Fun-da-mental rights debate on censorship part 1

Fun-da-mental rights debate on censorshipThe Sun calls him the suicide bomb rapper, MPs want him arrested and his record company refuses to support his latest album. All is War (the Benefits of G-Had), is causing a storm with its direct political lyrics dealing with terrorism, war, Muslim identity and western hypocrisy. It has provoked outrage from politicians and the press, prompting Radio 1 to ban it from its playlist and the distributors to declare it too hot to handle.

Lead singer Aki Nawaz came to the rampART on Thursday 17th August to take part in a debate on the reaction to the album, Islamophobia, racisim and the health of freespeech and democracy in the UK. The debate was facilitated by Ken Fero of Injustice Films, other members of the panel were human rights lawyer Louise Christian, the singer Natacha Atlas, John Pandit of Asian Dub Foundation and Shahrar Ali of the Green
Party.

After introductions through the facilitator the members of the panel gave individual statements on what they do, why they were there and what their personal take was.

PunkPurim@RampART, Whitechapel 18-03-06

“Punkpurim is Jewish hipsterism meets Israeli hardcore metal meets UK anarchist collectives meets anti-nomian Chassidism. It reclaims the carnival heart of the Jewish festival of Purim. Think of it as the meeting of Walter Benjamin, Noam Chomsky and Barbara Streisand in a Brick Lane Bagel Bar. Think of it as the revenge of subversive diasporists everywhere.”

more pics

Photos of punk gig June 2006

link to alex jtb’s pics on flickr