The Case for Releasing Two Men Jailed for Defending Their Communities
The recent surge of far-right and fascist violence has seen hundreds of violent racists attacking mosques, assaulting any Black person they could find, and even attempting mass murder by trying to burn down two hotels housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth.
These riots are the consequence of decades of racist tabloid press and politicians in parliament promising to ‘clamp down on migration’. Immigration is viewed as a ‘problem to be solved’ rather than an inevitable consequence of the global economy we live in. Refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war are likened to an invading army, while economic migrants seeking a better life are castigated and scorned for ‘taking jobs’.
Forty years of neoliberalism and over a decade of austerity have fostered a culture of competition, reduced community resources, and, consequently, fear. Fascists exploit these fault lines, blaming it all on the poorest and most vulnerable while allowing the billionaires and the politicians who defend their system to escape accountability.
“When the police operation failed to stop the fascists, ordinary people stepped in.”
When these enraged violent mobs attempted to start a race war in early August 2024, it is unsurprising that people came out to defend their communities. Black and white united to defy the race hate of the far right, and where the police operation failed to stop the fascists, ordinary people stepped in.
However, anti-fascists who turned out to defend asylum seekers and immigrant communities were also arrested in Bristol and Leeds.
Two men, Sameer Ali and Adnan Ghafoor, were arrested by police for punching some of the fascist hooligans and were subsequently sent to prison. They stated they were “provoked by Islamophobic threats and abuse”. We must be clear that if race hate violence comes to your community, and people are marching and attacking others based on their race, that is fundamentally wrong, and people have the right to defend themselves—individually or collectively.
“If race hate violence comes to your community, people have the right to defend themselves—individually or collectively.”
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Are they appealing against the sentences and do they have a decent solicitor that will fight to get them free. So defence is no offence should be our war cry on every demonstration.
I meant ‘Self-defence is no offence.’