Battle Of Hattin

Could community relations survive a homophobic campaign?

It's late afternoon on Bethnal Green Road, in east London, and I am rushing from the tube for a meeting. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I catch something that brings me to a stop: a rainbow flag turned into a no entry sign, with the words "gay free zone" written across. Above are the words "Arise and warn" and below "And fear Allah. Verily Allah is severe in punishment". Both with a Koranic reference. I shiver, and am reminded of the words "Juden raus" (Jews out) that my mother would have seen in Berlin in the 1930s. It is not something I thought I would ever witness 70 years on in one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Britain, where gay pubs share the same streets as synagogues and Halal butchers.

The previous December, at a meeting of Rainbow Hamlets – the Tower Hamlets lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) forum, which I co-chair with Rebecca Shaw, the police had told us about two reported anti-gay sticker sightings in the borough. They linked them to a sighting in neighbouring Hackney, one across the capital in Twickenham, and another in Nottingham.

Between 11 February and the end of March, more than 65 similar stickers were displayed around London, with over 50 in Tower Hamlets. This was turning out to be the most intense homophobic hate literature campaign since the 1980s battle over section 28.

Coverage of the sticker campaign, particularly online, often seemed ill-informed. Comment pieces from both sides tended towards a rabble-rousing tone, inspiring a torrent of racist and Islamaphobic abuse. I experienced more back-to-my-roots shivers, this time thinking about my grandparents' fight against Oswald Mosley's blackshirts.

Acting on Rainbow Hamlets's advice, a joint statement was issued by Tower Hamlets' mayor Lutfur Rahman, the Inter-faith Forum, and the East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre (ELM). This represented the first public condemnation of homophobia by both Rahman and the ELM.

The local authority, Tower Hamlets Homes (the largest social housing provider in the borough), and the Metropolitan police also issued directives to ensure that within a further 48 hours hundreds of public servants were on the lookout to report the stickers and remove them.

A series of specially convened meetings at the town hall drew representatives from council departments, education, housing, the police and community organisations. At these meetings, the sticker campaign, homophobic hate preachers, racism among some members of the LGBT community and the infiltration by the far right of East End Gay Pride were placed firmly on the agenda, each with equal vigour. And here, the ELM first admitted there had been homophobic incidents in the mosque in the past and that it had adopted new policies and procedures to ensure it would not happen again.

Film Kingdom of Heaven: Crusade War between Christians and Muslims ...

Saladin: I wonder if it would not be better if you did. You will destroy it?

Balian of Ibelin: Every stone. And every Christian knight you kill will take 10 Saracens with him. You will destroy your army here and never raise another. I swear to God that to take this city will be the end of you.

[thinks]

Saladin: Your city is full of women and children. If my army will die, so will your city.

Balian of Ibelin: You offer terms. I ask none.

Saladin: I will give every soul safe conduct to Christian lands. Every soul –the women, the children, the old, and all your knights and soldiers, and your queen. Your king, such as he is, I leave to you, and what God will make of him. No one will be harmed. I swear to God.

Balian of Ibelin: The Christians butchered every Muslim within the walls when they took this city.

Saladin: I AM NOT THOSE MEN. I AM SALAHUDDIN. SALAHUDDIN.

[thinks]

Balian of Ibelin: Then under these terms, I surrender Jerusalem.

Saladin: As-Salāmu `Alaykum.

Balian of Ibelin: And peace be with you.

[walks away]

Balian of Ibelin: What is Jerusalem worth?

Saladin: Nothing.

[walks away]

Saladin: Everything!

[smile to each other]

READ MORE:

Kingdom of Heaven  http://en.wikipedia.

The battle of Hattin

The journal of medieval military history

Hattin 1187, Saladin's Greatest Victory

The Crusades

Crusade of Kings