According to representatives of Asian NGOs, the War Against Terrorism is legitimising authoritarian regimes and seriously undermining the democratisation effort. Most disturbingly, the US is using the events of September 11 to remilitarise the region and to secure its own economic and strategic interests. At a recent conference, hosted by the Asian Human Rights Commission,
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Tayman Bahmani – racially murdered
Yesterday a young Iranian asylum seeker was racially murdered on the streets of Sunderland. Tayman Bahmani, aged 28, was stabbed at about 3.30pm on Peel Street, Sunderland, and died a few hours later in a local hospital. As yet no one has been arrested for the incident. He had been in the United Kingdom for
No appeasement for the extreme-Right
Stunning successes for European extreme-Right and anti-immigrant parties, particularly in France and the Netherlands, have shocked mainstream political parties and led to a vigorous debate about what should be done. Now, new research from the Institute of Race Relations challenges Tony Blair’s hypothesis that Social Democratic parties in Europe must isolate the extreme-Right by tackling
An unholy alliance? Racism, religion and communalism
For too long there has been a reluctance to discuss the issue of communalism in British Asian communities. Organised religious groups can be powerful forces and their critics are either accused of ‘washing dirty linen in public’ or denounced for a supposed disloyalty. When those who have spoken out have been women, the denunciations have
IRR expresses concern over excessive sentencing of Bradford rioters
The sentencing policy of the Bradford riot trials is meant to discipline an entire community, rather than reflect the severity of each individual’s actions. The riots that took place in Manningham, Bradford, over the weekend of 7 July, 2001, caused over a million pounds worth of damage and left hundreds of police officers injured. Over
The death of multiculturalism
The official response to the summer 2001 riots in the northern towns of the UK is now taking shape. December saw the publication of the Cantle report [1], titled Community Cohesion, which defines the government’s strategy for maintaining order in those towns. [2] At the same time, Home Secretary Blunkett announced that the government was
Blunkett expands prison-asylum complex
Asylum seekers in Britain are increasingly facing a system of imprisonment, detention and slave labour. Despite the government’s softer language on asylum at the Labour Party conference in September, when it feared a fight with the grassroots membership, more asylum seekers are being imprisoned. Then David Blunkett conceded that the practice of putting asylum seekers
The challenge of September 11
The events of September 11 and their aftermath, in terms of government policy, have thrown up a series of contradictions for anti-racists about freedom of expression, human rights, religion and Islam, in particular. CARF asked veteran campaigner and anti-imperialist writer A Sivanandan for some pointers. CARF: You have, for a long time, warned us against
Crimes of NASS
The Home Office and the Scottish Executive ordered civil servants to carry out a thorough review of the dispersal system. Its conclusions are expected any day. But will the racial violence that claimed the life of Firsat Dag be on the agenda? A safe haven? As Europe’s overall approach to asylum seekers gets ever harsher,
Terrorism: theirs and ours
We reproduce this address given at the University of Colorado, Boulder, on 12 October 1998 because of its relevance to the current world situation. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish underground in Palestine was described as ‘terrorist’. Then new things happened. By 1942, the Holocaust was occurring, and a certain liberal sympathy with the