"The murder of Stephen Lawrence by a racist gang led to a national
reconsideration of how to respond to racist crime. The report uncovered an
incredible catalogue of insensitivity and outright incompetence and it was
only through the bravery and determination of Stephen’s family that
there finally was the Lawrence Inquiry and report: one of the few real contributions
to eliminating racism ever delivered by a Labour Home Secretary. Sadly, the
Home Office today appears mainly concerned to undo the progress that this
report made.
"In the past year we have seen new, draconian immigration and
asylum laws steered through parliament. There is a constant wave of hostile
media coverage against asylum seekers. This has been followed by the election
of five BNP councillors in towns in the north of England.
"These things are connected. The constant railing against asylum seekers
and the implications that Muslims are potential terrorists feed the politics
of fear and racism that have led to the election of the BNP. The only way
to stop the BNP is to stand up to them, and challenge every single lie they
propagate.
" The new asylum legislation is more draconian than that brought in by
the Tories. Most recently, Tony Blair questioned whether or not the entire
United Nations framework protecting refugees should now be abandoned. He is
also on record suggesting that Britain pull out of sections of the European
Convention on Human Rights.
" This has to be opposed. London, for example, has been built on wave
after wave of new migrants, many of whom originally came here as asylum seekers,
and does not consider asylum seekers to be a problem.
" If the government does go to war against Iraq, this will have a major
impact on our streets. We must think now about how we will defend the Muslim
community and others from a feeding frenzy by racists and the BNP, who will
use and exploit that war to bring racism virulently back onto our streets.
" The census earlier this month revealled that Islam is the second largest
religion in this country after Christianity. Mosques are a part of the landscape
of London and add to its beauty and its diversity. Last December we celebrated
the festival of Eid at the end of Ramadan at City Hall, in exactly the same
way as we join in the celebrations of St Patrick’s Day in March. However,
harassment and attacks on Muslim men and women is likely to intensify as we
approach a war with Iraq. We must unite against this particular form of racism
and defend the rights of Muslims in Britain.
" Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a strand of US
foreign policy opinion arguing that Islam is an inevitable threat that the
west must face and defeat. Academics have written books about the coming war
between the west and Islam. There has been an intense policy debate and the
military industrial complex in the US is keen to have an enemy, and a justification
for its arms industry. They have created one.
" The reason for instability in the Islamic world is the constant western
intervention. This has gone on since Churchill sat down in 1919 and the Treaty
of Versailles created the nation called Iraq, bringing together people who
had no desire to be in the same community, but simply in order to give Britain
control of that area’s oil interests. British and US intervention in
Iran in 1953 was followed by the invasion of Egypt in 1956 by Britain, France
and Israel in order to control the economic resources of the Suez Canal. Again
and again there have been western interventions simply to control the oil.
"As long as I am Mayor of London I will continue to stand shoulder to
shoulder with those who speak out and stand up to racism in all its forms.
That is the only war of which I want to be a part."