October 09, 2008

If Israel can do it Harry's Place can do it

What's that then? The targeting of minors. Yes David Toube, following his success in getting a contributor sacked from the Guardian is trying to get a 17 year old dropped from a government project for Muslims because she is a member of the Socialist Workers Party.

The project is the Young Muslim Advisory Group which Toube heartily approves of:

But what is this woman doing amongst them:

Sabiha Iqbal, 17 from Heaton, Bradford.
Currently studying at Leeds University she is from Heaton in Bradford. A member of the Bradford Youth Service she set up her own not for profit organisation how to drum and perform poetry. She is a member of the Bradford Socialist Workers Party and of the organisation Love Music Hate Racism. She also volunteers part time at the Barnados Charity shop and writes on a freelance basis for a number of magazines.

She looks quite impressive but again there's a but:
Drumming and performing poetry is splendid stuff.

Being an activist with the Socialist Workers’ Party is not.

The Socialist Workers’ Party is a small, fringe political party. It participates in elections, from time to time, behind various front organisations. However, it is a Trotskyite organisation, which aspires to overthrown the elected government, and replace it with a dictatorship. Fortunately, it is tiny, and most of its members are extremely weedy.

Surely the Government could do better than appoint a member of an extremist party to advise it? Can you imagine what would happen if the Government appointed a member of the BNP to an advisory quango on “white people”? Given that the SWP has been active in promoting Islamist extremist groups - Jamaat e Islami, Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah - as well as touring the militant anti-semite, Gilad Atzmon around, the parallel with the BNP is a strong one.
Yes, the SWP makes mistakes and doesn't own up to them. It's opportunistic whilst pretending to be principled. It's touting of Atzmon was wrong but there was no ideological meeting of minds there. In fact it was rumoured that when he was invited simply to play his sax, Martin Smith personally intervened to shut him up if he ever tried to speak. There is nothing in common between the SWP's ideology and Atzmon's antisemitic worldview. And the SWP's making contact and alliances with various Muslim groups was commendable and certainly gives them nothing in common with the islamophobic BNP. On the contrary, the BNP, described by a Board of Deputies spokewoman as having "the most zionist [website] on the net", surely has a lot more in common with Harry's Place.

But let's not forget that when he was a lot older than 17, David Toube signed the Return statement demanding a the abolition of Israel's Law of Return as well as demanding the Palestinians' right of return, demands that Toube now describes as antisemitic. He is yet to explain his signing of that laudable statement, even to dismiss it as youthful indiscretion but surely he has absented himself from the right to bully people younger than he was when he did signed up for something he has since turned 180 degrees from.

I'm not linking to the BNP but the witch-hunter general has to jump through quite a few hoops to liken the SWP to the BNP. I'm not that happy linking to Harry's Place but if I don't people won't see that it is HP, not the SWP, that bears the easiest comparison to the main fascist grouping in the UK.

I've just checked the comments and he is now acting like his assertion that the SWP is like the BNP is a proven point. It's unbelievable that one so narcissistic doesn't actually see himself. He is also feigning concern that a 17 year old armed with a "totalitarian" ideology might be in a position to influence the government of the UK. I am yet to see a scenario of what might transpire if totalitarian influence crept into the government

Incidentally, the Guardian is now denying that Toube had anything to do with the dismissal of Soraya Tehrani. It's a pity that the grovelling gratitude that they expressed to him seems to have encouraged him to believe that all he has to do is make a false statement and it will be believed and that heads will roll. "Totalitarian influence" anyone?

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