Yasmin Alibhai-Brown30 September 2002
As my husband, myself and our nine-year-old daughter finally left the protest march against war on Iraq last Saturday, they were still coming in towards Hyde Park as far as the eye could see. Hundreds of thousands – more than any of us had hoped for – turned up. Cars hooted in support, Muslim women in hijab cheerfully yet purposefully marched beside young socialists, trade union activists and pacifist Quakers. The rich were there with the modest; Hampstead and Clapham Common marched with Bradford and Brixton. Muslims, Jews, Christians, blacks, whites, Asians, the young – nearly new-born babies too – and the wearily old in wheelchairs kept up the slow, reassuring walk through London, briefly feeling just a little more powerful than they really are in our depressingly over-controlled country where the basics of democracy are flouted for low motives.
I said hello to Ben Pimlott, royal biographer and respected commentator; behind him, John Pilger was rushing somewhere with that familiar urgent look on his face. Rahilla Gupta, the writer and campaigner against domestic violence, was there with a group of fiery Asian feminists. Other writers, too, were somewhere in the massive crowds, Adhaf Souief, the British/Egyptian novelist, whose book Map of Love was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, among them. University students were pushing pamphlets and collecting buckets with an energy that I thought had all but disappeared from our campuses. Politics is back again and with a fury and passion that our miserable politicians have no hope of placating with their buttery lies.
One had to avoid being seen near some vile banners that were anti-Semitic or plain thuggish. Young men in angry black and orange shirts denounced all things Western and proclaimed that the future is a global Islamist republic. (That would be time for me to shuffle off this planet, for how would I stand to be governed by such men, whose eyes and words know no humility or compassion and who have no understanding of the words they freely scatter?) But they were easily ignored as we united around two central messages: we are against the war on Iraq and we want justice and a free state for Palestinians.
In what can sometimes feel an increasingly fragmented country, the march was a spectacular coming together of various tribes and individuals. We reject the weapons of mass deception that are being deployed by politicians and sections of the media to mobilise public opinion into backing the bloodlust of the American administration and our sincere, God-fearing Prime Minister, who is probably at church as I write this. It was, therefore, inevitable that this march got barely a fraction of the coverage bestowed on the blood-sport enthusiasts march last weekend.
The manufacturers of news and views are now trying to describe the anti-war movement as an Islamic revolt. John Humphrys interrogated Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain last week, demanding to know if Muslims would be on side once war was declared because this is what is expected of British citizens. What? So when did we bury the important right to be a conscientious objector? And will this support be demanded of other objectors – Pilger, Robert Fisk, Mark Steel, ActionAid, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children – and the thousands on the march? Will they all wake up on the day we start slaughtering the weak and sick people of Iraq and say they are now on side?
Sadly, a minority of the marchers on Saturday were falling into the same dangerous trap of seeing the coming battles as confrontations between "real" Islam and the Western world. Why did some of the Muslim speakers on the podium have to get the crowd to repeat "Allah is Great!"? To start your speech with a meaningful prayer is fine, but to ask for an echo from a vast group that consisted of all faiths and atheists is alienating and misguided. How would I have felt if the vicar who spoke had demanded from us that we should shout "Jesus is our Lord"? A young Muslim man from Birmingham on the stage did try to correct the impression being given: "This is a march for justice, and for all people in the country who believe in human rights." I thank him for his wisdom and clarity.
We need to focus on what united us on Saturday – our strength lies not only in numbers but also in the diversity that converged over Iraq and Palestine. Protesters from all backgrounds have the same burning questions – which they wanted me to put to Mr Blair.
Where is his apology and acknowledgement that we armed Saddam and facilitated his killing fields? In 1988 Saddam destroyed Kurd villages and killed thousands. In the same year he was given $500m by the US to buy American products. Why is Saddam a threat today when he wasn't on 10 September? If we could live with the USSR by maintaining a tense but effective policy of containment, why is that so difficult with Iraq? Are we going to bomb Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia, too, because they are in obvious need of a regime change? When we attack Iraq, and Saddam disappears with his élite forces into bunkers, leaving ordinary Iraqis to die, can we be shown the footage so that we know exactly what is done in our name? If Iraqis try to flee before the war and come here as asylum-seekers, will we give them refuge? When will he mourn the 30,000 boy conscripts the United States slew during the Gulf War – they were victims of Saddam made to pay for their dictator just as now? If Saddam is such a threat, why are the countries near Iraq – except Israel, obviously – all united in opposing the war? Does Mr Blair care that even more young Muslims will be attracted into extremism because they can't stand the double standards of the West? When is he going to tell the truth about Gulf War Syndrome – this from a veteran sufferer of that war? What about a dossier with details of the costs of the weekly bombings on Iraq and the effects of the sanctions? Evil Saddam uses the sanctions to punish his people, but if he didn't have the sanctions he wouldn't have the excuses either. Can he explain what he means by anti-American? Is it anti-American to loathe the corrupt motives of Bush and co? Why aren't we trying for a regime change in Israel? Sharon ignores UN resolutions and acts like a barbarian. This pre-emptive strike, where is that allowed in law? If I think my ex-con neighbour might mug me, do I have the right to pre-empt him by burning his house down? If Saddam has these weapons, why has he not used them yet? Why are UK generals and ex-inspectors against the war? Is Kuwait now a wholesome democracy? If the US bullies the UN, demeans Kofi Annan and gets an endorsement for his war, should we then boycott the US?I hope that the Prime Minister will give us some credible answers in Blackpool, not because he is worried about badgering Muslims, but because he owes us better leadership in these frightful times.
