Time was when Amnesty International would never compromise its principles by failing to distinguish between supporting an individual’s legitimate right to be protected from torture and illegal detention, and supporting that individual’s politics. Especially if those politics were some form of sectarian, supremacist movement.
But today, Islamism is a form of political resistance which has been excluded from that distinction, by Amnesty and many others. And only because some people (of the Left) have decided that political Islam and jihadism in particular is a form of anti-capitalist resistance. And that principle has now been eroded.
Gita Sahgal explains how this is a form of racism, in a disarmingly honest profile in the Sunday Time:
The bigger picture is how human rights organisations — and society more widely — should view Islamic radicals. There has been much debate over whether, spurred by a sentimental knee-jerk anti-Americanism, white liberals have sympathised with Islamic radicals, thereby implicitly tolerating their intolerance, particularly towards women. “For me that’s a form of racism,” says Sahgal, “because what it does is wipe out the experiences of the people they oppress. And it’s not helped by a discourse about a ‘clash of civilisations’, which elides jihadi ideologies and treats them as normal Muslim thinking. That’s devastating for ordinary Muslims.”
If the men incarcerated in Guantanamo were white fascists, she says, “I hope we would defend them. We would have to defend them — but we wouldn’t necessarily put them on 50 or 100 platforms after that”. The problem, she believes, is that human rights organisations want to believe they represent “perfect victims”.
“But a victim can also be a perpetrator,” she says. “It’s a very simple thought.”
But Gita is not alone in Amnesty for thinking so. The Sunday Times also has a leaked internal email from Sam Zarifi, ex of HRW, and now Amnesty’s Asia Pacific director, who says:
“We should be clear that some of Amnesty’s campaigning … did not always sufficiently distinguish between the rights of detainees to be free from torture and arbitrary detention, and the validity of their views,” says Zarifi in the email, sent to his staff and dated February 10. Zarifi advised Amnesty to consider its working relationships with activists more carefully.
…
“We did not always clarify that while we champion the rights of all — including terrorism suspects, and more important, victims of terrorism — we do not champion their views.”
They will probably suspend him too.
8 Comments
Says a supporter of zionism and the state of Israel!!!
Muslim:
Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran and many other Muslim countries that make Islam the state religion and the majority sect the only acceptable form of Islam, people are free to follow their faith of choice in Israel, and please don’t whine about the distinction of the “Chosen People” as it is no greater than any distinction claimed in the Quran for Arabs.
What a liar and twister you are. Here are Sam Zarifi’s real views.
Letter to the Sunday Times
From Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.
Dear Sir,
Your recent article (‘Second Amnesty chief attacks Islamist links’, 14 February) mischaracterizes my views.
I have been a part of the internal AI debate surrounding the issue of AI’s collaboration with various groups as part of its campaign to close down Guantánamo. My opinions have been heard, considered, and where appropriate, implemented.
I do not oppose our current initiative working with Moazzam Begg in the recent European tour seeking to convince European states to receive more of the Guantánamo detainees who cannot be repatriated because of the risk of further human rights abuses.
As I told my programme staff in the internal email leaked to your paper, my concern has been that AI’s campaigning has not been sufficiently clear that when we defend somebody’s right to be free from torture or unlawful detention, we do not necessarily embrace their views totally.
This raises the risk of creating a perception, particularly in South Asia, that AI is somehow pro-Taleban or anti-women, playing into the rhetoric often used against us by governments and groups in the region that wish to deflect our criticism. But any suggestion that our work with Moazzam Begg or Cageprisoners has weakened our condemnation of abuses by the Taleban or other similarly-minded groups does not withstand scrutiny.
I believe that it was wrong to take this debate into the public in the manner and at the time done. And I fully agree with the measures AI has taken in response to the decision to publicize this debate now and in this manner.
Sam Zarifi
Director, Asia-Pacific Programme
What a liar and twister you are. Here are Sam Zarifi’s real views.
Read the letter again and then why don’t you kindly stick it up on your site, the anti-Muslim, anti-semitic and pro-Islamist site NeoconEurope.
Faisal
“Read the letter again and then why don’t you kindly stick it up on your site, the anti-Muslim, anti-semitic and pro-Islamist site NeoconEurope.”
How is it anti-Muslim and anti-semitic? hahhaa so says an acolyte of the anti-Muslim Harrys Place and whose fellow Spitoon editor Houriya Ahmed works for rabid Muslim hater Douglas Murray who said:
“It is late in the day, but Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop. Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition”
Sorry, I’m not Douglas Murray. You should take your grievances to him.
‘Sorry, I’m not Douglas Murray. You should take your grievances to him.’
I bet you are sorry.
However you have whitewashed his views on this site, and it is clear you have no problem collaborating with his phony think tank.
“However you have whitewashed his views on this site, and it is clear you have no problem collaborating with his phony think tank.”
I have never whitewashed anything by Douglas Murray. Nor I have shared a platform with Douglas Murray for Amnesty nor partnered with them on a pro-jihadi ticket.
Can’t say the same for you and yours over at Beggstival.