Hackney Muslims

Wondering around Hackney checking out the scene across Muslim communitIES & beyond.All tweets my own,NOT AT ALL a rep/voice of the/any local community,jus me

[Hackney Muslims @HackneyMuslims]

PINNED FOR RAMADAN 📌

[Hackney Muslims @HackneyMuslims]

On these remaining blessed nights of Ramadan (which are THE most blessed and rewarding from all the nights of Ramadan) giving reps to some incredible local charities Ive known and either networked or voluntered at. Pls make a donation and show your support:

#last10nights

THREAD

[Brandon 🇵🇸 @Brandons__1]

"Zionism is racism, like slavery there is no good version of the project"

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Basic education piece:

Not all Jewish people are Zionists.

Lots of Zionists aren't Jews.

The Board of Deputies largely self identity as Zionists.

The Media often report the Board of Deputies as the opinion of Jewish people.

Yet many Jewish people say #NotInOurName

[Mohanad @MohanadElbalal]

Lana Nusseibeh used her position as UAE Ambassador to the UN to cover up and gaslight on her countries role in sponsoring the genocidal RSF militia as it raped, murdered and pillaged its way across Sudan.
Presenting her candidacy as we prepare to commemorate the first anniversary of the genocide of Al Fashir is a direct insult to Sudanese and risks bringing the entire UN body into disrepute.

[Jon Wiltshire @JonWiltshire_]

I'm not going to name the school, but the @BBC's coverage of the antisemitism in schools report featured interviews with children from a Jewish school.

Here's the rub, though.

The school's own published curriculum explicitly teaches Zionism, celebrates the establishment of Israel and describes preparing pupils to become "positive advocates for Israel" at university.

It even references bringing in organisations such as StandWithUs to prepare pupils for that advocacy.

Now, let me be absolutely clear. There is nothing wrong with teaching Jewish history, culture or identity. And antisemitism must be challenged wherever it exists.

But when children are actively encouraged to advocate for a particular state, rather than critically examine its history, policies and actions, surely we have to question whether this is education or ideological conditioning?

And here's the staggering hypocrisy.

We're being told that schools must exercise political impartiality when discussing Palestine, while a school can openly describe preparing children to advocate for Israel.

Political impartiality cannot be a principle applied selectively, depending on which side of a conflict children are encouraged to support.

And the BBC has a responsibility to scrutinise that distinction, not simply present children's views without examining the educational environment in which those views have developed.

Children deserve an education that teaches them how to think, not what to think.

@NEUnion @educationgovuk

[IslamophobiaUK @uk_islamophobia]

We've read the 27 recommendations on antisemitism in schools given to the government, which the government has just accepted.

The Education Secretary says antisemitism "demands a unique response."

Antisemitism is wrong and should be challenged.
But two of the 27 decide what counts: the IHRA definition, and Palestine badges.

Seven of its 11 examples relate to Israel.
Schools are asked to reconsider political symbols, watermelon badges included.
Teachers' talk on geopolitical issues gets greater scrutiny.

Adopt those, and the rest follows.
The training. The reporting. The inspections.

The National Education Union says IHRA risks blurring antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government.

One of the 27 brings in Prevent.
Children who criticise Israel or support Palestine risk being referred.

The Islamophobia Response Unit received 146 reports from students of schools shutting down support for Palestine.
We know who that lands on.

Now look at what they already face.

Politicians talk about us. Newspapers talk about us. Online, they hate on us.
MPs found that role "should not be understated."

Then it follows them to school.

Glasgow. A Muslim schoolgirl's hijab ripped off, reportedly by another pupil's dad.
He called her the P-word. It was filmed. The video is going round her school.

Kids dragged off and punched in the chest.
Kids thrown to the ground, knocked unconscious.
Kids thrown into moving traffic.

Three schoolgirls. A public bus. Broad daylight.

Kids attacked on the way to school.
Kids afraid to wear their headscarf.

Baroness Gohir told MPs of a GCSE student bullied on her way to school.
She took her headscarf off for her exams.

A mother told MPs she now pays for private transport since her daughters started wearing the hijab.

The government knows. Its own response says younger Muslims "bear the brunt."

It isn't only Muslim children.

95% of young Black people have heard or witnessed racist language at school.
Suspensions for racist abuse in England doubled in three years, from 7,403 to 15,191.

The National Education Union warns of a "hierarchy of racism."
65% of teachers have had no anti-racism training in the past year.

So where are their recommendations? Where is the help for schools?

While everyone looks after that community's children, who is looking after all the others?

Will @SpeechUnion challenge this stifling of free speech in schools?

Report: https://t.co/NTLpXVTNS2
Keep us alive: https://t.co/9HaERxxR3V

[Jon Wiltshire @JonWiltshire_]

🚨 PLEASE SHARE!

I've written to both my children's schools following the Government's antisemitism review.

I WILL NOT accept genocide being presented as a two-sided political debate, or Palestinian history and suffering being erased from their education.

I've drafted a template which I'm sharing for other parents to use or adapt.

Political impartiality must NEVER become historical dishonesty.

Please use them. Challenge your schools. Demand answers.

#GazaGenocide

https://t.co/Xg0sb30WMJ

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

Diane Abbott keeps being proven right over and over again about her comments on the hierarchy of racism.

[CAGE International @CAGEintl]

This is the saviour progressive class allowed to climb the caste ladder to be in the vicinity of Feudal Brahamins.

These social climbers are then put forward as ferocious defenders of the status quo that enable genocides, destruction and looting of weak people

[Fahad Ansari 🇵🇸 (Stop the Gaza genocide) @fahadansari]

This was like watching Louis Gossett Jr in Midnight Sting! Incredible work by Ashok who gets better with every interview. They all look like such a bunch of muppets .. “but what about the sensitivity” said the baroness whose party supports the genocide.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

Greta Thunberg backs the Green Party and the zionism is racism motion by explaining why it’s … obviously racism

[Ben Jamal @BenJamal48]

The fact that the BBC would almost certainly defend the construction of the interview with @ZackPolanski and suggest that @Jo_Coburn 's comments dont raise any concerns about her impartiality when a BBC journalist says much about how the notion of impartiality is interpreted.

Regarding the interview with @ZackPolanski, a telling moment is where @bbclaurak asks him do you think it is for the Green Party to tell Jewish people what Zionism means? The underpinning premises here are a) that it is for the Jewish people to define Zionism b) they are of one voice in how they define it. Palestinians , by implication, should have no stake in how an ideology and movement that has led to their dispossession is understood.

The whole framing of the interview and the subsequent intervention by @Jo_Coburn is that the motion is offensive because it is defining Zionisim as racist and most Jews are Zionists. Most Palestinians are anti zionist but calling them racist for opposing Zionism is not deemed controversial and offensive. The BBC has not run interview after interview to discuss the "controversial " statements by @chiefrabbi when he regularly frames anti zionism in this way.

But this should not be a question of differing opinions and the right to express them . It should be about the facts of history and how they are discussed and presented. It is a fact of history that 750k plus Palestinians were forced from their land between 1947 and 1949. It is a fact of history that successive Israeli Governments have enacted laws and policies which authoritative bodies including the ICJ have described as racist against Palestinians, and meeting the definition of apartheid.

Zack correctly says that no state has a right to exist. He is expressing a legal fact but this is presented as nonsensical. But why is it that this need to protect a state's right to exist only arises in relation to Israel. If a politician condemns the character of the state of Iran or calls for regime change are they asked, " do you accept that Iran has a right to exist?" If someone advocates for Scottish independence are they asked " but what about Britain's right to exist?"

@Jo_Coburn states that she is a Zionist and that the Green motion, and by implication anti zionism as a political belief , is offensive and racist. She is undoubtedly a journalist who would vigorously defend her credibility as impartial. So the clear implication is that expressing such views is not to be partial in any controversial way. It must be seen as akin to saying I am a democrat...I support free speech....in other words accepted political norms that are rejected only by extremists. Zionism is morally good. Antizionism is extremist. One can express this and remain impartial. Discussing the racist character of the state of Israel is extremist as is suggesting it has committed a genocide. Such statements can be allowed ( the BBC of course believes in free speech) but only if they are vigorously challenged. This is why the BBC has never devoted airtime to a detailed analysis of the reports by the ICJ , Amnesty, HRW and many others that find Israel guilty of apartheid. That would be controversial and possibly endorsing racism. This is why the BBC felt it OK to livestream Israel's defence of the charge of genocide in front of the ICJ but not cover South Africa's case being presented.

So no one should question whether Jo Coburn's now publicly declared Zionist views raise questions about her impartiality. But imagine..God forbid... the reaction if she'd said "Im an anti Zionist Jew and support the motion" .

[Heather Mendick @helensclegel]

'Antisemitism' is being used by Rachel to justify a genocidal ethnostate. That cannot go unchallenged because she's Jewish.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

.@zackpolanski: "I grew up in a zionist household.. with the idea that being a zionist was about a land for a people without a land. But then the question is, what happened to the people who were on that land.."

But #BBCLaurak doesn't want to talk about the Palestinians.

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

Dale Vince is spot on about the West being hypocritical.

Look at how they treat what’s happening in Palestine compared to how they treat what’s happening in Ukraine.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

"Do you think Israel has a right to exist?"

@ZackPolanski is spot on. No state has a right to exist. Did Rhodesia? Does the UK?

And this was🎯"The status quo right now is a one state apartheid state where Palestinians do not have the same freedom as Israelis, & that's racist"

[The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) @cfmmuk]

1/10 Journalists @itvnews filmed #Reform councillors making clear anti-Muslim remarks & targeting #Muslims with their hate.

@BBCNews article chose not to report any of this.

Not the first time where it has omitted or downplayed #Islamophobia.

There is now a clear pattern 🧵

[Heather Mendick @helensclegel]

I'm a British Jew living in an area controlled by the Greens. I'm proud that the Greens are acting to end our twinning with Haifa in Israel and our investments in genocide-complicit companies. Hackney Labour opposes both these practical steps to support Palestinians.

[Lambeth Green Party @Lambethgp]

Martin Abram's speech to full council last night about his experiences as a Jewish man facing antisemitism, the dangers of turning antisemitism into a political football, and our drive to make Lambeth a borough of sanctuary and solidarity for all – no hatred used to divide us!

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

I'm the only Jewish leader of a political party.

I'm a victim of Antisemitism every day and I've made it clear Jewish people are welcome in my party.

You're a Prime Minister who arms a genocide and locks pensioners up for opposing it.