IT was Prime Minister Blair who insisted that the 7th July bombings and the July 21 attempted bombings were nothing to do with the war in Iraq, and the killing of up to 100,000 Iraqis.
He said that the source of the bombings was Islamic, and was, what he termed, a perversion of the Islamic religion.
Blair added that this had to be fought all over the world from Iraq to London, with the proviso that the US-UK military action in Iraq could not defeat it – that job had to be done by the Muslim people.
It was down to Muslims in Britain to end the bombing attacks by vanquishing this perversion of Islam.
When asked why ‘we’ could not negotiate with Islamic terrorists as ‘we’ had done with the IRA, Blair claimed that the IRA was a more acceptable form of terrorism than the Islamic variety. One could negotiate with the IRA to end its terrorism, but it was impossible to negotiate with Al Qaeda, the only way was to take it on and defeat it.
Blair identified Islam as the source of the bombing attacks and then demonised Islamic movements by claiming that, unlike the IRA, they were beyond the pale.
He fingered Islam, demonised the Islamists, and then gave moderate Muslims the responsibility for defeating them.
News Line pointed out that Blair was whipping up Islamaphobia and was preparing the way for others to come forward to say that the Islamic communities should be be turned out of Britain.
We have not had too long to wait.
First of all, the Tory shadow Home Secretary Davis demanded that Islamic communities must be told by the government that they must integrate into the British way of life.
Then, Tory MP Howarth stepped forward to say that those who refused to integrate, including those who were British nationals, should be deported.
That this is racism is obvious.
That this is the re-emergence of the slogan, beloved by the fascists, of ‘send them back’ is also obvious, as is the fact that the fingering of Islam by Blair, as being responsible for the bombings, prepared the way for this position to emerge.
The fact of the matter is that Islam is not the source of the bombings. The source is the Bush-Blair illegal invasion of Iraq, which was most definitely incitement to terrorism.
The Howarth sword is, however, double-edged. It is directed at Asians but there are a lot of white workers, especially trade unionists, all born in Britain who despise British capitalism and its way of life, and want to see it overthrown – are they to be put in camps in the Falklands or somewhere else.
This rise of right wing racism is not just connected to the war in Iraq and the way that this has incited terrorism. Its source is the crisis of British capitalism, and its economy which is crumbling fast.
Ruling classes have always used racism to try to split the working class so that they can destroy wages, jobs and basic rights.
Their current efforts must be fought tooth and nail.
The trade unions have a duty to lead this fight.
They musty take action to end the war in Iraq and to advance to socialism in Britain.
They must call a general strike to bring down the Blair government, and bring in a workers’ government that will withdraw the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and bring in socialism in Britain.
This is the way to defeat both state terrorism and racism by advancing towards world socialism.
