Category Archives: Immigration

From Secularism to Sectarianism

By Faisal | Published: March 10, 2010

One of the strange ironies of the  Southasian immigration experience to Great Britain was how the near-universal levels of racism in the host community dissipated at the same time levels of religious identity politics and radicalisation became endemic. White racism started to fall back but at the same time secular politicisation receded in the immigrant Muslim community. We are now living in times when the kind of visceral racism we Southasians experienced in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s is at an all time low, but Muslim immigrant communities have organised themselves into political structures which are emanations of reactionary political groups from “back home”, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islam.

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Also posted in Secularism, UK Politics | 2 Comments

Dishonest BNP spins article by George Carey and deliberately misquotes him

By Guest | Published: January 9, 2010

This is a cross-post by Edmund Standing

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The BNP likes to present itself as a party that tells the truth, unlike mainstream political parties that rely on lies, misrepresentation and spin, but have yet again demonstrated that this is far from the case.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, recently wrote an article for the Times on immigration and the rise of the BNP. Carey was immediately denounced by the BNP Legal Director as an ‘idiot’ working for ‘Zionists’, but the BNP’s official statement on the article has wisely avoided following Barnes’s line (as it usually does). The BNP website’s take on Carey’s article (‘Lord Carey predicts BNP victory in Dagenham’) puts a typically dishonest spin on what he actually said. From the BNP’s commentary, you’d think Carey was on the verge of joining the party and it appears that he has endorsed them.

BNP website:

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Also posted in Anti Fascism, UK Politics | Leave a comment

Is the Home Office Creating a ‘Student’ Immigrant Underclass

By Guest | Published: September 29, 2009

This is a guest post by Eastender
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I got a phone call the other day. Unknown number, at my workplace. I picked up the phone and a strange voice says to me, in Bengali:

- Hello bhaiya, how are you?

- I’m good thanks, who’s this?

- My name is Nazrul. You won’t know me, but my sister is a tenant in your family’s house in Dhaka.

- Oh I see. Are you calling from London?

- Yes, I just arrived here last week.

- Student visa?

- Yes.

- So how did you get my number?

- Your mother gave it to me before I left.

- Okay, no worries. You settling in okay?

- Well, I went to the college today and filled up my registration papers.

- Where’s the college?

- In Whitechapel?

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Posted in Immigration | 23 Comments