ISIS BRIDE SHAMIMA BEGUM IS BRITISH WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Bangladesh, Boris Johnson, brainwashing, Brexit, british media, citizenship, counterterrorism, daesh, eurocentric, Eurocentrism, featured, grooming, institutional racism, iraq, Iraq War, ISIS, Islam, Islamaphobia, Muslim, prevent, radicalization, sajid david, Saudi Arabia, scaremongering, Shamima Begum, Syria, tabloid, terrorism, theresa may, xenophobia, Yemen.

By Jonathan Lee

Another day, another outrage. This time it’s about one-time ‘ISIS bride’ Shamima Begum, a 20-year-old girl from Bethnal Green who has finally had her right to return home recognised, after leaving the UK in 2014 to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

Begum had her citizenship stripped from her in February 2019 by the Home Office. This was declared legal on account of her being a Bangladeshi dual national, meaning she would not be made stateless. However, when she was asked by the BBC, she said she did not have a Bangladeshi passport and had never been to the country. Regardless of the decision against her, her son was a British citizen and should have been allowed to return. Perhaps if he had been allowed to he might have survived. As it was he died of pneumonia in a refugee camp in Northern Syria, a month after his mother had her citizenship revoked. You have to wonder if this all would have happened had she been white?Continue Reading

WILL IRAQ’S NEW PRIME MINISTER RECOGNISE ROMA RIGHTS?

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Al-Monitor, ba'ath, Baghdad, displacement, featured, GRT, gypsy, idp, iraq, iraq inquiry, Iraq occupation, Iraq War, KRI, media, middle east, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Roma, Saddam, saddam hussein, shia.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

In early May 2020, Mustafa al-Kadhimi was appointed as Iraq’s new Prime Minister against the context of ongoing protests and popular discontent resulting from widespread government corruption. This corruption has contributed massively towards increasing poverty, reduction in public services and rising unemployment. Since the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq, social cohesion has fractured perhaps (but hopefully not) irrevocably, with politics and society becoming increasingly sectarian.

The effects of the sectarian conflict in Iraq have been widely reported on, but the media has remained largely silent on the dire situation of the Iraqi Roma. This lack of attention by the media is reflective of the neglect of the Roma of Iraq by the government, humanitarian and human rights organizations and largely speaking, civic society in general. The complete lack of information produced by the Iraqi government on the Iraqi Roma is symptomatic of the de facto policies of ostracization and othering which have persisted since the formation of the Iraqi state in the 1920s. The number of Roma residents in Iraq, including the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI), is unknown, but best estimates place the figure at nearly 200,000 – translating to roughly 0.5% of the Iraqi population. Continue Reading

COLONIALISM, CORRUPTION & CHAOS: THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF IRAQI YOUTH

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, anti-war, ba'ath, Baghdad, bias, british politics, civilian death, CPA, daesh, displaced, featured, illegal war, iraq, iraq inquiry, Iraq occupation, Iraq War, ISIS, islamophobia, legal action, media, middle east, Mohammed Halbusi, Muslim, Paul Bremer, refugee, Saddam, saddam hussein, shia, soliders, tony blair, weapons of mass destruction, WMD, Zahra Ali.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

During early October 2019, in the space of just nine days, Iraqi state forces killed over one hundred young people and injured thousands more. Thousands. In just nine days. As anti-corruption protests broke out, the state deployed live ammunition almost immediately. In some places, snipers positioned themselves on rooftops, picking off young Iraqi citizens who had nothing left to lose except the hope that they would one day experience a government that provides for their basic needs rather than greedily shovelling oil revenue into its own pockets.

The catalyst for these protests was the sacking of Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, who led the fight against ISIS as part of Iraq’s elite counter terrorism unit, and who was widely acknowledged as the liberator of Mosul. As soon as his transfer to an administrative role was made public, speculation arose that ‘his refusal to back a specific political party made him unpopular among officials in Baghdad’, and that he was ‘removed from his post because he broke sectarian barriers in Mosul.’ The sacking of al-Saadi was widely perceived as emblematic of the corruption that has characterized successive post-U.S invasion administrations, resulting in widespread protests against corruption, unemployment and poor public services. Continue Reading

SHAMIMA BEGUM IS A REFLECTION OF SOCIETAL FAILURE: WE MUST BRING HER HOME AND LEARN

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged brainwashing, british media, citizenship, counterterrorism, daesh, eurocentric, Eurocentrism, featured, grooming, institutional racism, iraq, Iraq War, ISIS, Islam, Islamaphobia, Muslim, prevent, radicalization, sajid david, Saudi Arabia, scaremongering, Shamima Begum, Syria, terrorism, xenophobia, Yemen.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

The British press has been in a frenzy recently over nineteen-year-old Shamima Begum and her desire to return to the UK from the refugee camp in Syria where she currently resides. There are probably very few people in the UK who are unaware that Shamima travelled from the UK to ISIS territory in Syria at the age of fifteen, where she married an ISIS militant, conceived and lost two children before giving birth to a third (who also passed away) in the refugee camp in Syria she currently calls home.Continue Reading

RED POPPIES VERSUS WHITE POPPIES (AND THE PROBLEM WITH PACIFISM)

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Afghanistan, armistice day, civilian deaths, featured, Iraq War, memory, poppy, red poppies, red poppy, remembrance day, Syria, veterans, war, white poppies, white poppy.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

The red poppy/white poppy/no poppy debate has become increasingly emotive in recent years, as certain right wing groups have co-opted it for their own warped ethno-nationalist causes, bringing forth the notion of ‘poppy fascism’: If you’re not wearing a red poppy you must be some kind of terrorist sympathizer, or a communist… if you don’t like this country and what it stands for you can fuck off to another. Nice. Of course most people who wear a red poppy don’t behave like this, but the minority who do, aside from being obnoxious, are loud, determined and represented by sensationalist and divisive British tabloids, resulting in ‘poppy fascism’ spreading exponentially.

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR AND UEA ALUMNUS JOHN DENNEHY

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged arrest, art, artivism, book, border, Colombia, creative non fiction, creative writing, Ecuador, George W. Bush, illegal, immigration, interview, Iraq War, John Dennehy, migration, New York, novel, police, privilege, protest, resists, revolution, Trump, UEA.

by Hannah Rose

Your new book, Illegal, tells the story of your arrest and deportation from Ecuador and your consequent return over the Colombian border with the help of corrupt police. There’s also a love story which runs through it. Crime and love both sell books – was this thematic mix deliberate?

My original intent was to focus on borders and revolution but almost every person who read a draft, especially early on, wanted to know more about the love story. So I kept adding more with each new edit. We’ve all been in love so that shared experience makes it relatable and easier to digest. That common basis is a great launch pad to touch on everything else, too.Continue Reading

CONFESSIONS OF A CORBYNITE: WHY I’M VOTING FOR OWEN SMITH

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged andy burnham, angela eagle, blairite, british politics, conservatives, corbyn, corbynite, cuba solidarity, Danny Blanchflower, david miliband, Ed Miliband, electability, equality, EU, government, Iran, Iraq War, jeremy corbyn, labour leadership, labour party, labour's future, left wing, liz kendall, MPs, national anthem, Neale Coleman, NHS, owen smith, prime minister, reshuffle, Richard Murphy, shadow cabinet, social justice, socialism, stop the war, theresa may, tony blair, Tories, War Powers Act, welfare cuts, working class.

by Elliot Folan

Six years ago, as a baby-faced 16-year old, I remember sitting in two different meetings within a few months of one another. In one of them, a youth magazine I was working on was told that its funding was being cancelled because of the incoming government’s spending cuts. In the other, I sat in my first local Green Party meeting as activists, fresh from losing overwhelmingly in their target ward, talked about traffic lights and solar panels. The contrast between the two meetings — one a reminder of the impact of politics on everyday life, the other a completely oblivious talking shop — strikes me to this day. Though the party initially struck me as directionless, I stayed until 2014 regardless: I believed in the Green Party’s vision, and I hopped around my city (and the country) looking for ways I could help. I explained away inefficiency, poor practice and a frustrating lack of strategy because I believed in the cause. But at the end of it all, the Green Party ended up gaining no seats in 2015.

I relate this story because, as a 22-year old who’s now in the Labour Party, I see numerous people doing exactly the same thing that I did in my teenage years; except rather than doing it with a party, they are doing it with a single man — Jeremy Corbyn.Continue Reading

DID BLAIR HAVE A HERO COMPLEX?

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 9/11, Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Al-Qaeda, albania, army, Chilcot inquiry, democracy, extremism, George Bush, hero complex, humanitarian crisis, I'm with you, identity, iraq inquiry, Iraq War, Jack Straw, Kosovo, Lord Goldsmith, Milosevic, Nato, new labour, Osama bin Laden, peace, refugees, saddam hussein, serbia, soldiers, Taliban, tony blair, UN Security Council, we are many, weapons of mass destruction, WMD, Yugoslavia.

by Natasha Senior

It is difficult to remember a time when Tony Blair was considered a real hero. But that was the mood when he won the 1997 general election in a landslide. ‘New Labour. New Britain’ was his slogan, as he put an end to the old Labour politics that the people distrusted and vowed to carry Britain proudly into the new millennium. People were chanting his name in the streets, the euphoria was palpable. A stark juxtaposition to where we are today, 13 years after the Iraq War began, the world still reeling from Blair’s decisions. A hero is the last thing we would call him now.

Blair has always been regarded as a master tactician who could easily manipulate the situation to his favour and he knew that he possessed this extraordinary power. But it is how he wanted to wield this power that would cause his downfall. He wanted to leave a legacy. A grand ambition that could only be realised through a grand accomplishment: striking down the biggest villains of the world, one after another.Continue Reading

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE IRAQ WAR

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-war, Baghdad, bias, british politics, Chilcot, Chilcot inquiry, chilcot report, civilian death, displaced, dont attack iraq, EU referendum, illegal war, iraq, iraq inquiry, Iraq occupation, Iraq War, ISIL, islamophobia, jeremy corbyn, legal action, media, middle east, Muslim, refugee, Saddam, saddam hussein, soliders, tony blair, weapons of mass destruction, WMD.

by Julian Canlas

Content warning: mentions sexual abuse, torture, Islamophobia

On 15 February 2003, the now-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke out to the largest anti-war demonstration in British political history. In front of two million people at Hyde Park, London, he exclaimed, ‘Stop now or pay the political price!’ He was warning about the consequences of attacking Iraq.Continue Reading

WHAT IS DONE CANNOT BE UNDONE. WE ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF OUR FUTURE.

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged austerity, ballot box, Brexit, capitalism, climate change, creative writing, cuts, daesh, democracy, devolution, eu ref results, EU referendum, Europe, european union, eurozone, expression, financial collapse, future, Greece, human history, immigration, Iraq War, left, left leave, Lexit, Merkel, NHS, Northern Ireland, opinion, pluralism, politics, progressive parties, prose, response, riots, Scotland, snp, solidarity, strength, terrorism, test, tuition fees, Unite, unity, voting, xenophobia.

by Natasha Senior

I keep replaying the same slide show, projecting it on the back of my mind. I see the temperature rising, 9/11, the Iraq war, financial collapse. I enter the ballot box for the first time, eager for change. The coalition forms. Mass extinctions. The SNP wins a majority. Tuition fees triple. The Arab Spring. House prices rise. Riots. The Olympics. Food banks. Austerity. Austerity. Austerity. Benefits slashed. The NHS in turmoil. The Eurozone crisis. Scotland votes for unity. Greece votes for change. They are hung, drawn, quartered. We reach the 1°C threshold. The ballot box takes away a piece of me every single time. The far left brings hope but the far right brings hate. They spread their infectious disease. Storms, droughts, forest fires. Everything I fear begins to materialise in front of my eyes. Refugees fleeing the wars we started but we just condemn them to their fates. Floods everywhere. Terrorism. Xenophobia. Half-truths and outright lies. A vote for fear, a vote for suspicion, a vote for fascism.

The weather joins us in this violence as we drive another dagger into the heart of the world. I tell myself lies to ease the pain, looking for ways to return to the past. Hindsight is 20/20 but we never learn from our mistakes. Hatred and fear, symptoms of this deeply tortured nation. I want to leave this place, I want to end the nightmare, but there is no place on Earth that isn’t infected. I collapse into the carnage. I am in free fall. At the mercy of the past. It’s over.

But it is not over. I will not let it be over.Continue Reading

Iraq War

ISIS BRIDE SHAMIMA BEGUM IS BRITISH WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

WILL IRAQ’S NEW PRIME MINISTER RECOGNISE ROMA RIGHTS?

COLONIALISM, CORRUPTION & CHAOS: THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF IRAQI YOUTH

SHAMIMA BEGUM IS A REFLECTION OF SOCIETAL FAILURE: WE MUST BRING HER HOME AND LEARN

RED POPPIES VERSUS WHITE POPPIES (AND THE PROBLEM WITH PACIFISM)

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR AND UEA ALUMNUS JOHN DENNEHY

DID BLAIR HAVE A HERO COMPLEX?

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE IRAQ WAR

WHAT IS DONE CANNOT BE UNDONE. WE ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF OUR FUTURE.

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe