Abu Qatada: a tale of injustice
The job of this paper is not
to promote any religion – most of them have the funds and expertise to do that
for themselves. When, however, a religion is attacked and demonised in order to
create a smokescreen for imperialist brigandage around the world under the flag
of ‘war on terror’; when this attack is used to divide the working classes in
order to destroy any possible unity against their very real oppression and
exploitation; and when in order to do these things a religious man is denied
basic human rights and is persecuted on the basis of flimsy evidence acquired
through torture, we have a duty to speak out and lay the facts before our
readers.
The case of the Moslem cleric, Abu Qatada, has been
in the news of late with the tabloids frothing over European interference in
British justice in the interests of a ‘known terrorist’ – when they weren’t
lambasting the hapless Theresa May for literally not knowing what day it was.
A look behind the scenes, however, shows the cruel,
calculating monster that is British imperialism always working away in its own
interests without regard to the cost to individual humans or humanity in
general. Moreover, British imperialism has no regard even to the laws it makes
itself since it breaks or ignores them to suit its current goals. The British
press, owned by the bourgeoisie, is a main bourgeois propaganda outlet, and it
has a ready made ‘standard’ background to all such stories which doesn’t even
have to be clearly expressed to be understood; Moslem equals potential bomber,
devout Moslem equals leader of bombers!
So who is Abu Qatada? What has he done?
Born in Bethlehem on the West Bank in 1960 should
have made Abu Qatada a Palestinian but it was at that time occupied by Jordan and so he has Jordanian nationality and passport.
Abu Qatada at various times made his home in
different parts of the Middle East. In 1991 he was in Kuwait when the first Gulf War erupted. Consequent on this, he, along with many other
Palestinians, was expelled from Kuwait from where he returned to Jordan. Two years later he fled Jordan with his family, travelling on a forged UAE
passport, the only way to make such an escape. He asked Britain for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. This was granted in 1994 and
Abu Qatada and his family settled in Acton, West London.
Back in Jordan, based on ‘evidence’ gleaned from
torture, Abu Qatada was sentenced in abstentia to life imprisonment with hard
labour in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks and in 2000 he was
given a further fifteen year sentence there for additional alleged terrorist
actions.
As a preacher, he preached in various mosques both
in the Middle East and here in Britain. Many of his sermons were taped, as is
usual with popular preachers, which is what first led to his problems with the
British state. In February 2001 he was arrested and questioned in connection
with a ‘terror’ investigation in Germany – but there was no evidence and he was
released without charge.
Post ‘9/11’ however, when a tape of his sermons was
found in a Hamburg flat used by the ‘9/11 hijackers’, the Home Office announced
that he was the ‘spiritual’ guide to Mohamed Atta, the so called ‘ring-leader’
of the 9/11 hijackers. Abu Qatada went underground fearing for his safety
again. In 2002 he was arrested in a South London flat and taken to Belmarsh
prison. The then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, ordered his indefinite
detention without trial under Part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security
Act 2001. This was the start of his long legal battle against deportation to Jordan where he feared he would be tortured. He stayed in prison from that arrest until
2005 during which time he was not allowed to see the evidence against him. His
legal representative was a special advocate who was not allowed to speak to Abu
Qatada or his lawyer. He was released on bail with very strict conditions but
re-arrested just five months later and kept in Jail until May 2008 when the
Court of Appeal ruled that he could not be returned to Jordan as he would face
a further trial where there was a strong possibility that evidence obtained by
torture would be used and that would amount to a breach of Article 6 of the
European Convention of Human Rights which Britain was signed up to. Released
again under strict bail conditions, including a 22 hour per day home curfew,
eight months later he was again re-arrested after the Special Immigration
Appeals Commission revoked his bail, stating that he had not broken his bail
conditions but might do so at some time in the future!
In February 2009 the Law Lords ruled that Abu
Qatada could now be deported to Jordan. Yet in the same month he was awarded
£2,500 by the European Court of Human Rights after he had filed a lawsuit
against the British State on the basis that his detention without trial in the UK constituted a breach of his human rights.
On 17 January 2012 the European Court of Human
Rights once again ruled in favour of Abu Qatada saying, once again, that he
could not be deported to Jordan as this would still be a violation of Article 6
of the European Convention of Human Rights.
13 February 2012 saw Abu Qatada once more released
on strict bail conditions: he was not allowed to use a mobile phone, a computer
or access the internet by any means and was again subject to an electronically
monitored 22 hour per day curfew that only allowed him to leave his home twice
a day for a maximum of one hour each time. And by 17 April 2012 he was once
more re-arrested after Theresa May claimed that she had been given reassurances
by the Jordanian Government re Abu Qatada’s expected treatment if deported
there and that his deportation could now go ahead. Abu Qatada’s lawyer lodged
an appeal within two hours of a deadline set by the European Court to do so and
that is pretty much where we are now.
If you think that this misery has been inflicted
upon Abu Qatada solely by those nasty Tories, remember it was a Labour
Government who first imprisoned him without trial. And just in case you are
misled into thinking it was only Blair’s ‘New Labour’ project that would do
such a thing, Labour’s Yvette Cooper MP, while asking questions about Theresa
May’s capability to do her job, wanted to know re the deportation: “what is
happening now to ensure this process is put back on track?”. In addition, Chris
Bryant MP, Labour’s justice spokesman, said “All of us want Abu Qatada to be
deported to Jordan; we also want the Home Secretary to go through the proper
processes.”
Regardless of whether you agree with Abu Qatada’s
beliefs or not, what should really be examined by British workers is the
reality of bourgeois democracy which is democracy for a small number of
exploiters at the expense of democracy for the masses.
The continuing demonisation of Moslems in the West
in general and Britain in particular is only of use to those blessed by
bourgeois democracy/dictatorship and must be challenged to help us move towards
the working class unity necessary to overturn bourgeois democracy/dictatorship
and replace it with proletarian democracy/dictatorship (democracy for the
majority and the curtailing of some of the rights of the deposed ruling class)
which is the only way we can progress towards a socialist future. It is also
necessary for British workers to realise that the negation of legal and human
rights to people like Abu Qatada by the bourgeois state sets a precedent for
their denial to all or any of us should we start to challenge the increased
exploitation and misery that we are facing and will continue to face for the
foreseeable future as a result of the capitalist crisis of overproduction.
Organisation of the working class and allies under
the leadership of a Party committed to socialist revolution and with a good
understanding of Marxism-Leninism is our only protection and hope for a decent
future for all our children.