I am Charlie and Baga

Je Sius CharlieBaga

Is it impossible to differentiate an extremist from a Muslim? It appears that we cannot or better still we would rather not. I am able, dear friend to tell the far right racist from my white friends, the ultras from football fans, the foaming in the mouth ultra orthodox Jews for my friends in Stamford Hill London. 

I am saddened therefore when the Muslim that saved all those Jews in the Kosher Supermarket is described variously as Malian, Malian Muslim etc, not simply what he is, a Moslem - a good man. The interchangeability of Jihadist, islamist, Moslem and terrorist doesn’t help anyone. If you can – read the excellent piece by Gary Younge on the Paris attack http://goo.gl/PLdwWY. 

Bear witness too - to the pupils in some schools in the 20th arronddisement (Paris) refusing the minute’s silence in honour of the Charlie Hebdo victims. I may be stating the obvious but for those who live in the shadow of society, be it in the piths of bleak estates in London or lost to mainstream French society - these incidents means nothing, certainly not with the profundity that mainstream society attaches to. 

Suddenly millions of Euros and in the UK Pounds are been found to recruit even more police officers and for more intelligence resources. Where were all those Euros when social commentators, those who work in the inner cities and work in the coal face in the 20th arrondissement called for more investment in education, in opportunities in the mainstream for the marginalized, for fairer aid and a balanced foreign policy stratagem in the Middle East. 

It is frightening to me that young, beautiful, brilliant brave young men and women - needed so much to improve our nations in England and France are lost to Isis and distant and no so distant jihads. Imagine for moment if these braves were proud gendarmes and British soldiers. That they were Nigerian army men and Cameroonian gendarmes rather that loose and set against the society they are supposed to come from. It sticks in my craw, that young men and woman like Adebanjo, Coulibaly, the Kouachi brothers would seek and have kinship with folks far away in Syria  and the dust bowls of North Africa- not the society that bred them. In every statement attributed to them they said WE - soldiers, warriors, WE never me, never the individual but WE - so their world view is in the collective of the down trodden and in their prism the marginalised.
 

Even in the aftermath of these events (i cannot call the Paris events any more than that) Baga Nigeria  (2000 people dead - that is a calamity) - Politicians are seeking expedient solutions - more guns, not better education (inclusive, decent education) and life opportunities. More powers for the State and less and less for the individual, stifle opinions that differ from the western orthodoxy. The Stasilization of Europe - Phase 2.

Lay the blame on Moslems not the conditions that bred the Coulibilly and the Adebanjos and Adebowales of this world. Extremists will always exist, history is littered with their rubble, but it seems to me that the state of siege we supposedly are in, need not be, if only our leaders would only listen, (I did not say give in, listen is a start) and seek new, innovative and proactive ways of broadening society’s base and investing in the peace that must reign for all our sakes. Western thinking, whether neo liberal or even conservative orthodoxy refuses to see the clear writing on the wall. It is not enough to march against the rise of anti -islamisation in Europe. It is not enough to brazenly defend free speech at all cost. No 

But I know a good place to begin. In our classrooms - where we must teach the nobility of Islam and of Judaism and of Christianity. We must teach that no religion has dominion over another, that no book ancient or modern, Talmud or the Vedas, Bible or the Koran belong to a few, but to all of us,  as no truth is exclusive. We must engage our children in education so compelling that it arms them with immense power. That they may make real choices that begins with I. I am a citizen of the world. That we all have a stake in Paris, and in Baga. 

That the western policy in the Middle East is perhaps the biggest source of the world’s headache today - I say world, not just Europe and America, but all of us. That Isis or Boko Haram or Al Qaeda - will not and cannot exist if their breeding grounds are not teeming with the malcontent. 

Set forth to the 20th Arrondissement, to Bradford and to the places where eager, beautiful, keen and brave young people - the malcontent live.  Our true heroes are Moslems and Jews, Christians and agnostics who in the teeth of racism, anti-Semitism and anti Islam - share common homes and lives. To heap the blame on the Imam now (who invariably has no stake in your decision making) is simply a profound lack of good judgment. Did you write to the Imams on Syria, on Libya, on the teardown of Iraq, on the intransigence in Israel and the West bank - or on America’s refusal to be a member of the ICC and on and on and on. Did George Bush and Tony Blair seek their consul? 

Gathering all the data in the known universe, putting everyone under surveillance cannot prevent Abdulmutallab’s (underwear bomber) rage (may be nothing can. but this much I know the current thinking cannot) just as much as - the state cannot dictate what I should think or which bit of my belief system is officially acceptable by Downing Street, or the Elysee Palace. 

Little is known about the policewoman Clarissa Jean-Phillipe that was killed by Coulibally, no world leaders, no CNN or BBC no outpouring of western grief as she was laid to rest in Martinique. Black as she is, she was not spared by Coulibaly’s rage. 

Open your eyes people we are all in this deathly dance. 

The bomb knows no color, class, race, creed or passport. And to those who have a stranglehold on the mass media, on public opinion and dare I say on mass hysteria – the failure of our foreign policy lies squarely on your shoulders, our failure to stymie this rage falls squarely on your belief that might and white is right. Their self assured hubris will lead only to a vicious and ever widening circle. To Rupert Murdoch (one of six men who control the western world’s media,) whose tweet post Charlie Hebdo was as offensive as it was purile, I say thanks old man for your helpful gunk. 

In case you missed it, here - Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible. 

Thanks Sir.

Jan 2015