24.11.2005

Bizarre, upside-down politics

Peter Tatchell responds to the implied SWP charge of racism and islamophobia against him and Outrage

This allegation is nonsense. Only a very small minority of Outrage’s campaigns involve tackling homophobia in the black and muslim community. All these campaigns are in direct solidarity with black and muslim gay people against their straight oppressors - religion and ethnicity are not factors.

Then there is the false charge that we challenge black and muslim homophobia “despite [gay groups] based in these communities strongly opposing such an approach”.

Our campaign against reggae singers who advocate the murder of gays and lesbians was in conjunction with the Jamaican gay rights group, J-Flag, and the Black Gay Men’s Advisory Group in London. When we tackle homophobes within the muslim community, it is at the behest of our own muslim members and with the support of lesbians and gays in the wider muslim community.

It is not racist or islamophobic to defend black and muslim gay people who are being subjected to homophobic violence. The real, inverted chauvinism is the indifference of the SWP-Respect leaders to the plight of victimised black and muslim gay people. They not only ignore this victimisation, but they then accuse those of us who defend black and muslim gays of racism and islamophobia!

This is the bizarre, upside-down politics of the SWP-Respect. They no longer defend the principle of universal human rights and solidarity with all oppressed people. Worse, those of us who do are attacked and slandered.

We have only once staged a protest against a muslim leader. That was against the rightwing, misogynist, anti-semitic and homophobic cleric, Dr Yusuf Qaradawi. In contrast, we have staged more than a dozen protests against christian fundamentalist leaders, including the interruption of archbishop George Carey’s sermon in Canterbury cathedral in protest at his advocacy of discrimination against queers. Also, we occupied the main Roman catholic cathedral in London to protest at the Vatican’s ban on condom use to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.

The SWP-Respect is spouting its usual propaganda when it claims that Outrage never tackles homophobes of other faiths. This is a party without integrity or principles. It is prepared to blatantly lie to justify it own self-serving opportunism. Anyone with an ounce of awareness of current affairs knows that Outrage is notorious for confronting rightwing christian leaders.

Instead of allying with liberal, progressive and leftist muslims, the SWP-Respect prefers to join up with conservative religious muslim groups, whose policies on women’s rights and gay rights are not far removed in practice from the extreme right.

The idea promoted by the SWP-Respect leaders that Outrage’s unconditional defence of gay rights is motivated by some hidden, anti-islam agenda inadvertently reveals their own real chauvinism. They seem to be implying that all muslims are homophobes and therefore will be, by definition, outraged by a defence of queer rights.

Now it is true that most of the muslims that the SWP-Respect ally with are homophobes, but the vast majority of muslim people in this country seem to be prepared to live and let live.

It is ironic that the policies of SWP-Respect on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights is essentially reformist. They are closer politically to conservative gay groups such as Stonewall than to the radical wing of queer political activism. There is nothing remotely revolutionary about the SWP-Respect stance on gay issues. They promote much the same agenda as liberal Tories.