Islamophobia is rising – and Britain’s politicians have been dangerously complacent in tackling it
Mainstream figures have been enabling anti-Muslim racism, creating the ideal conditions for the rise of hard-right political parties.
What could a progressive alternative to the failed “war on terror” look like?
Fifteen Terrorism Acts in the last 20 years have created an oppressive and racist legacy. The left must not shy away from promoting a new vision of “security”, argues a new report out this week. Twenty years ago, a backbench MP called Jeremy Corbyn criticised a new Terrorism Bill that Tony Blair’s Labour government was…
What’s going wrong in the public discourse on British Muslims?
In each of the last fourteen years, essentially the same speech has been delivered by one or another UK government minister. From Tony Blair, David Blunkett, Hazel Blears, and Ruth Kelly to David Cameron and Theresa May, the message has been identical: Britain is said to be in crisis because a minority of Muslims have…
The hypocrisy of Tony Blair’s Middle East vision
Blair’s simplistic formula for tackling radical Islam is leading him to support some of the most oppressive forces in the region. Tony Blair’s speech this week at Bloomberg in London reveals a growing support for authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. A decade ago, Blair was justifying wars in the Middle East on the grounds that they would…
Britain and the economy of ignorance
This essay on New Labour, digital media, and network ideologies appeared in The Globalization of Corporate Media Hegemony, edited by Lee Artz and Yahya R. Kamalipour (State University of New York Press, 2003) Over the last five years, so much has been written about the internet and the so-called knowledge economy that it may appear…