•• ination and scapegoating
But that does not mean that anti-semit in the Muslim community does not exist should not be robustly challenged, should in the white working class comm ties. Undoubtedly there are fundament groups with such an agenda. And a string bombings of synagogues and Jewish est lishments have been attributed to them Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey and elsewhere
The left, the anti-war movement and activists in the Muslim community should shy away from tackling those who give dence to anti-semitism - whether thro ignorance or positive ideology.
There is no contradiction between do this and fighting for the kind of allia between the left and Muslims that has b such a success in the anti-war movement has the potential to be politically deepe through Respect.
consistent attempt has been m to smear the Stop the Coalition with anti-semitism simply for consistently raising the sloga Freedom for Palestine or working v Muslim groups. The coincidence of Turkish bombings with the massive and toric November anti-Bush demo was excuse by some on the right for making outrageous slur that the movement w some way responsible.
In fact it is the warmongers that h made the world a more dangerous pl acting as recruiting sergeants for te groups with an anti-semitic agenda.
In this context Tam Dalyell MP's refere last year to "jewish influence" at the hea US and British policy in May, was rig attacked by some on the left, but not enough.
And hopefully a situation won't arise a where a group of Jewish anti-war acti felt they needed to make representatior the Stop the War Coalition about a lac responsiveness to concerns about the o tation to the jewish community as pened in the Autumn
The point is not that the anti-war mo ment is anti-semitic or this ideology is pr lent on the left - certainly there can b equation between anti-Zionism and semitism.
But the necessary and successful orie tion towards the radicalising Muslim com nity as it defends itself from the cur onslaught should not make us defensiv the issue. On the contrary, positively tak up can only strengthen that process
page 10 of the scan
10 socla ance February 2004