Bruce Lawson’s personal site

Although I lived in East Asia for four years, I never visited China. Although I’d love to see it, my conscience won’t allow me to give a penny to its corrupt and immoral leadership, particularly after my experience with Tibetan refugees in India.

So I find myself in the slightly odd position of agreeing wholeheartedly with President Bush (!) when he said yesterday,

The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings. So America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists…

Ultimately, only China can decide what course it will follow. America and our partners are realistic, and we’re prepared for any possibility. I’m optimistic about China’s future. Young people who grow up with the freedom to trade goods will ultimately demand the freedom to trade ideas, especially on an unrestricted Internet. Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions. Yet change will arrive. And it will be clear for all to see that those who aspire to speak their conscience and worship their God are no threat to the future of China.

As a member of Amnesty International, I entirely support this view, and applaud his speaking out.

In entirely unrelated news, another superpower has finally tried someone whom it imprisoned for five years with no habeas corpus. The jury disregarded the ruling regime’s request for a 30 year prison sentence, instead choosing to imprison him until early next year. The judge said, “I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country.”

However, the regime has said that it will not release him when his sentence is finished, but will incarcerate him indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay.

I look forward to President Bush’s similar denunciation of this violation of human rights.

.. and missed the Bangkok bombs, I’m glad to say. Or rather, the bombs missed us. Hope the minges who planted them blow themselves up, next time.

Anyway: happy new year.

England is a nice place, generally. It took me a while to realise it, but I was helped to appreciate it when I came back to live here with my wife, who’d been reasonably active in the Thai democracy movement so had experienced being chased by men with M16s, friends “disappearing” and millitary dictatorship.

We tend not to do that here. Having been built up our culture over centuries by absorbing waves of immigration and different cultures, we tend towards tolerance (or, perhaps more cynically, we just hate each other in a quiet, law-abiding way). We mind our own business, which can mean that people die in their houses and nobody notices, but it also means that we don’t much care what God you pray to, as long as it stays your business. And that’s how most of us, muslim, secular, hindus, jews, whatever get along just fine.

So it’s particularly baffling that our recent terrorists have been home-grown extremist “muslims”. (I use quotes, as their brand of Islam has very little in common with that practiced by my muslim colleagues, friends and neighbours).

These guys obviously are pretty grumpy with the majority way of life in the U.K., so I’d like to suggest a way to live as they want to, without the tiresome necessity of blowing up themselves and everyone around them.

I propose that the government give them every assistance to relocate to places where liberalism, democracy and secularism are illegal, and religious zealots rule.

Take Iran, for example. There’s no nicer way for a would-be plane bomber to relax after a hard week’s plotting, than by enjoying the public hanging from a crane of a sixteen year-old mentally-disturbed girl like Atefah Sahaaleh, for “crimes against chastity” (that is, having the temerity to be repeatedly raped by a 51-year-old revolutionary guard).

Or Saudi Arabia: a fine place for a trainee terrorist to get spiritual sustenance by watching police force schoolgirls back into a burning school to their deaths, because they hadn’t put on their headscarves before trying to escape?

Or there’s that idyllic oasis of piety, Pakistan, where an ex-pat British wannabe mass-murderer can help administer religious justice by gang-raping women like Mukhtar Mai, “punished” because her 12 year old brother was seen walking with a girl from a different group.

All of these acts are completely abhorrent to 99.99% of muslims, but they illustrate the barbarity of people with too much heaven on their minds. We could equally cite the Catholic Inquisition of a couple of centuries ago, or the outlawed Hindu practice of burning widows alive. All horrible.

A modest proposal

So, let’s go further, as it’s not just extremist “muslims” who cause the trouble. There are jews who believe that killing Lebanese muslims is a religious duty. There are christians who murder abortion doctors or gay people. There are hindus who persecute muslims and christians.

Let’s get everyone, of whatever flavour of God-bothering, who believes that their religion requires them to kill, and send them to somewhere empty where sane people don’t want to go (I’m thinking of Antarctica, the Aussie Outback, nuclear test grounds, or Swindon). They can all slaughter each other to their hearts’ content, without disturbing the rest of us.

They would be more than happy, as even if they get murdered by a bigger, badder loony, they get to meet their Invisible Friends in the Sky. Meanwhile, the rest of us can continue to co-exist sensibly and peacefully, worshipping privately and getting on with our lives.

It’s a win-win situation.

Your thoughts?

A year ago today, some loonies blew themselves up on the tube and murdered 52 people. Tony Blair has recently called for moderate muslims to confront “Islamic” extremists (who actually bear as much resemblance to Islam as the IRA do to my daughter’s Catholic schoolteachers).

Dr Louay Fatoohi is an old friend of mine. He is an Iraqi Islamic scholar and published a book called Jihad in the Qur’an: The Truth from the Source after the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks to show that in the Qur’an there is no justification for such suicide bombings. He specifically notes that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about Islam amongst ill-educated muslims, and it’s therefore unsurprising that non-muslims harbour such suspicion:

Contrary to what many believe, misunderstanding and misrepresenting Islam are not associated with non-Muslims only. People who are Muslims in name yet almost totally ignorant of their religion have been major contributors to the painting of the widespread distorted image of Islam. Under the name of Islam, some individuals and groups have adopted ideas and taken actions that have nothing to do with Islam. These non-Islamic concepts and actions then get unfairly associated with Islam. Misunderstanding of Islam and phobic reactions to this religion, thus, become an inevitable outcome…

It is no surprise, therefore, to find an Islamic concept such as “jihad” the subject of such phenomenal misunderstanding and misrepresentation…

The reality about Islam is that it is the religion for spiritual development. Islam teaches obeying and satisfying Allah, and living in peace with people, Muslim or not. It is about attaining peace in this world and in the hereafter. Nothing is further from Islam than violence and aggression. Islam is a threat only to evil as it aims to eradicate it and save humanity. We all, Muslims and non-Muslims, harbor inside us some evil which spills over and contaminates the world. Islam is the peaceful war against that evil. Islam is about every action that we take to replace the evil inside us with good and become better servants of Allah and, consequently, better human individuals and members of a human society.

About half the book is available online. It’s short, rigorously annotated but simple to read. Although the book is primarily for other muslims to read, I highly recommend it to all, particularly on this day.

The head of MI5 said,

Some erosion of what we all value may be necessary to improve the chances of our citizens not being blown apart as they go about their daily lives. (Source)

The latest U.S. State Department figures show that terrorism is at its lowest level for thirty-five years.
Continue reading Who will guard us from the guardians?

I’m finding it hard writing this blog lately. It’s not that I haven’t got stuff to say. Far from it - I’ve got about 12 draft posts on the go, about screenreaders, the Ben Jonson play I’ve just been to see, Islam, and Sri Lankan rap music.

Previously, I wrote about whatever I’m thinking about at the time as a kind of catharsis. In the old days, people used to shout at passers-by in the street; these days, we blog. It keeps the peace and normal people don’t have to be harangued while they do their shopping. Nutters get their outlet, so everyone wins. I didn’t even have comments: it was a solo pleasure, like wanking.

But now I’ve got performance anxiety. To continue my wanking analogy, someone who gets pleasure from a daily tug won’t necessarily feel comfortable having a porn film crew around them recording it.
Continue reading Posting for posterity

(11 a.m. ) It had to happen, and now it’s happened.

Let’s realise now that this isn’t about Islam. Al Queda are murderous fuckers who worship nothing but death, and they bear as much resemblance to the muslims I know as the IRA do to the teachers at my daughter’s catholic school.

News reports still coming in. Colleagues in our London office are told not to close the windows and leave the building (secondary devices, I guess).

When the mess is cleared and the dead people are counted, their loved ones consoled and their children comforted, let’s round up everyone who believes their religion requires or allows them to murder - whether they be Jews, Christians, Moslems, Sikhs or Hindus - and hang them all.

Civilisation can’t progress until that happens.

Continue reading London terrorist attacks

The American military is seen here winning hearts and minds by sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners and torturing one by telling him he’ll be electrocuted if he falls of a rations box. Canadian TV showed a programme alleging a pre-mediated massacre of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan (55MB QuickTime video here).Can I hear you saying "My Lai", good people? What splendid tactics to show the middle East that we respect human rights while we "liberate" Iraq. "Dad … What’s A Terrorist?"

I lived in Turkey between 1993 and 1994, and spent a lot of time in İstanbul, a city that literally unites Europe and Asia. The Turkish people I met there were good and kind, helping me when I couldn’t speak their language, and not laughing too visibly when I tried to. And now terrorists are attacking it - because it’s a nation where 90%+ of the population are muslim, but the laws are secular; because it’s a country which looks both East and West, even though the European Union continually deny it entry. I feel so sad for the people there - for my friends Melih and Minna, Yeşim and Huseyin, Asiye and İpek.

The only trouble I encountered because of my ethnicity (I was going to say religion, but I don’t have one) was in ‘93 when I was walking in the old part of the City, furtively taking pictures of a demonstration in support of Bosnians who were being massacred by the Bosnian Serbs. A veiled woman saw me and spat at me; I asked her why. She told me that Turkey had exposed itself to much danger and wrecked its economy by supporting the allies in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait, and now the West was sitting on its hands while muslims were being slaughtered in the heart of Europe. People who know me will tell you that I’m not known for being at a loss for words, but as she handed me a napkin to wipe the spit off my coat, there was nothing I could say. She was right.

The title of this post means “may it soon pass” or “may you recover soon” in Turkish, and I mean it for the Turkish people and the city of İstanbul that Yeşim describes so beautifully.

It’s two years since the terrorist atrocities in the U.S., and what has changed? 6118 civilians dead as a result of the American/ British occupation of Iraq; 3000 dead civilians dead in Afghanistan, yet Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein still broadcast via Al-Jazeera. My friend’s daughter had her hijab torn off her while on a bus and beer poured over her head (“that’s for the world trade centre”); she’s 16 and a British-born muslim. The “allies” say it’s not a war on Islam - but George W.’s calling it a “Crusade”
and the initial designation of the bombing of Afghanistan as “Operation Infinite Justice” would certainly make me sceptical, were I a muslim.

I’m no anti-American; I believe there’s much in the U.S. that we British should import - the almost total seperation of religion and state, the rejection of the monarchy, a written bill of rights and a constitution (minus the absurd right to bear arms) are things that I’d love to see in the U.K. The USA seems to value liberty, equality under the law, the rule of law highly.

But, of course, there is a dirty secret behind it all. Tucked away in Guantanamo Bay are 660 men - three of whom are teenagers. Three are also British. These men are being held indefinitely (Donald
Rumsfeld: “Our interest is in not trying them and letting them out .. Our interest is in - during this global war on terror - keeping them off the streets, and so that’s what’s taking place.”), will be tried in secret with no defence lawyers, and could even be executed. This is America’s shame; their ‘peace’ and ’security’ depends upon curtailing that of other people; their conduct destroys their moral superiority. The claim to be upholding liberal democracy is hollow when they will not afford their prisoners of war the rights of POWs under the Geneva Convention (or even the rights granted under Magna Carta half a millenium ago).

Have you ever read the very short story by Ursula Le Guin - “The ones who walk away from Omelas”? It describes a rich, happy society - much like America - but this society is somehow founded on the misery of one small child, locked in a basement, sorely abused: “It is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day. It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.”

They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the
beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery …

Often the young people go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they have seen the child and faced this terrible paradox. They may brood over it for weeks or years. But as time goes on they begin to realize that even if the child could be released, it would not get much good of its freedom: a little vague pleasure of warmth and food, no doubt, but little more. It is too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy. It has been afraid too long ever to be free of fear.
Its habits are too uncouth for it to respond to humane treatment. Indeed, after so long it would probably be wretched without walls about it to protect it, and darkness for its eyes, and its own excrement to sit in.

Just like le Guin’s fictional Omelas, America justifies its stamping on the rights of others by stating that those others can’t handle freedom. “They’re muslims, aren’t they - so they’re not interested in democracy and self-determination. They’re communists, thus so brainwashed that they can’t elect a government; we’re doing them a favour by governing them. It’s for world peace and middle-eastern security that we prop up and bankroll a morally repugnant Israeli government which treats some of its own citizens as second-class citizens because of their race, and which has a litany of U.N. resolutions condemning it” is the real Voice of the American government. It even uses its anti-terror laws against its own citizens for non-terrorist crimes. Benjamin Franklin wrote “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Today is also the thirtieth anniversary of the American-sponsored military coup in Chile, which saw Pinochet topple the democratically-elected President Allende.