In defence of Aamer Anwar

Suppression of critical comment of the Scottish judiciary should be seen as an attack on all our democratic rights - well with what is left of them in Brown's broken Britain.

Mohammed Atif Siddique a 21 year old student from Alva, Clackmannashire was jailed for eight years last month - Scotland's first ‘Islamist terror’ conviction . His legal representive a well known Scottish human rights lawyer now also faces a potential jail sentence.

Mr. Anwar has stated that the Atif Siddique verdict was “a tragedy for justice and for freedom of speech and undermines the values that separate us from the terrorists, the very values we should be fighting to protect. Young Muslims live in a climate of fear no different to that experienced by the Irish community in the last century."

Lord Calloway subsequently ordered Mr Anwar to appear before the High Court in Edinburgh to face contempt of court proceedings. A finding of contempt against the 39-year-old solicitor would put his legal career in jeopardy. He could face a jail sentence or heavy fine and professional disciplinary proceedings.

So at a time when our great leader frantically squeegees away contaminated party bureaucrats and lousy carpetbaggers - the Scottish courts wash away the life of a young muslim who interwebbed for answers to the mass deaths and destruction in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanisan. And now the state's guilt in its political complicity with the wider objectives of the neo-con war on terror realizes itself in the form of a judicial tantrum: ‘This was our case and no ‘mouthy black boy’ can have anything to do with it. Lock him away!’

However millions of people – fuelled by their participation and support for the global anti-war movement - have developed a deep rooted sense of mistrust for the official narrative and response to the war on terror as projected by Brown and Bush. From this anti neo-con bedrock the 'Defend Aamer Anwar' campaign is growing.

The Glasgow Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Action Committee, an umbrella organisation of more than 700 mosques, imams and religious scholars in the UK, has already met to form a support group for Aamer Anwar. Tony Benn, president, Stop the War Coalition; Moazzam Begg, ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee; Iain Banks, author; George Galloway MP; Lindsey German, national convener, Stop the War Coalition; Professor Mike Gonzales, University of Glasgow; Imran Khan, human rights lawyer; Bashir Mann, convener, Muslim Council of Scotland; Professor David Miller, University of Strathclyde; Gareth Pierce, human rights lawyer; Mohammed Sarwar MP; Sandra White MSP; and many others are part of the natonwide campaign.

Pressure on the judiciary over the case is set to increase as Margo MacDonald, the independent MSP, said that she wanted to raise the issue in the Scottish Parliament, probably in the form of a parliamentary motion, if she was allowed to do so.

Ms MacDonald said: "I am concerned about any restraint being put on lawyers who speak their minds, give their opinions or campaign against injustice - and Aamer Anwar does all three.”

Scotland’s leading ‘quality’ newspaper clearly disagrees suggesting that free speech rights can be best protected by simply limiting their scope in counter-terror legal cases. Human rights lawyers like Aamer Anwar should simmer down and show ‘a level of restraint in voicing criticism about such matters’. The implication is that free speech should be delimited by the extent to which it mirrors the existing state consensus. Legal representatives of the most oppressed groups supposedly have a special responsibility to choose their words carefully and fulfill their duty to uphold normal standards of consent.

Such a position is typical of the dominant discourse surrounding the issue in Scotland’s established corporate media. All mainstream media outlets skew the framework of debate by restricting it's terms when discusssing the erosion of human rights by government policies purporting to fight terrorism. This tendency has been well-developed over decades in relation to the conflict in Northern Ireland and was given renewed impetus by the UK’s actions in response to the attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001.

Since 11 September 2001, the UK authorities have passed a series of new laws, even though the UK already had some of the toughest "anti-terrorism" laws in Europe. These laws contain sweeping provisions that contravene human rights law, and their implementation has led to serious abuses of human rights.

People suspected of involvement in terrorism who have been detained in the UK under the new laws have found themselves in a Kafkaesque world. They have been held for years in harsh conditions on the basis of secret accusations that they are not allowed to know and therefore cannot refute.

After the events of 7 and 21 July 2005 in London, more draconian measures were proposed. These included a new Terrorism Bill currently before Parliament. Some of its most sweeping and vague provisions, if enacted, would undermine the rights to freedom of expression, association, liberty and fair trial. You would not get a real sense of this by relying on the likes of The Herald, The Scotsman, The Daily Record, Reporting Scotland, Scotland Today or Good Morning Scotland.

We are living through a creeping Orwellian nightmare whereby oppressed groups and their representatives are being targeted by the state and being prosecuted for thought crime. The Government is terrorising the Muslim community and causing fear in its efforts to combat terrorism. Laws are effectively being used to breed a culture of suspicion against Muslims and people of Middle Eastern appearance.

But you cannot defeat terrorism by taking away the rights of those who seek to defend citizens suspected of a crime and pronouncing them guilty along with their whole community. The state’s real problem remains the threat of an organised response by the millions who can see through the thickening (nay sickening) smokescreen of state suppression.

Update 1:
Anwar invited to stand as Glasgow University Rector: Students at Glasgow University have joined the the growing chorus of support for solicitor Aamer Anwar, by inviting him to stand for the post of Rector.

Update 2:
Scotland's legal magazine The Firm is calling on the profession to break it's silence and speak out in defence of Aamer Anwar. An editorial in the December 2007 edition states: "If solicitors and advocates lose sight of the greater principles and purpose of the profession by keeping their heads down and thinking about the money, they shame and disgrace themselves, the public and the law itself. Solicitors should be able to speak out in public for their clients without fear of criminal consequence."

Related links:
Defend Aamer Anwar petition
john hilley blog