British People of All colours have spoken

More than 400,000 people turned up for a march for peace in London on Saturday it has been the largest ever protest marc in British History it was organised by “Stop the War Coalition” it consisted of many organisations like the CND, National Union of Journalists ,Student Unions ,Trade Unions and Muslim Association of Britain,

It was only organised only a few days ago and highlighted the strength of Anti war feelings in British Society.

I arrived at the Temple underground station at 10.30 am even though the march was starting at 13.30 but I was amazed that there were so many people already getting ready to take part.

These are people from all walks of life, every race, colour, creed, Gender and Nationality even Indians and Israelis took part in it.

Naturally majority of the people there were English, and it shows how fair the new generations of British are and they are willing to stand up and be counted when it comes to the crunch.

There were English, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Bengalis, Bosnians, Somalis, Jamaican, Jordanians, Lebanese, Germans, Americans, and Jews

Egyptians, South Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese

You think of a country ,of a race ,of a colour they were there standing shoulder to shoulder, Hand in hand,

There were Men ,Woman and Children ,there were young and old , strong and frail, there were little babies in buggies with their parents there were people in wheel chairs hardly able to push themselves forward but shouting against the injustices loud and clear, Blair who won the elections twice by being the champion of the people is loosing touch with the real people of Britain .He is drifting away from the reality and strength of the people’s emotion

People are just fed up of this War rhetoric ,Blair and Bush coalition of war against innocent Iraqi’s.

There were shouts “Blair Bush don’t push ,”Sharon Sharon how many kids did you kill today”  ,”War war no more”,”make love not oil”

I was simply amazed how much these people were linked to people of a suffering nation even though this is heart of the capitalist society but people took time out to show solidarity with the innocent people of the world.

People were saying this is just the beginning of our struggle we shall standby Iraqi people ,there were non stop shouts for the sanctions to be lifted against Iraq and its people.

In the middle of all this you could hear “Nara –e- takbir” and than Allah ho Akbar louder than the loud speaker.

I saw an English lady shouting Allah ho Akbar and that made me think there is still a lot of hope for this Society.

Out pouring of people on this issue has changed my mind about British Society for ever also presences of Muslims here has given an opportunity for the Natives to learn and get to Islam from a better perspective and the English unlike the Americans are not blinded by the Establishment’s propaganda about Iraq or their so called “War on Terrorism”

People are very clear about the issues at stake here they know this has nothing to do with terrorism and has everything to do with access to Iraqi oil sources.

America is also worried about ever growing anti American feelings in countries like Saudi Arabia hence a big push to secure Iraqi oil in case there is a regime change in Saudi Arabia.

Sultana Begum was shouting slogans louder than her height I asked her about the demonstration Sultana told me that she is of Bengali origin and was born and brought up here in the UK and feels very strongly against injustices taking place in the Middle East and Kashmir and India , Sultana also stated that she was ashamed at the stand or rather lack of it taken by the present Pakistani Government and she was equally surprised why the people of Pakistan are quiet????????

I spoke to Mrs Rukia Butt who is originally from Lahore and has lived in UK for over 40 years, Mrs Butt was slowly progressing through the march with the aid of her faithful stick and was very angry at the Bush Blair and Sharon and called them “the real axis of evil”

She also was not sure why people of Pakistan were quiet but was happy that Musharaf was taking a tough stand when it came to Iraq and Kashmir but she thought it was time for the General to let the political process going again by letting the major political party leaders back into the country.Farhana and her brother Faisal had come from Halifax to take part in the March and as young British Asians of Pakistan origin could not understand why India and Pakistan keep on fighting on Kashmir issue when all the Kashmiris she speaks to they want to be independent of both countries

Fawad is of Palestinian origin but was born and breed in London and he feels very angry the way US has double standards when it comes to dealing with Israel and Iraq and the way US has made this a war against Islam.

Rob Grant is an English man and he was at the March with his 2 young children Rebecca (4 years) and Mathew(11 years)who were carrying placards denouncing hypocrisy of Blair and Bush.Rob spoke with lots of emotions about the unfair treatments dished out to poor people of the world and injustices carried out by US Government ,he was extremely angry with Bush and was fearful that he would plunge the world into a war of civilisations.

Riaz Chugtai is originally from Gujrat and he travelled from Scotland with three of his Scottish Friends Eddy,Michael and Brian they travelled from Edinburgh to the day earlier to take part in the march and be counted with the innocent people around the world.

Nayab Syed is a famous British Pakistani by being the first cyber millionaire of Asian origin, he took a day out of his very busy schedule to be here and make his voice heard along with so many people of so many races of so many creeds with single aim of standing together to help the down trodden.

There is still hope for humanity , my faith in human being was revived today after seeing so many standing by each other.May the common senses and peace prevail.

Shahid Malik