Indigo Jo Blogs

I am sure anyone who reads the Independent will have heard of Parwiz Kambakhsh, the Afghan student jailed (and at one point threatened with the death penalty) for supposed blasphemy, which allegedly involved downloading "a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed" (sall' Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam). He distributed the tract to fellow students at Balkh University, and was arrested when a religious complaint was made. His brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, has written articles for the British-funded Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Lashkar Gar, Helmand province, accusing "senior public figures, including an MP, of atrocities, including murders".

The "Iranian Secular Society" has arranged a demonstration tomorrow (Friday 8th Feb) at the Afghan embassy at 31 Princes Gate, London SW7, at noon, to continue until 2pm. Anyone notice something unusual? Yes, it coincides with the Friday prayer, just so that hardly any Muslims (except perhaps a few ladies who either do not go to the prayer or cannot because of the time of the month) will be in attendance. If they were to time it for, say, 2:30pm, they might well have a greater number of attendees, because by all accounts Parwiz Kambakhsh is an innocent man being punished for things his brother wrote about various Afghan politicians. But this front group for the Worker-Communist Party of Iran (Maryam Namazie's and Houzan Mahmood's set) is more concerned about showing Muslims in a bad light than saving a man's life.

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A junior minister, David Woolas, has offered his two-pennyworth on the niqab controversy in today's Sunday Mirror, not online, by suggesting that it could play into the hands of the far right:

"It can be hard to tell whether women wear the veil as an expression of their faith or because they are compelled to do so," Mr Woolas said.

"Most British-born Muslims who wear it, do so as an assertion of their identity and religion. This can create fear and resentment among non-Muslims and lead to discrimination.

"Muslims then become even more determined to assert their identity, and so it becomes a vicious circle where the only beneficiaries are racists like the BNP," he said.

(By the way: the Guardian had fairly positive coverage of the issue yesterday, allowing a niqab-wearer named Rahmanara Chowdhury to give her account of "life behind the niqab"; she was also interviewed in the Observer last September. The Independent also had a vox-pop with two niqabi converts allowed to give their point of view; see end of this article which goes PPV after a week.)

Continue reading "Woolas: "appease the far right!"" »

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Technorati Tags: houzan+mahmoud, iraq, peter+tatchell, lgbt, terrorism, worker+communist

Yesterday evening there was a meeting held by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, at which Peter Tatchell (OutRage), Ali Hilli (OutRage's Middle East spokesman) and Houzan Mahmoud of the so-called Organisation of Women's Freedom of Iraq spoke. It was held at Conway Hall in Holborn, London, a well-known venue for secularist meetings. The theme was "Women, Gays and Secularists in Post-War Iraq", and I found it advertised in this post by Brett Lock at Harry's Place. The meeting was held in the library, which turned out (I'd never been to Conway Hall before) to be rather a small venue, although with just about enough room for this audience. I found myself right at the front and literally a metre from the three speakers (and I suspect I was right in front of Norm as well).

Continue reading "Communists for freedom at Conway Hall" »

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Yesterday there was another rally in London's Trafalgar Square: this time at the end of a so-called "March for Free Expression" at which a gaggle of people assembled to hear speeches defending people's right to insult others' religions. This rally had a rough ride from planning to fruition, and when it finally arrived in Trafalgar Square, the showing was really quite pathetic. Attendees were easily in three figures or, at most, the lower four (this picture shows this better than any of mine). I got there about 3pm, enough time to hear Keith Porteous Wood and a few others deliver interminable speeches. Being a veteran of quite a few anti-war rallies I'm used to hearing quick, punchy speeches even if they are full of cliches (I remember hearing the "war chest spent on a war" speech used in two separate rallies by, if I remember rightly, Jeremy Corbyn) and there are inappropriate speakers. To be honest I'm not sure how many of the attendees were really protesters and how many were observers. I know I was not the only observer, because this blogger was there too; he heard speakers I didn't because I was late. (More: here, here, here, here.)

Continue reading "Another weekend, another rally" »

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Yesterday I came across an article at Harry's Place relating an incident in which a pro-Iranian London lecturer, Elaheh Rostami, addressed a Stop the War meeting along with Haifa Zangana (an Iraqi author whose articles are occasionally printed in the Guardian, and who addressed a rally in Hyde Park a few months ago), "a couple of Trade Unionists" and "a mother from Military Families Against War". You can read the full story here on a blog run by an Iranian exile called Azarmehr entitled "For a democratic secular Iran. For peace and prosperity in the Middle East.". That site drew attention to another meeting at which Rostami was supposed to speak: tonight, at a Respect meeting at Imperial College. So I went along.

Continue reading "Iranian dissidents force cancellation of meeting" »

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Yesterday I found in the Guardian's letters section a letter from Derek Lennard, disassociating gay humanists from the much-reported opinions of Andy Armitage, the former editor of the Lesbian & Gay Humanist magazine ([1], [2]), which led me to peruse the first edition of their new rag, the Gay Humanist Quarterly. The magazine, which can be downloaded (2.2Mb PDF here), boasts on the cover that it is "certified 100% faith free" and on the front cover shows a bearded male figure in Superman costume, with the headline "Is the Government giving religious groups SUPERPOWERS?". Contributors to this issue include David T (of Harry's Place) and one Houzan Mahmoud.

Continue reading "Houzan the Communist pretends to defend freedom" »

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Islamophobia Watch have a feature on how Maryam Namazie's friends in the Worker-Communist Party of Iran were thrown out of a CND conference last weekend for causing a disruption:

Jeremy Corbyn, who was chairing the session, took four or five questions from WPI supporters. He answered one himself, explaining that whatever their views on the present government all Iranians would agree that they didn't want their country bombed by the USA. The problems began when other contributors took a different line from the WPI, who shouted them down along with the ambassador's replies and refused to allow the meeting to continue. They were then ejected from the room. As they were bundled out, one was heard to shout "Bomb the fascists!"

Continue reading "PhobeWatch on the WPI" »

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Nick Cohen has written an appreciation of Maryam Namazie of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran for today's Observer newspaper (also at his site here). This wouldn't be so bad if Cohen actually made it clear, but if you read the article you'll notice he doesn't mention the organisation at all! This is the same Nick Cohen who has criticised the Stop the War group for being a front for the Socialist Workers' Party, but at least they don't make a secret of their connections.

Continue reading "Worker Communists as liberals!" »

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The "Organisation of Women's Rights-Iran" is to hold a public meeting at Conway Hall, London, on 19th October, Harry's Place reports. Among the speakers is Homa Arjomand, "who co-ordinated an international effort to get proposals to introduce Sharia-based family courts in Ontario, Canada, dropped". There are at least three articles wholly or partly authored by Arjomand on the front page of the Worker Communist Party of Iran's website.

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