Even the Socialist Workers Liberty Gets It

I read an article on the Workers Liberty about the Muslim Association of Britain [MAB], the British wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Though it included some leftist lunacies, it was an improvement to the leftists who support or whitewash Islamism. It acknowledges the horrors of Islamism and rightly condemned the Muslim Association of Britain. 

The Workers liberty is “for international solidarity and Socialism.” Here, they acknowledge what we on the right have said about the threat of Islamism and understands full well that it contradicts many things the left claims to stand for.

As serious improvements to the pro-Islamist left, the workers liberty said:

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In fact, the MAB is a political organisation with a very specific political agenda – and, as we shall see, a reactionary one which the labour, anti-war and student movements should be doing everything in their power to oppose.

I totally agree. This article mentions the MAB as part of the Muslim Brotherhood and says correctly what the MB’s goals are. The section “MAB in it’s own words” say:

In the Inspire newspaper produced for the September 28th 2002 demonstration, an article on the MAB’s “Historical Roots and Background” links it quite explicitly to the Islamist (Islamic fundamentalist) tradition of the Muslim Brotherhood, with the stated aim of “the widespread implementation of Islam as a way of life; no longer to be sidelined as merely a religion”. At the Stop the War Coalition conference on 11th January 2003, an MAB speaker stated that his organisation was proud to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In short, the MAB is open about being part of a political current which aims to establish a state run under Islamic law, with decisions made by a religious elite and the population subjected to drastic rules based on the almost 1,300-year-old Qur’an and re-invented traditions from over a thousand years ago. What this means in practice is demonstrated by an article in Inspire on “Islam and Human Rights”, which states that apostasy from Islam is either “a religious offence punishable by death” or, at least, “an act of mutiny or treason, that is punishable” as such.

The MAB’s other political slogans are also indicative of its politics. Take “Zionists out of Palestine”. Given that the vast majority of Jewish citizens of Israel considers themselves Zionists, this can only indicate hostility to the very presence of Jews in Palestine (as distinct from opposition to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, or condemnation of the way Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens).

Most of it is correct. It talks about the ideology of Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhoods including the MAB’s goals on Israel. However,  what is the “way Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens”? Arab citizens of Israel are treated equally. Them being discriminated is a claim by leftist loons and anti-Israel propagandists. East Jerusalem is legally part of Israel.

I will not say whether most Israeli Jews consider themselves Zionists or not.

This article talks about Muslim Brotherhood takeovers and Islamist oppression. It talks negatively of the Hamas takeover in Gaza, even while the leftist loons whitewash and cry for the democratically-elected Hamas [leaving out their anti-democratic ideology, rejection of Israel's right to exist and their terrorist history] and complain that Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement are puppets of the US and Israel. 

This piece quotes the labor party of Pakistan calling Islamism, “the new fascism” favorably, even while the left usually is opposed to calling Islamism “fascism”, thusly condemning us right-wingers when we rightly call Islamists “Islamo-fascists.” This is a rare instance of leftists acknowledging that Islamists are fascist, even while the left condemned calling them that, and severely condemned President Bush when he used the term “Islamo-fascism” to describe Islamists. 

This article said:

Criticising the MAB is not Islamophobic or anti-Muslim; many if not most Muslims are strongly opposed to Islamism, and Muslim workers, women and left-wingers are of course the first victims of the Islamists in power. It is no coincidence that socialist, feminist and labour movement groups in Muslim countries are among the most virulent opponents of Islamism, since they are fighting against it for their lives.

The Labour Party of Pakistan, for instance, has described Islamism as “the new fascism” and Jamaat-e-Islami as being one of the most serious threats the Pakistani labour movement faces; Dita Sari, chair of the Indonesian FNPBI trade union federation and herself a religious Muslim, has spoken in Britain about having to organise workers’ guards to defend her union’s meetings from armed Islamist thugs.

This article is correct about Islamism. It says that many, if not most, Muslims oppose Islamism. It talks about the oppressive nature of Islamism. The article said;

As well as alienating secular and left-wing Muslims from the anti-war movement, the Stop the War Coalition’s alliance with the MAB also serves to alienate Jewish people, feminists and many on the left.

Fair enough. Islamists are anti-Semitic and oppose women’s rights. This article was right in critiquing the Stop the war coalition with the MAB. It claims that it alienates left-wing Muslims and many on the left. However, workers liberty should know that the political left is not condemning the Islamists because they share the hatred of America and it allies including Israel.

Workers Liberty said:

The question is: why should the labour, anti-war and student movements help to promote and entrench the position of a right-wing political current among Muslims? By allying with the MAB, the Stop the War Coalition has effectively said that it is more interested in conservative and Islamist Muslims than left-wing and secular Muslims/ex-Muslims.

Islamists are not right-wing. Islamists are sometimes called “Conservative” but not as in right-wing conservative, say like me. 

Workers liberty also stated:

Before, during and since the end of the war, the AWL has argued consistently for a movement in solidarity with the peoples – and in the first instance, the working-class – of Iraq, which raises democratic, secular and internationalist slogans against US-UK imperialism, the remnants of the Ba’athist regime and insurgent Islamic fundamentalism. It should be obvious, of course, that the alliance with the MAB is incompatible with this goal.

Fair enough. But still, America and Britain are not being imperialist in Iraq, for they are spreading democracy in Iraq. This is perhaps a rare instance from the left acknowledging that it contradicts the views leftists claim to stand for. It is a rare instance of a leftist source not cuddling up with Islamists to promote hatred of our great nation America. 

This is rather surprising, but rare.