Paddy Hill of Birmingham 6 writes on Islamophopia

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Wednesday August 03, 2005 13:55

by dave - swp

Racism is the enemy within

Paddy Hill: ‘We must defend the Muslim community’

Paddy Hill, one of six Irish men who were framed by the state for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, spoke to Socialist Worker.

The way the Muslim community is being stigmatised does not surprise me. I forecast this two years ago when nine Algerians in Edinburgh were arrested in anti-terror raids. They were held for over a year and then released without charge.

I said after the events of 9/11 that what is happening to Muslims is all too reminiscent of what happened to the Irish in the 1970s.

We must not allow the state to stigmatise Muslims the way it did the Irish community. If you had an Irish accent the state thought that you had a bomb in one hand and a gun in the other. We cannot allow that kind of stereotype to appear again.

The intelligence services have been heavily involved in tracking down the suspected bombers. But when the Birmingham Six were arrested, I was never questioned about the pub bombings. They just told us that we were plastered from head to toe in explosive — we weren’t.

Tony Blair has made a public apology to the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven after they were falsely imprisoned for bomb attacks. I want a public apology too.

I hope they catch the people who were behind the recent London bombs. But I also hope that in 25-30 years time the then home secretary is not having to make an apology to Muslim families for arresting the wrong people.

The new shoot to kill policy is being embraced by the police and other high ranking people. They say they expect more innocent people to be shot.

If I was a Muslim in London, Birmingham, or Leeds, I would be very nervous. We have to brace ourselves for what will happen next.

All of the Muslim community, and those like me who stand beside them, must come together. The Irish took what was thrown at them and many people stood back and let the Irish community be isolated.

We are not going to let that happen to the Muslim community, to an ethnic minority, whatever happens next.

We cannot allow people to be stigmatised and traumatised by the forces of law and order.

Tony Blair should have the decency and courage to say this is all about Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. It’s about the US exploitation of the Third World and Arab countries. And it’s about oil.

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Paddy Hill of Birmingham 6 writes on Islamophopia