Anti-Muslim racism, police brutality and imperialism: Why we must defend the Muslim protests
Posted by John, September 17th, 2012 - under Imperialism, Islamophobia, Racism.
A frenzy of anti-Muslim bigotry has once again gripped Australia following an anti-racist demonstration by Muslims in Sydney.
At that rally, which several members of Socialist Alternative attended, hundreds of police savagely and repeatedly attacked the protesters. Police used tasers, pepper spray, police dogs and batons. Several women reported police trying to rip off their headscarves. Many protesters were injured, and dozens, including children as young as seven years old, and some even younger in prams, have been hit with tear gas.
The protest in Sydney came as part of a wave of demonstrations around the world, sparked by an anti-Islam video made in the US. But while the racist video may have been the catalyst, the broader context is the ongoing domination and intervention of US imperialism in the Muslim world, justified since September 11 by a concerted campaign of Islamophobia, which has seen Islam systematically vilified. Recent so-called “anti-terror” raids were another target of the protest.
The current demonisation of the Muslim demonstration in Sydney is part of this wider Islamophobia, racism and vilification of all things Islamic to entrench imperialism.
Socialist Alternative in Canberra is holding this important meeting on Thursday 20 September at 6 pm in room G8 of the Moran Building.
RACISTS NOT WELCOME