YasminFuckingBegum

i hate living in london. so much. fuck this.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:56:49 +0100

i hate living in london. so much. fuck this.

Speaking Ill of the Dead: Maggie Thatcher.

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:24:56 +0100

The centre reporting on the recent death of Thatcher portrays the former prime minister as a dividing figure over her controversial policies that widely followed neoliberal economics. This discourse presents itself as problematic because it assumes you work from an objective viewpoint, as if while this was all going on, you were somewhere else, somewhere far away. And that your family was too, or even your area, or any of these other factors that come into play in defining ourselves. As if we can be impartial in a class-war.

I see no objective viewpoint in the media. I see the rich praising the rich for the rich’s policies that came in and disproportionately effected the poor. In other areas of the UK, the South Wales Post published a piece with the headline “WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE HER”. In a cross-section aired tonight on the BBC conveniently did not tread in areas that remain devastated by unemployment and poverty and mainly focussed their coverage to those with positive viewpoints. I noted they did not step into Wales to find any pro-Thatcher sentiment.

Poverty under Thatcher went from 9% at the beginning of her time in power, escalating to 26% by the end. The rich print the press of the rich in the south, praising Thatcher. Not only for her policies that saw disproportionate gaps between the rich and the poor swell, along with the amount of unemployment, but for her role as a figure in feminism. Thatcher’s feminism tells us a lot more about feminism in the west than we originally anticipated: that it has an imperialist and capitalist bias that sees women often follow their fathers and brothers in order to be validated by society in a position of power. That it follows Friedman, that it backs foreign intervention and war in the name of ‘feminism’. It also tells us about those who call her a feminist.

Or that neither represent any of these liberation ideas they put up, and that

An EU report that was released yesterday found that areas of Wales had some of the highest poverty levels in the EU: these areas were mining communities and played stage to the miners strikes of South Wales. Ironically, it was Thatcher’s death that has stolen these headlines and prevented these discussions as we white-wash her. Her legacy lays and permeates today first through David Cameron, and if we follow the thread far enough, we can observe Blair weaving with her thread.

There is no objective viewpoint. There are people who supported Thatcher because they benefit from the blood of the working class. There are people who support Thatcher because of their own personal and profiteering interests. And there are people whose lives, homes and communities were- and continue to be- devastated by her legacy.

Man will be freed until the last politician is strangled with the entrails of the last priest, and that no politician can ever free us from the tyranny of capitalism and wage slavery: this can only be done by ourselves.

THATCHER, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE MOTHER OF A THOUSAND DEAD? CLASS WAR PARTY THIS SATURDAY TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LLAETH I PAWB.

THATCHER THATCHER THATCHER MILK SNATCHER

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:11:05 +0100

Arrests made last night in Brixton following a party that moved towards a police station. Parties are being planned in Wales, PCS union congregated with others in Trafalgar Square, where Class War have called a party this Saturday.

Hundreds of people in Glasgow spontaneously partied in the centre of the city, and one police officer remains in hospital in Bristol after clashes with revelers celebrating the death of Thatcher.

Allegedly she is going to have an eight million pound send off…yeah, like that’s going to happen.

"Given that colonisation is one of the most concentrated forms of power in history, incorporating..."

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:46:45 +0000

“Given that colonisation is one of the most concentrated forms of power in history, incorporating extreme modes of domination, dispossession and racial hierarchy, the categorical imperative of resisting it or acting in solidarity with those doing so should require no justification to any anarchist. Yet anarchists in the global North often feel conflicted by the sense that opposing colonialism requires supporting national liberation struggles. This in turn implies compromising their own principles to allow for a provisional alignment with nationalism, with all its distasteful corollaries of statism, chauvinism, and patriarchy. This is precisely why an anarchist approach to anti-colonialism is needed: to sketch out a more comprehensive emancipatory alternative to the limited national view of liberation.”

- Maia Ramnath, Decolonising Anarchism.

Breanna Manning has another name: Bradley Manning. In December 2011 the BBC reported that Manning...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 18:12:41 +0000

Breanna Manning has another name: Bradley Manning. In December 2011 the BBC reported that Manning had “gender issues”: issues? Manning is female, yet our media refers to her as male.

Recently she admitted to being the one who leaked the Afghan and Iraq war logs for the first time since being held in custody. This leak included the ‘Collateral Damage’ videos which showed US soldiers shooting at unarmed civilians and children, with a distinct disregard for any human life or safety. A variety of Human Rights organisations have expressed seriously worry for Manning, who is widely thought to have been tortured by the American military.

Breanna Manning has recently plead guilty to 12 of 22 charges, including the Espionage Act, and the punishment for committing that particular crime is life in prison. She was held without charge for more than 1000 days. She gave what is known as a ‘naked plea’, meaning she does not have a plea bargain.

If found guilty under ‘Aiding the enemy’, Manning could face the death penalty.

While all this goes on, Assange remains safe in the Ecuador embassy. Let us not forget how Wikileaks first rose to fame: with these set of papers. The silence on this case around us highlights our attitude towards whistleblowers, even when there are tortured and faced with death for leaking documents that are still undeniably in the overwhelming interest of the public.

The trial is due to take place in June. Does Bradley Manning deserve a medal? No, ‘he’ doesn’t. Breanna Manning deserves a medal for her work she has done in one of, if not the biggest whistleblowing cases in history. Acts of solidarity are coming in all over the world to support Manning, let’s hope that this continued and sustained pressure continues to be both to allow Manning to walk free.

‎”We cannot break bread with you. You have taken the land...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:43:56 +0000

‎”We cannot break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now, my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans and drink high balls. We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides, you will play golf and enjoy hot h’or d’ouvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said “Do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller”. And for all of these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.”

The celebration of Thanksgiving ignores that contact between these two groups led to the decimation of millions of Native peoples. To raise awareness about the holiday of Thanksgiving, a group called the United American Indians of New England started their own version of it in 1970 which is a national day of mourning to pay respect to those who were brutally slaughtered as part of the genocide that was “manifest destiny”. Thanksgiving celebrates conquest. Remember the roots of this so-called ‘holiday’ and the dramatic impact that was made as a result of these pilgrims arriving to the US (including but not strictly limited to) genocide and slavery. Happy Thanksgiving!

SOAS is Occupied!

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:21:14 +0000

As of the evening of 20th November, SOAS is now occupied. The press release is as follows:

“Occupation Press Release

SOAS students today occupied their university in solidarity with the people of Gaza. This followed an overwhelming vote of support at a packed union general meeting.

Over 100 Palestinians, including 24 children have been killed thus far over six days of Israeli bombing. The Israeli Interior Ministry has declared its intent to “send Gaza back to the Middle Ages” and continues to threaten a ground invasion.

The unjustifiable comments made by the UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hague that Hamas are principally at fault for the current violence, and the British government’s deplorable record on defending Palestinian rights demonstrates our government’s tacit support for Israeli aggression. In light of this, the SOAS occupation calls on all students in Britainr and the anti-war movement at large to take action in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

The primary demands of the occupation are that the SOAS Director, Paul Webley, condemn William Hague’s recent statements, implement an ethical investment policy, cultivate academic partnerships with Gazan universities and that there be no repercussions for SOAS staff and students involved in the action.

The people of Gaza are not just numbers. They are people with families, aspirations and rights and we occupy to defend their right to live, and live in peace.”

The press statement is available to read online at: http://soasoccupy.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/occupied/.

In addition to this, there is a Facebook group that is regularly updated for information and filled with messages of solidarity: http://www.facebook.com/groups/548209508538292/.

Facebook group for the event: http://www.facebook.com/events/381810348563925/382008255210801/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

If using twitter, the hashtag is ‎#soasoccupation4gaza

And please send messages of solidarity to soasoccupy@gmail.com

Thank you!

snubbs: “Prisons do not disappear social problems, they...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 04:48:52 +0000

snubbs:

“Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages” -Angela Y. Davis

“They can’t get away with the slaughter and rape...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:14:11 +0000

“They can’t get away with the slaughter and rape that was brought to these places back in the day. That’s all I have to say about that, native pride until I’m cold skin until the casket drops…praying for peace is like praying for death in the way we live in. Be ashamed to be forgive them, because they shit they did wasn’t made for forgiving.”

I came across this video on submedia.tv, an anarchist online news station of sorts. I don’t know a whole lot about the artists, but the lyrics, the flow and the actual music of this song is very, very impressive.

fuckyeahanarchopunk: Tomorrow November 14th: The first...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:06:31 +0000

fuckyeahanarchopunk:

Tomorrow November 14th: The first international strike in the 21st century

General strike in: Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece

Spread the word, solidarity to those striking!

Thoughts on White Supremacy/Racism

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:48:51 +0100

The white power structure exists and clearly manifests to re-establish itself while simultaneously attacking non-white community throughout not only the west, but globally through capitalism.

The misconceptions about non white culture are age-old: that we are rapists, that we are criminals, that we partake in gun crime, that we are benefit scroungers, single mothers, gang members.

Want an example? The institutional racism of the British education system, for one. Society defines and prepares the crime and the individual (‘criminal’) commits it. We can’t talk about issues like gun and knife crime without talking about the white power structure that mindlessly and openly supports war through military parades, fetishisation of war and gun culture through various forms of the media. We see it in songs, on television, on advertisements at bus stops and we even go into schools in some parts of the United Kingdom to indoctrinate the child at a young age to support and even join the military.

It’s such a problem in Wales that there’s an anti military movement in schools that has been slowly growing, with campaigns to stop the military coming onto campus. The military disproportionately targets less wealthy schools when it does this with vocational qualifications concerning military preparation already being introduced…but funnily not in the wealthier schools.

Racism is a white washed term. We don’t fight racism, we fight white supremacy and a white power structure that is inherently capitalist and destructive in nature. The woman in Winnsboro who was lit on fire by 3 white supremacist terrorists? White supremacy.

We are a part of a wider history. White supremacy never stopped across the world and white supremacy preaches a rhetoric of anti homosexuality, anti women, anti people of colour and pro capitalism/free market economics. It is destructive. The left isn’t immune to white supremacy either: just look at how Miliband wants to ‘save the capitalism’ his father hated when capitalism is one of the biggest white supremacist and racist structures that has ever existed on the planet and built on slavery.

Fuck racism. Fuck white supremacy. Fuck all of it, I’m going to an anti-EDL demonstration, I’ll report later as to what happened. No parasan!

Columbus Day is traditionally held on the 2nd Monday of October,...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:06:00 +0100

Columbus Day is traditionally held on the 2nd Monday of October, making today Columbus Day. Although largely uncelebrated in the UK, Columbus Day continues to be widely celebrated in the US. This video named ‘Reconsider Columbus Day’ explores how Columbus day is problematic in light of the horrific consequences of Columbus’ actions.

Despite the fact that he is still celebrated largely in parts of the world, the testament that this still occurs perhaps offers us some insight to the ethnocentric ‘west’ where a man such as Columbus is so revered. The ‘New World’ was discovered by Columbus and this kick started Spanish colonisation and the genocide of the native people of the Caribbean The term ‘discovered’ is problematic in itself, he just invaded it and the places he went to were already in existence. This was a precursor to the eventual wider European colonisation of the Americas that lead to even more genocide, more colonisation and Columbus was also a forerunner in regards to slavery. Columbus was the first slave trader in the new world. He enslaved the native people of Hispaniola natives, the Tainos, and literally worked them to death. These horrific actions were justified in the name of exploration and interestingly, Christianity, where Columbus saw it as his calling to convert those on the island to Christianity. Exploration would herald in an age where Europe’s expansion West in what we now call the USA was legitimised under an idea called ‘Manifest Destiny’ and went hand in hand with the demonisation of the native peoples of the United States of America. This consequently saw them decimated.

Columbus Day isn’t just about Christopher Columbus, but rather, Columbus Day celebrates what Columbus represents in terms of history. An explorer, gifted sailor and a renaissance man who managed to persuade some of the most powerful men in Europe to fund voyages to discover these new lands. That’s one version of it. The other is that he was a money-hungry man who forced religion on people, claimed land that he didn’t own as his own, enslaved (and exterminated) the native people he found there, set the precedence for the transatlantic slave trade and ultimately, a figurehead of white dominance. In a time when that white dominance worldwide is arguably diminishing, it’s unsurprising that these imperialist countries will want to celebrate Columbus and that Columbus’ true history and motives are whitewashed by our history books.

Solidarity to the native people and people of African descent in the USA today, fuck Columbus Day.

"APAB. ALL PEOPLE ARE BASTARDS."

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:45:00 +0100

“APAB. ALL PEOPLE ARE BASTARDS.”

You're going to SOAS!?! As in, this September? (:

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 04:25:32 +0100

Yep! I am. I’ll be studying Arabic and Religious Studies

The Criminalisation of Squatting

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 04:21:00 +0100

Today squatting becomes illegal. This means that anybody living in a ‘residential building’ that is not their own claiming squatters rights is now a criminal, and subesquently this section five can imprison you as it provides evidence of criminal activity.

According to statistics, one in seven people on the earth is a squatter, living on land or in buildings that they do not own. Nearly 20,000 people in the UK are squatters, and the real number is thought to be much higher.

But the ins and outs aren’t as clear cut as simply being illegal. It’s still legal in non-residential properties, like ex-businesses and restaurants and such. If it’s ‘designed or adapted’ to be lived in e.g. with bedrooms, living rooms etc, it’s a residential property. These laws allow the police to enter into any property they feel may be squatted. This opens up a new question when we ask ‘What if that property was a non-residential property, or it was adapted to become residential with makeshift bedrooms?’ It doesn’t specifically say that the police only have right to enter residential squats, but any building they deem might be squatted.This means commercial properties, too. Residential or not, so it hits all squatters hard. Yet the law said that that squatters can still claim in non-residential properties. We know this to be rubbish when we look at the new laws and take into account past squat evictions where people have even been evicted from a disused Pizza Hut takeaway. Residential? Doubt it.

You don’t break the law if you live there through having a tenancy with a landlord or company.

If you do break this law, you can face fines of up to £6000, or six months in jail. Possibly both. The government is especially keen to protect private property of the rich with these deterrents. After all, it’s not your average Joe with enough cash to own a second (or third, or fourth… . ) home or with large empty commercial properties. There are up to 750,000 empty buildings in England, and that’s just an estimate compared to the 50,000 homeless in the same country. It’s those that have the money to partake in the luxury of owning more than one property whose properties end up squatted. It’s not that squatters steal homes from average and hardworking families, far from it. Squatting masks the true problem of the extent of homelessness in the UK with 40% of homeless people remarking they have squatted in the past.

When this news first came out in Spring, meetings were held across the countries by squatters on how to defend homes of those who squat. Anti eviction and eviction resistance networks have been set up by organisations such as the Advisory Service for Squatters. I remember specifically that there were exceptions to being arrested for squatting under certain conditions e.g. if you are pregnant or have been recorded as sleeping homeless at least once in the past year. I can’t find any information as to whether or not these clauses have been carried through, but I will do some further research.

We have always known that government protects private property and that property is theft. Those who have the money to own second homes, extra buildings are from the same pool of the rich who can call the violent arm of the state to drag people out of unoccupied buildings that will force more homelessness. SQUASH reported that the cost of eviction of every squatter could reach to around £800m if they started claiming housing benefits, so the state creates a thorn in its own back when it evicts and actually creates more homelessness.

What we have seen in the law today doesn’t benefit your average person in the UK. It benefits the rich, enforces the will of the rich using the violent arm of the state against some of the most vulnerable in our society. We have always known that the government and state will protect private property, and this law is just another example of that.

"I got into SOAS. Fuck yeah!"

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 02:52:13 +0100

“I got into SOAS. Fuck yeah!”

Results Day on Thursday

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:00:00 +0100

It’s results day for me on Thursday. This means that I will find out whether or not I have gotten into university after two years of hard work. I will be one of many thousands ripping open envelopes at college or school, or even checking UCAS online. 2012 is the year of the fee rise, and this has radically changed access to university.

The government has created a two tier system when it comes to higher education. AAB students in the UK are gold dust and universities tout with gold-plated scholarships, bursaries and extra benefits for these students. Bristol has even opened up 600 more places for AAB students. Some universities have even offered freebies like computers and laptops to lure students. Controls that were in place in the past have been lifted for high competition for these students. Universities are allowed to admit more students to their establishment without being penalised by the government financially, therefore squeezing in more students to degree courses and earning more money. Those without AAB represent a liability to universities and may be forced into undersubscribed courses because the leniency of previous years just doesn’t exist anymore. You could be on the cusp of the AAB and fallen by just a few percent and in previous years could have gotten in. This isn’t the case now. On the other hand, International students are forced to pay an extortionate amount of money to gain entry, a slap in the face considering the UK’s treatment of said students when it comes to institutions like UKBA. Those who do not have AAB will encounter a much harder deal than their predecessors owing to new government regulations.

This will be first year group to face higher tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year. There’s a 50,000 overall student drop in applications since the fees trebled last year. Despite this, there are still much more applicants than places because there are 20,000 less university places this year. Overall, it’s an overall 8.9% drop, but the drops in different parts of the UK was different.The biggest drop was in England. There was a 10% drop in England, but only a 3% drop in Wales. Wales can partly be attributed to the Welsh Government’s pledge to pay any fees over £9000 for any Welsh student in university. In terms of age, the biggest drop has been with mature students.

The rise in fees will hit languages students especially hard. I say this as a languages student. Any drop in a pool of applicants means that somewhere down the line, our dangerously small group of languages students is shrinking even more. We shrink at 14 in England because it’s not compulsory to take a language and we shrink across the board at 16 when choosing A Levels e.g. there were just 4 people in my A Level French class. Departments left, right and centre and being cut. Like sciences, there are never enough languages students because it’s underfunded, yet the employment sector each year publishes that UK graduates miss out on jobs because of the UK’s tradition of monolingualism and a severe lack of modern foreign language graduates. Unlike sciences, languages don’t really get any funding. It’s the same story with humanities and social sciences in the UK. Just take a look at scholarships available at any top uni in the UK and you’ll see where the money is.

That’s not to say it’s a level playing field, that every student has the same access to get AAB at A Level. Not every student has the same access to education. Fee paying private schools manage to send 65% of all of their students to the top third of universities. This is compared with state schools who manage to send just 25% of their students to these top universities. Those who are from free paying private school backgrounds have access to this special education that has better resources, smaller classes and more tailored learning styles when state schools don’t have this. The rich are at an advantage in sending their children to school. For example, in August 2011, 50.8% of all A Levels at private schools were awarded with an A grade, whereas this dropped to 20% at state comprehensives. There is a huge disparity between the quality of education and the role of wealth in a child’s education. If last year was bad with the rush for people to gain entry to university before the fee rise, this year’s worse for a whole different set of reasons.

I’m from an area with a very low progression rate to university. If I get there this September, I’ll be the first female and the first person ever in my Dad’s family to go to university, and the first person ever in my Mum’s family to go to university not as a mature student with children. I’m aware of the hierarchies at place and the words of money in securing top university places, of extra tuition, of being able to afford higher fees, of the governments twisting of curve ball marking and what this means for young people today and how for most A Level students, we aren’t at an advantage in playing the university game. We talk of social mobility, yet price regular students out of university. The government talks of paying back only a bit, only when you’ve earned a certain amount, but no average working class 18 year old wants to walk out with nearly forty grand (if not more) of debt. Young people who, just like me, are nervous about Thursday and about this prospect of debt. And we’re supposed to pay nine grand for this privilege after sailing through a distorted high school and further education system to jump through more hoops to get to a warped university system.

University? It’s pot luck according to your background, your wealth, how good your school/college is, the money your parents have and the colour of your skin. It’s a skewed system. University in Autumn 2012 will largely be a gold plated finishing school for the elite.

"if you want your religious headscarf then you shouldn't protest" says Houston cop badge number 3362 as she rips off my hijab in public

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:03:20 +0100

typeless:

So I have just gotten back from Houston protesting along side janitors who clean the offices of the world’s wealthiest companies for poverty wages. We were doing peaceful civil disobedience by sitting in an intersection to bring attention to the issue, we complied and were respectful when we were arrested.

Initially as I was processed in the gym two cops were talking to me. Upon learning I was Muslim and wore my headscarf for religious reasons [one cop actually wrote in my paperwork (headscarf religious reasons) and verbally confirmed that she wrote it down so people would know and I wouldn’t be bothered about it]. The other cop next to her asked me if I was fasting for Ramadan and I replied no and inquired how he knew it was Ramadan. He said it was because they received a diversity training.

After I was done I took five step to the side where they held the other female prisoners and where a female cop badge number 3362 started to frisk me and suddenly started taking off my scarf. This is the dialogue to the best of my memory there were plenty of protestors with me when this happened.

“Whoa, whoa, wait a second I wear my scarf for religious reasons, can’t you just feel my hair through it?” I said as I backed into the wall.

“No. If you want your religious headscarf then you shouldn’t protest,” she said as I was turned around pushed into the wall by her grabbing my neck and ripping my headscarf off in front of everyone. Later another jailer would say the exact same thing when they took my headscarf away for the entirety of being incarcerated.

The others were yelling at her to stop and cops started yelling at them telling them “She’s going to get charged!”

“You wouldn’t do this to a nun,” I told her and another cop who was looking at me as she violently frisked me. And I have been frisked, groped and padded down many a time via TSA since I am Muslim while flying.

My clothes were ajar and were placed immodestly around my hips. Later others would help me fix it as our hands were restrained behind our backs.

“It’s just procedure,” the cop looking on said to me.

“God gave you free will and no one can take that from you,” I replied.

She threw the scarf back on my head covering my face until the cop looking on told her to fix it and then it was covering my eyes.

Afterward I approached her seeing that she was upset. “Look, I just want to talk civilly with you about what just happened and since I can tell you are upset.”

She got defensive and started talking about procedure. “I understand it’s procedure. See, many faiths and cultures believe in covering the head. You taking off my scarf in public like that is like taking off my shirt in public.”

She replied that I could have been hiding a gun. I looked at her in disbelief. My scarf is made up of a light material and my hair is short. She ordered me to sit down and leave her alone.

Initially I felt upset and mad. But then I felt bad for her. I know system is to dehumanize and humiliate the people who don’t compile with the law but after thinking a long time I realized that when you treat others like beasts you become a beast. But being treated like a beast doesn’t mean I am one, I still have a choice, I can still reflect on the example of my Prophet during this holy Ramadan, I still can cultivate compassion and rise above.

This is completely unacceptable behaviour and I hope whatever cop did that gets fired. I hope all cops get fired. That’s another story, though.

The Save Maryam campaign has been unleashed. Its origin lays in...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:22:30 +0100

The Save Maryam campaign has been unleashed. Its origin lays in a Youtube video that describes the scenario of a young Indonesian woman, Maryam. Maryam lives in Indonesia, which has the largest number of Muslim citizens in the world. 2 million of them a year are converting to Christianity. If it grows at the current rate, by the mid 2050s, Indoesnia will no longer be a Muslim majority country. Maryam is heralded as a voice of a generation, and explores her issues. For every time Maryam experiences a problem, it is the Christian people who are there on standby providing support, as opposed to the Muslim. This leads Maryam to consider converting to Christianity. The video attributes this to a poor teaching of Islam in Indonesia, a lack of Muslim support networks and seeks to raise money to reinstate a feeling of Islam in its young people through better teaching of Islam and young Muslim TV channels.

It asks viewers to help raise $2 million for the ‘Save Maryam’ campaign. The video already has 300,000 or so views. The video is so Islamic that no music was used in it.

It’s a Muslim outreach campaign, aimed at ‘Muslims across the world’ are aware of the ‘problem’ in Indonesia. It wants to utilise social media to make the message widespread to raise money to save Muslim souls from Christianity.

With a production value reminiscent of Kony 2012, the Save Maryam campaign doesn’t smell too great. One should note that its launch during Ramadan plays on Muslims in a similar way that Christmas advertisements hit Christians. It’s a manipulative campaign that demonises Christianity and manipulates Muslims into paying it as da’wah, a charitable act. Given the large minority of Christianity in Indonesia, this video stirs up anti Christian sentiment, Islamophobes will have a field day with this video and lots of people will be standing at the sides thinking “What the fuck?”

Any official state religion is ridiculous. Anyone preventing people from excercising religious freedom is ridiculous. Any campaign whose grounding is to save people from conversion or leaving a religion is freaky. When Scientology stages ‘interventions’ to save people from leaving, it’s freaky, when a bunch of people in Indonesia do it, they expect donations. People should be free to worship, covert and leave any religion that they please. No organisation has to save souls; it’s a knee jerk reaction to modernisation. If this video took place in the UK, it would be traditional Church in England Christians trying to stop conversion to other religions, and that, too, would be equally unacceptable.

To put it simply, it’s the Muslim Kony 2012. Unfortunately, people bought into the Kony 2012 Bullshit, thus people are going to buy into this bullshit. The western media is going to have an absolute field-day.

Photo

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 01:55:10 +0100