Through their (in)direct support of Assad, the Stop the War Coalition blindly ignore Russia's own imperialistic goals in the region and prove themselves anything but anti-war.
Noor Barotchi is a British-Syrian national who is a founding member of Bradford Syria Solidarity and a volunteer with the humanitarian aid charities Hand in Hand for Syria and Syria Relief
They call themselves an anti-war movement. Set up in 2001 in the UK to counter the Bush Administration’s ‘War on Terror’, the Stop the War Coalition claims to defend civil liberties.
And yet their binary vision of ‘West equals evil/anti-West equals good’ has led them and other self-professed ‘anti-imperialists’ to adopt a utilitarian vision of the conflict in Syria.
Far from standing with the oppressed, their stance has proven that Syrian blood means little. Most recently, they invited Lebanese-Palestinian nun Mother Agnes Mariam to speak at their International Anti-War Conference, who preaches that Assad is a protector of minorities and all havoc in the country has been caused by militant Sunni jihadists.
The hypocrisy lies in the fact that her views and actions make her the exact opposite of anti-war.
Unfortunately, Agnes Mariam has exploited her religious status to be an accessory to mass murder. Syrian Christians for Peace and Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest based in Syria who is now missing (believed to have been kidnapped by the Al-Qaida affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), have called Sister Agnes a regime agent, the latter claiming that her “interpretation of the facts is always selective and one-sided”.
In 2012, she blamed the Houla massacre on the rebels, claiming that the victims were Alawites and Shia converts. This contradicted the United Nations’ investigation, which found government forces and Shabeeha [paid regime militia] culpable.
Mo’dhamiya (Damascus countryside) has been besieged for almost a year. Civilians living inside are dying of starvation due to the strict blockade imposed by the Syrian government, which prevents food, water and medical supplies getting in. Agnes Mariam allegedly encouraged civilians to evacuate the area by saying that “it is better if unarmed civilians surrender and turn themselves in”. In doing so, she was complicit in the detainment of 200 plus civilians from the area, the fate of whom presently remains unknown.
When the chemical weapons attack was perpetrated in Ghouta, she presented ‘evidence’ to the U.N. to try and pin the blame on the rebels. First, she determined that the videos were “manipulated and disposed with theatrical arrangements.” She then concluded that the children shown in the video were actually Alawite children kidnapped from Latakia (the same line was given by Bouthaina Shaaban, the political and media advisor to Assad).
Her polemics, however, were refuted by many organisations, including Human Rights Watch, who issued a statement saying: “there’s just no basis for the claims advanced by Mother Agnes.”
Agnes Mariam has now ‘withdrawn’ from the conference after two keynote speakers, Jeremy Scahill and Owen Jones, refused to share a platform with her. While this is news worthy of celebration, we should not forgive nor forget the fact that StWC invited her in the first place. Through their (in)direct support of Assad, they blindly ignore Russia’s own imperialistic goals in the region and prove themselves anything but anti-war.
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43 Responses to “The British ‘anti-war’ movement’s hypocrisy over Syria”
ProquciProdesse
We do have a constitution, the Bill of Rights, English common law which is in fact the only law of the land and the Magna Carta.. Trouble, is, we dont adhere to it, live by it or, more importantly enforce the laws.. But there is a great awakening and folk are now realising this and the common law movement is growing in strength massively.. Not only the freeman movement, British constitution Group and all others fighting for true justice and justice we will have against the scum who took us into the EU strenuously.. Oh happy dayz 😉
ProquciProdesse
I`m not left, far far from it for sure.. However, it is true and factual that these wars have been planned for decades by the western power elites, not just the oil, but to be able to take oil and gas to market, PIPELINES..!! Syria is a stepping stone.. Sit tight, Iran is the goal, then Central Asia and the TAPI PIPELINE and onwards and upwards to the borders of China.. Ahhh bisto…
ProquciProdesse
The MI6B (moslem MI6 brotherhood) has been a British intelligence operation since their inception way back in 1928/29… 🙂 .. The west will prop up anyone and always have players and agents on both sides, it guarantees a win.. 😉
ProquciProdesse
Wahabbi, another fantastic British creation … 🙂 ..
Lamia
Some of them. It turned out Mubarak went a lot more quietly and with a lot less bloodshed than those dictators propped up by the far left’s heroes, Russia and China, have done.
When it looked like Mubarak would fall, the far left was very pro-Arab Spring. Since then, when it came to dictatorships not supported by the West it has decided that the revolutions are in fact possibly counter-revolutionary and therefore a bad thing. Which has allowed them to keep making excuses for Assad, Gaddafi, the Iranian regime and any other supported by Russia and China.
It is pure nonsense for the ‘anti-war’ left to claim as they do that they are motivated by humanitarianism. They will happily support or make excuses for a proven mass murderer over a lesser thug if it fits their deranged West=Bad, ‘Russia, China and their allies = good’ worldview. The West has supported some brutal dictatorships in the Middle East, but the ar left has supported and continues to support provenly worse ones. Mubarak and the UAE are half-hearted amateurs compared to Assad, Gaddafi and the Iranian regime.