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East End Mobilises against Monica Ali 'film'

notomonicaalibookfilm | 15.07.2006 22:46 | Anti-racism | Indymedia | Social Struggles | London | World

A community meeting in the East End held over two days to stop the filming of the Monica Ali 'book' 'Brick Lane'
has told film makers to not go ahead

©The Author/CBRUK 2006

"Fifty years of work against discrimination, intolerance is being negatived by the trend towards reinforcing the prejudices against the multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious community in the East End of London', says the first campaign statement released tonight.

Campaigners against Monica Ali book have called on

"All right-thinking people to join us in preventing this attack on good social ethic, standard and ideal".

Speaking to the film-makers, the campaign spokesperson said on Saturday 15 July 2006, "The Monica Ali book is not a pure book. It is a tool of political and social attack on a community that does not need being attacked. We need the East End of London to be accurately and ethically portrayed, not being subjected to distortion, misrepresentation and stereotyping. We have spent an awful long time in creating as semblance of a tolerant society here. Why break

notomonicaalibookfilm
- e-mail: notomonicaalibookfilm@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 20 comments

e-mail address

15.07.2006 23:05

No to Monica Ali Film
mail e-mail: notomonicaalifilm@yahoo.co.uk


It is only a novel, not Mein Kampf

16.07.2006 02:08

It is a novel which is a bit like 'Peyton Place', the book which so upset the conservative USA.

We've been through all this with the Salman Rushdie book. We've had centuries of people trying to ban books and do not really need more people lining up to drag us all back to the Middle Ages.

Simple solution = do not buy the book or watch the movie or wear the T shirt.

Too late now though, the book is publicised and people will be wondering what the fuss is about and buy the book or get it down the local library or online perhaps.




Eyes Higher


So, only Adolf Hitler should be objecetd to, no one else?

16.07.2006 08:52

© CBRUK

The Adolf Hitler link is not right

Must things get THAT bad befroie we oppose wrongs?.

If people were only entitled to object to material of the sort contained in Hitler's work then there would be no difference between what he wanted and what the rest of humanity deserved.


The Monica Ali 'book' is not being opposed for a spurious reason. The book has been given disproportionately high publicity by a particular section in the mass media. That section has been the propaganda section, engaged in cultural distortion and historic fabrication.

The people in the brick lane area have been misrepresented most viciously in the heavy spate of attacks mounted by those propagandists. The very people who coincidentally also at almost the same time supported Blair’s war against Iraq.

no one was more approving of the agenda as identified in the Monica ali 'book' than another woman, who almost 30n years earlier, had done the very same thing - attack the humanity, the language, the culture of the people who are very clearly the subject of the attack in this 'book'.

If we do not oppose wrongdoing then we might as well not be!


That cannot be!


Life by definition demands that we do what we can to stop wrongdoings.

The least we can do is to object to wrongs that we see wrongs that hit us.

As human beings, we have to say no to violation of humanity.

What we are being shown on TV as happening in the Middle East is not what we want anywhere else. So to stop that state of mind that tolerate violence, we have to discourage the violation of humanity.

The Monica Ali 'book' has been a planne4d violation of the humanity of the people who have been targeted for reasons way, way removed from the so-called fictional expedience.

The Monica Ali 'book' has done too much damage. On the records. In the references that it has been used to engender against the people that her 'book' attacks.

It is very much the right time and occasion to oppose that 'book' and expose its insidious message and to effectively scrap it from all decent frames of references where it has been insidiously imposed.

All the eastend people will be the better for this protest.


© CBRUK 2006
mail e-mail: cbruk@hotmail.com


Have any of you actually read the book?

16.07.2006 16:34

I find it hard to believe judging from the hysteria. The novel is a romance yarn set on a London council estate, nothing more. Grow up and find a cause that's really worth fighting for.

Bangla Bookworm


The campaign is correct. Monica Ali 'book' is a tool for racists

16.07.2006 19:53




I have read more than 100 reviews. Or rather, promotions of the 'book' carrying the 'Monica Ali' name.

Those reviews and promotions are overwhelmingly against the community in the BRICK LANE AREA.

In any case, there is no logical, moral, philosophical, ethical obligation on the opponents of an attack to actually let the attack stay unchallenged before ‘assessing its merits’!


It would be absurd if every package peddled as a ‘book’ or promoted as part of a propaganda campaign in the form of a book. like Monica Ali’s ‘book’, has to be ‘read’ before its relevance, social desirability and usefulness acceptability are considered in the wider context of social and political and historic factors.

Just as Salman Rushdie had proved with his politically designed attack on the overall Muslim community sop has very single one of the type of attack, hidden under the exposed psychological ploy of a ‘book’, been sued by crusader racist to justify their violations of the target community.

It is not necessary at any level to ‘read’ ‘the book’.


We rely on MOST participants in ordinary ‘news’ stories as we come across those in print, in sound and in video, for making a general judgment on the trend of what they ‘facts are’.

If we were to actually ‘be there in the events’ before making up our minds about any of those ‘news items’ and ‘background items’ where would the world be?

There would be no rational adult sitting aw3ay from the ‘actions’ everyone would be jumping in and being in the ‘events’.

The would truly be in a state of constant turmoil and endless ferment!


This is why I approve of the demand to halt any further publicity for 'Monica Ali' around that 'book'. The 'book' deserves to be scrapped.

If you want to know, just go back to some of the promotions, very openly racist and anti-Muslim, that appeared in the London EVENING STANDARD, the London OBSERVER, for instance.

The pieces in the Guardian were typical. They left out the main story and ficussed on the peripheral.


A single group made single statement which the guardian included in their 'reporting'.

But the guardian left out the main critique which the cbruk organisation created before the 'book' was published.

That was the cbruk's response to the advance publicity given to 'the book' and also to the advance attacks on the community which the media were publishing by using the 'book' as the pretext for those attacks.

CBRUK member
mail e-mail: cbruk@hotmail.com


East End campaign underway against Monica Ali film

16.07.2006 21:38



CAMPAIGN TO STOP MONICA ALI BOOK BEING MADE INTO A FEATURE FILM


An open letter, in the form of a petition is now circulating in the Eats End. People are mostly supporting the campaign.

notomonica
mail e-mail: notomonica@yahoo.co.uk


LONDONISTAN IS A RACIST CONSTRUCT

17.07.2006 13:18

THE NEW BOOK LONDONISTAN
USES THE RACIST CONSTRUCT PROPOGATED BY FRENCH SECRET SERVICE AND MOSSAD

see also:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londonistan

WWW.PAKI.TV


whats the fuss?

18.07.2006 08:59

Its a book! a story! whether you like it or not its up to you, but what is the fuss? do you really want to turn east london into somethinglike pakistan? (speaking as someone of pakistani origin), where there is always something to be banned because it offends some stupid religious law, while at the same time everybody watches western porno films??? Grow up a little bit!

balochi bhai


When the Guardian promotes Monica Ali, there must be a cause for concern

18.07.2006 10:22


© ICEPR 2006


What sums up the Guardian approach to society and social issues?


That is takes the easy way and that it is perennially amoral.

That is why it is the first to jump to the defence of the most morally compromised
'Tokens;'


The Guardian [London news organsiation] is an alarm signal.


For any ‘author’ to be backed in the way that ‘Monica Ali’ has been backed by the Guardian there must have been something very wrong in whatever gave rise to the discontent around Monica Ali.

And as historically the case, the Guardian failed to recognize the cause of the concern and went about weaving the concealment of wool around the issue!

ICEPR
mail e-mail: icepi@yahoo.co.uk


Why not ceremonially burn it in a pile?

18.07.2006 12:56

I'm sure you could make a nice little community event out of it. Throwing books onto a big bonfire while chanting 'Allah akbar!'. Why not show us all the joys of multicultural society?

And balochi bhai, you asked wether these people want to turn East London into Pakistan. The answer is simple, of course they do. That's the whole idea of multiculturalism, they want self ruled ethnic enclaves. It's also part of a wider strategy to push islam onto the rest of the population.

Humpty Dumpty


BURN LIBERAL RACISM

18.07.2006 16:39

Just read the racist, anti-muslim, anti-pakistani comments. Do you really think England is so much better than Pakistan? Are you aware of colonial history and how Pakistan was created from the blood of millions of working class slaves for the profit of the ruling classes? So do tell us all, where are you from Humpty Dumpty? And where do you live? I bet u got a nice red passport and can go wherever u want whenever u want - u are just nationalist scum wanting to defend your own privelidge and so-called civilisation. The issue with this book is power and representation. If it does not concern you then keep out of it.

PAKI.TV

paki.tv


Monica Ali 'book' must be withdrawn and Grant told to publish full rebuttal

19.07.2006 13:38


The Campaign against the Defamation of the Community in the East End of London has today called on Granta, the original pubpsher of the 'book' 'Brick Lane' by Monica Ali to
'' withdraw the 'book' as attributed to Monica Ali and called Brick Lane and to withdraw all items that are attached to that book' and all promotions of the same.We also demand that you agree to publish within the next six months a full rebuttal of the 'book' 'Brick Lane' as you attributed it to 'Monica Ali' and that you do so in the full knowledge that the rebuttal is to create a movement towards remedying some of the very lasting damages that you have caused to the human rights of the people targeted in the programme of that 'book'.



The Campaign against the defamation of the Community in the East End of London

Campaign Against the Defamation of the Community in the East End of London
mail e-mail: cadc@yahoo.co.uk


Guardian newspaper 'letters' about Brick Lane, Sylhettis and racism 20 July 2006

20.07.2006 18:14



The Guardian newspaper of Thursday 20 July 2006 did what it was predicted to do - run apparent letters that continued the perpetuation of the very racist fabrications against which this campaign had come to be at the weekend.

The headline of the main 'letter' was as false and untruthful as has been every single line of promotion ever published in the West fort the 'book' attributed to 'Monica Ali' at the expense of the community in the East End.

The Campaign against Defamation of the Community in the East End is set to publish in the next 24 hours the full report of the community's views about the racist and socially exclusive assault mounted on the East End by all those who found in the 'book' a tool with which to attack the collective and the specific image of the humanity of the people in the East End - the Seelotee speaking Bangladeshis who just happen to be Muslims.

The attack is part of a political agenda that had been in action for the previous 50 years and which had included such psychological ploys as the concept of 'book' 'writing' 'artistic freedom'.

It was almost twenty years previously that the so-called work of fiction allegedly written by Salman Rushdie had been the cause of deep anguish in the Eats End of London.

How ironic that the same Salman Rushdie has been 'found' ready and willing so fast by the Guardian to pose not only as the eponymous courier of the political iconography assigned to him for the task but also as a legitimate spokesperson for the Bangladeshi community in the Eats End of London !

Rushdie's co-signatories in the better-looking piece of pro-racist propaganda against the defamed community in the East End of London and their [Rushdie's co-signatories'] appearance Guardian agenda of racist fabrication give away the game by not being anywhere near the community of the East End that was part of the aggression carried out in the Satanic Verses and now being continued under the many covers afforded by 'the book' 'Brick Lane' by 'Monica Ali’!

The lack of ethics, the lack of ordinary shame on the parts of the political agenda setters of the Guardian is as much to blame for the dire depreciation of morality in the UK as are the 'other' factors including the immoral conduct of those occupying some of the British state's highest public posts and psostions.

The discrediting of the concept of highly moral vocation of creative writing is now complete with the mysterious but persistent availability of Salman Rushdie and his fellow-travelling agents of imperialism to pounce on some of the western countries' most violated sections in the inner cities populations.

1815 Hrs GMT
London Thursday 20 July 2006

Campaign against the Defamation of the Community in teh East End of London
mail e-mail: campiagnagainstdefamation@yahoo.co.uk


The e-mail address for campaign against the defamation of the community

20.07.2006 18:53

The campaign against the defamation of the community in the East End of London
mail e-mail: campaignagainstdefamation@yahoo.co.uk


Burning books is proof of stereotype

27.07.2006 10:18

Abdus Salique is intending to burn Monica Ali's book because he says it portrays his followers as 'Uneducated, illiterate and close-minded'. Is he incapable of understanding that he is actually proving that this is the case? Perhaps if he and his followers read the book first, assuming they are not illiterate, there could be a meaning ful discussion about its contents. Book burning is brainless fascism

Pat
mail e-mail: pat.critchley@btinternet.com


Reply to 'Pat' [listed at 15 on this page]

30.07.2006 07:54



© The Author / CDCEEL 2006

To 'Pat'

Your apparent quotation of an apparent statement is not correct. OUR campaign, which was established on 15 July 2006 and which created and published all the analyses, has NOT authorised anyone, other than Mr Muhammad Haque, to speak on behalf of this campaign to the media.

So, whoever gave you the apparent quote, could not have given it from our campaign and Mr Haque has made several statements setting our the lawful constitutional manner and method of our opposition to the political racist and historic violation of the East End community via the 'book' allegedly written by a Monica Ali.


We find the Monica Ali 'book' a seriously orchestrated tool of attack on the community. It is not just one part of the population in the Eats End of London. The attack is on the whole of the East End.

We have as the campaign, a long list of constitutional steps that are being implemented as we write this on Sunday 30 July 2006.

We have now had three weekly campaign meetings on the subject:

Saturday 15 July
Saturday 22 July and
Saturday 29 July 2006


All the meetings were chaired by Mr Haque
And all the meetings unanimously agreed the campaign programmes which included that Mr Haque would issue any statement on behalf of this campaign.

Mr Haque has done this and both the BBC and the Guardian have been included in the list of the media to whom our campaign analysis of the ‘Monica Ali ‘book’ and ‘film’ have been stated.

Both the BBC and the Guardian have failed to publish truthfully any report on our campaign. They have both in their different forms published falsifications and half truths.

In the case of the Guardian, that organisation has gone several steps farther its [the Guardian's historic record of its propensity to ] pernicious distortion of the community’s dignified, clear, ethical, legitimate and moral position in opposition to the attacks as represented by the 'Monica Ali bandwagon'..

The Guardian itself has invented a phantom to replace our campaign’s image with and the Guardian has then attributed to its own rakishly and unethically created phantom all the illiberal, book-burning utterances.

We have totally opposed this and we have now formally lodged complaints against the Guardian with the PCC.

CDCEEL - Camapagan Aghainst the Defamation of the Community
mail e-mail: cdceel@yahoo.co.uk


Religion deserves a bad press

01.08.2006 13:04

If any religion or culture teaches that women should obey their husbands then it deserves any amount of criticism and ridicule, whether in a novel or in factual media. Christianity is as bad as other religions for indoctrination but the mainstream versions have had to ditch the obey bit from marriage ceremonies, mainly because women refuse to submit to such a ridiculous statement. Sadly many women in the Brick Lane area have no choice but to submit to the oppression that their religion and culture demands.

This is Britain and all people who live here should have the freedom to tell their spouse where to go. Will campaign organisers confirm that they would not physically stop wives and daughters in the Bangladeshi community from acting like a tarty English woman if that is what they wanted to do?

nick


Register for Seminar on the topical cultural political issues

07.08.2006 09:32





Seminar in Tower Hamlets

Sunday 20 August 2006

Organised by

Campaign Against the Defamation of the Community in the East End of London [CDCEEL]


Apply


 cdceel@yahoo.co.uk

East London Seminar on 'Monica Ali book' agenda
mail e-mail: cdceel@yahoo.co.uk


Register for Seminar on the topical cultural political issues

07.08.2006 09:32




Seminar in Tower Hamlets

Sunday 20 August 2006

Organised by

Campaign Against the Defamation of the Community in the East End of London [CDCEEL]


Apply


 cdceel@yahoo.co.uk

East London Seminar on 'Monica Ali book' agenda
mail e-mail: cdceel@yahoo.co.uk


CDCEEL campaign exposing politically motivated media fiction

12.08.2006 05:28


I am going to the seminar next weekend to learn about the role politically motivated fiction plays in making a community suffer or benefit.

AS an east ender, I no longer take the word as given unless my experience tells me to.
What I have seen in the recent years tells me that the news media get it more often wrong than right.

The same must be true of politically motivated fiction. Strangely, most comments that have appeared in the media supporting the attack on the East End
have been authored by the type of people that would denigrate the East End.

And the contents of the posts siding with the attack show that instead of looking at the ideological and political agenda behind the attack on the community, the backers of the attack have added their own attacks on the East End.

They too have an agenda. If not then they are following the agenda already set.

That agenda is to make the East End community look less than it deserves. Less respectable. Less entitled. Less intelligent.

It is called undermining.


The image of the East End community once shown to deserve to be treated with disrespect then gets established as easy target for other violations.
This gives little comfort to those of us who had not said anything in public about the Monica Ali project on the East End of London..

Writing is never free from ideology. No matter what form it takes.

And the CDCEEL organisers have shown successfully that the title of the Monica Ali project on the East End was chosen by politically motivated deliberation.

CDCEEL campaign aims to bring out all the evidence.

Now we are going to say a great deal. And it will be mostly about the media agenda and how the records need to be got right.

Shaheen CDCEEL


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