An Enemy not an Ally: Maryam Namazie

Last week, the One Law for All (OLFA) campaign issued a report entitled ‘Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right’, co-written by Adam Barnett and Maryam Namazie. This, I have taken the time to read, ingesting both its text and subtext. Whereas the stated aim of the OLFA campaign – one secular law for all in the UK – is one which I wholeheartedly support, the same cannot be said for the content of this report which betrays a clear anti-English, anti-British, anti-White and anti-European bias. Whilst it attempts to pass itself off as an objective ‘report’, this piece of pseudo-scholarship is actually a piece of thinly disguised polemic attacking the fundamental right to national self-determination, positing in the process a highly distasteful and tendentious ‘link’ between the recent atrocity committed by Anders Breivik and organisations and personalities which the authors have chosen to label as ‘far-right’. Thus Stephen Gash (Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) and English Democrats), Anders Gravers (SIOE), Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer (counterjihad bloggers) and the EDL find themselves bracketed in with Combat 18 and Blood and Honour.

That the aforementioned should be the case becomes rather clearer when we consider that the founder and head of OLFA – Maryam Namazie – whilst routinely described by the mainstream media as a campaigner for ‘secularism’ and ‘women’s rights’, also happens to be a member of the Central Committee of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. Given this party's Marxist stance, it should come as no surprise that it and its members are intrinsically hostile to the concept of national self-determination and the right of peoples to their national territories. Thus, from the perspective of Namazie et al, simply to object to the mass colonisation of non-Islamic nations – particularly European ones – by carriers of the Islamic ideological bacillus is defined as a ‘far-right’ position; indeed, any objection to mass immigration is summarily dismissed and stigmatised with the pariah label of ‘far-right’. Theirs is a form of language crafted to purposefully shut down debate through smearing those who hold views that they deem to be ideologically unpalatable. It is for this reason for example, that the OLFA report mentions the anti-Islamist movement’s concerns over Islamic immigration and high Muslim birthrates, yet only does so as a means of condemning those who express these views as ‘far-right’. The report simply does not address these very real and pressing demographic problems, preferring instead to adopt a moralistic and condemnatory tone, declaring objection to these processes as being forever off-limits because to conceptualise them as problems is deemed by the authors as ‘racist’. ‘Racist’. Has any word been so much abused and debased as this one over the past forty years? For OLFA, it would seem that you and I my friend, are “all racists now”. We are “far-right”.

The absence of intellectual rigour within the OLFA report, as well as its polemical nature, spring directly from Namazie’s Marxist-Leninist ideology and agenda. For anyone acquainted with Marxist theory and the sad historical record of its application, it is quite clear that Namazie is attempting to use the ‘one law for all’ issue for the straightforward purpose of promoting her wider Communist worldview, which is clear to see in the ‘Enemies Not Allies’ document. This ‘enemies not allies’ theme had previously been aired by Namazie at a public seminar in January this year, and drew some interesting criticism from Douglas Murray.

That a report produced by a Communist should contain wilful distortions of the truth is not surprising, but some of the ‘facts’ that it cites are frankly incorrect. For example, on page 40 it claims that the English Democrats advocate ‘secession from both the EU and the United Kingdom’. Whereas the party does call for England to withdraw from the EU, it argues for an English Parliament, not necessarily for the dissolution of a UK-wide parliament. The English Democrats contains unionists as well as those who would prefer to see the dissolution of the union, but it most certainly is not party policy to formally dissolve the UK.

Stephen Gash and Anders Gravers of SIOE are both described as ‘racists’, with Gash being accused of  ‘clear racism in statements and deeds’. The following excerpt from page 42 of the report illustrates the malicious and fanatical intent of the authors to play the race card despite the overwhelming evidence (even cited in the report!) that these men are not by any credible definition of the word ‘racists’. Thus, they state that SIOE claims not to be racist because of its slogan:

“‘Racism is the lowest form of stupidity! Islamophobia is the height of common sense!’ and because ‘co-founder of SIOE, Anders Gravers has fathered two mixed-race children with two women of different races’. These examples further trivialise racism (such as the use of the word ‘stupidity’ when racism dehumanises, kills and destroys people’s lives) and are tactical for purposes of appearance.”

Read those last six words again: ‘are tactical for purposes of appearance’. What?! So, Anders Gravers has sired mixed-race offspring with two women as a tactic ‘for purposes of appearance’? For me, that one statement demonstrates beyond any doubt that the objective faculties of Maryam Namazie and Adam Bennett are somewhat ‘challenged’ to put it in the euphemistic PC speech that we are enjoined to use these days. Namazie and Bennett stretch the reader’s credulity beyond breaking point with such an absurd assertion. So intent are they to brand all opposition to Islamisation and mass immigration as ‘far-right’ that they ignore the truth and attempt to foist upon the reader the most egregious distortions of reality. Elsewhere in the report however, there is substance to some of the allegations relating to other figures (Mark Collett and Nick Griffin for example – bad apples both and a blemish upon the nationalist movement), but in essence the function of the report boils down to this: OLFA is the only legitimate means of protesting against political Islam in the UK; join OLFA, or we’ll slander you as being a ‘far-right racist’. Sorry Maryam, but this atheist, secular blogger doesn’t subscribe to your distorted Communist rantings about a ‘far-right’ ‘Christian’ ‘anti-Muslim’ conspiracy.   

Shamefully, as well as containing factual inaccuracies, deliberate character assassination and ideological distortions, the OLFA report seeks in its concluding section to use the recent atrocity perpetrated by Anders Breivik as a pretext for highlighting the ‘dangers’ of the ‘far-right’ as it defines it, stating:

Though the far-Right appears to target Islamism, they are two sides of the same coin. Islamism is also very much an extreme Right movement . . .There is fundamentally little difference between Anders Behring Breivik’s Knights Templar and the EDL or SIOE. What they want is the same; their tactics are different. The EDL and SIOE are merely better at duping the public. (p. 60)

Groups like SIOE and the EDL are as hateful as the Islamists; they are enemies not allies. Clearly, our enemy’s enemy is not necessarily our friend. (p. 62)

What disgusting and baseless slurs! The authors of the report could stoop no lower than to bracket the EDL and SIOE with the mass murderer Breivik and Islamists. Well, the dissemination of big lies is an integral part of the Communist tradition, and Namazie reveals herself to be very much at home in playing the part of a Leninist vanguardist in this respect.

Although one might be tempted to pen a riposte titled ‘Enemies Not Allies: OLFA’ I will not do so, for I know that most supporters of OLFA will not be ideological clones of Namazie and Bennett, and will instead possess a broad range of ideological backgrounds and affiliations, a number of which I would far from condemn. Maryam Namazie no more represents the stance of secularists than Mark Collett represents that of anti-Islamists and nationalists. ‘Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right’ is a deeply flawed and opportunistic report that if read at all should be done so with a very critical eye.