NUS Black Students Officer, Malia Bouattia, spoke up against a motion at an NUS meeting last month that condemned ISIS, making the point that it was worded in ways that advocated Western intervention and Islamophobic sentiments. Now, Malia is being subject to death and rape threats via social media. Sairah Yassir explains how this is yet another example of lazy sensationalist behaviour towards Muslims.
The current media frenzy concerning the democratic revocation of a statement condemning ISIS as a means of legitimising Western intervention taken by the NUS (National Union of Students) sees strong and inspiring community activist Malia Bouattia, NUS BSC (Black Students Campaign) Officer, at the forefront of vicious threats towards her and her family.
Scores of colleagues, friends and fellow campaigners have shared their thoughts and statements in solidarity with Ms Bouattia whose personal accomplishments include being awarded the Media Diversified’s #EightWomen award alongside the founding, establishment and promotion of several organisations. These include Black Women’s Forum UK, the West Midlands Pan-African Students’ Union and the West Midlands Palestine societies Forum. Notwithstanding her work as NUS BSC Officer [1].
Despite the fact that NUS members have self-autonomy and this revocation was the overall outcome of a diverse crowd – not solely delegates representing NUS BSC – media pundits are drawing inflammatory conclusions and cherry picking statements to paint a different picture.
In her address to the NUS Malia outlined, that she and the NUS BSC:
“Stand in complete solidarity with the Kurdish people against the recent attacks by ISIS and join many others in condemnation of their brutal actions. In doing so we recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia. This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”
Why then is Malia and the NUS BSC being attacked? Why does Daniel Cooper, NEC member, and the dubious AWL, so-called “Alliance for Workers’ Liberty”, not see the paradox in the original statement they are aiming to push when non-IS strongholds such as Idlib are being droned and scores of Syrians are being killed as a result of Western intervention [2]? Or are these lives and these people less important?
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More unsettling have we forgotten the devastating effect that Western intervention has caused the Middle East since colonisation and beyond? Iraq alone, once a thriving and prosperous country, boasting of renowned scientists, scholars, poets, artisans and research academy such as Al-Bayt al-Hikmah, “The House of Wisdom”[3], is now a country divided into sectarian militias, a heavily neoliberal-backed privatisation infrastructure [4] and puppet regime.
Puzo’s maxim that those who are suited and booted can steal more than those with guns and masks has been forgotten and we continue to accept the “War On Terror” narrative – blindly accepting propaganda guised as “humanitarian intervention” by our legal bandits.
As was evident with those who spoke out against war efforts during the Soviet Union era, the Japanese-American War, and more closer to home, the way the Irish were treated, in particularly during the 90s, “othering” and scapegoating as a means to justify the Global North’s atrocities in the Global South is the perfect distraction.
The British, in particular, are renowned for their policies of “divide and conquer”, referring to some of their colonial pursuits as “The Great Game” [5]. When the British public is too busy questioning their fellow citizens, they forget the horrific acts which are undertaken in their name.
It is to no surprise then that the latest “other” minority group, Muslims, and anti-war activists are rejecting this narrative. Campaigns such as the twitter hashtag #MuslimApologies and reddit “I Condemn Ebola” thread provide a space to highlight the absurdity of comments made by President Obama and right wing zealots calling for Muslims and anti-war activists to relentlessly vocalise their condemnations in return of the acceptance as people who may be deemed as anti-IS. “Yes sir”, “no sir”, “three bags full sir”.
In a discussion which took place on Al-Jazeera’s “The Stream” exploring “The Pressure to Denounce IS” [6], celebrated journalist, Mehdi Hassan rightfully outlined that the only cross section of society who is at present pushed to condemn a group – which many Muslims will rightly argue has nothing to do with them – is indeed Muslims. Mr Hassan continued to raise important points such as: “Asking Muslims to condemn ISIS is like asking Americans to condemn drone strikes. […] However, Muslims didn’t vote for ISIS, whereas Americans did vote for President Obama”.
The vilification of Malia Bouattia and other Muslims such as Imam Suhaib Webb, Reza Aslan and others is a shameful and evergrowing legacy of lazy sensationalist churnalism towards Muslims. Peripheral subject matter, no critical thought or analysis, no right of rebuttal afforded to those attacked and a further means to sow the seeds of disunity. And then we will ask, “Why don’t Muslims integrate in to society?” “Why do Muslims and ethnic minorities form their own sub groups?” As Mehdi Hassan alluded, those who think or ask questions based on bigoted ideologies and attitudes are often those who have the problem, not the person or people they are quizzing.
This article was first published in The Speaker Newspaper.
References
[1] https://www.nus.org.uk/cy/news/nus-black-students-officer-malia-bouattia-wins-eightwomen-award/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/09/syria-isis-bashar-al-assad-coalition-air-strikes
[3] https://www.muslimheritage.com/node/802
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/10/politics.iraq
[5] https://web.wm.edu/so/monitor/issues/08-2/5-keister.htm
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_O3PSyXTjQ&list=WL&index=7
