Respect on “extremism”
On 23 April, the Guardian published a letter from the three Tower Hamlets Respect councillors linked to the SWP, Oliur Rahman, Rania Khan and Lufta Begum, which denounces the “extremist” views of Islamist organisations like al-Muhajiroun, calls on the government to “stop” them and requests a meeting with Tower Hamlets police to discuss the issue. (See www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/23/uksecurity.bbc ) On one level, it is quite encouraging to hear left-wing Muslim activists display such stark hostility to Islamic derived fascism. Like socialists in Muslim-majority countries from Indonesia to...