. Once we agree that free speech is not for nasty people we leave the door open for those who might conclude that our own opinions are not that palatable.
Now I may have been unfair to Ms Chakrabarti and Liberty, I have not spent hours sifting through evidence to prove my thesis, this post is primarily impressionistic. If anyone wishes to dispute the picture I have given and provide evidence of when Liberty has rushed to defend the liberties of someone on the far right, I will be happy to do a follow up pointing to the case[s].
I ended my last post with the words of Rosa Luxemburg, and it seems appropriate to do so again.

“Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently.”

  

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a café/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t
Read more

LONDON BELONGS TO ME PART ONE

Image
. I. I have lived in London now just over thirty years, having moved here on 4 th July 1983 . I don’t know how long you normally have to wait to claim squatter’s rights but thirty years seems a good enough period to me. The glory of London is its parks and open spaces, you are rarely ever far away from a London park, common or heath. I am within fifteen minutes walk of Kensington Gardens or Holland Park , much closer to several smaller areas with grass and flowers and benches on which to sit, all maintained by Kensington and Chelsea council who also still believe in the value of trees. Those who would see what they call ‘the state’ shrink rarely mention such items in their calculations. What does it cost to maintain a tree? Too much by far for the likes of those right wing think tanks whom and I fear the phrase is soon likely to break under the strain under which it is now being placed, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Holland Park is one of t
Read more