The COCONUT Trial - the insane suppression of Muslims in the UK

Muslims are dragged to courts for what white men aren't. Welcome to 1984.

This week, an 8-month-pregnant woman, Marieha Hussain, was dragged to court for holding a satirical placard at a pro-Palestinian march depicting then PM Rishi Sunak and disgraced former Home Secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts. The Met police claimed it was racist and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed and decided to prosecute her. Here is the placard:

For all those who do not know, the term ‘coconut’ is used by those with a history of British colonisation the world over. As Marieha’s legal team pointed out, it is common parlance amongst celebrities and other well-known figures, such as Frantz Fanon, Marcus Garvey, Benjamin Zephaniah, and even comedian Romesh Ranganathan, frequently jokes that his mum calls him a coconut for not speaking Tamil. The writer and anti-racism campaigner Nels Abbey explained it best so I leave it to him:

“The word ‘coconut’ didn’t fall out of a coconut tree, to quote Kamala Harris’s mum,” …the word “fell out of our experience as former colonised people”.

The term emerged as a way of critiquing those who “collaborated with our oppressors”…

“This is our language,” he said. “We share this language because we share a history, we share origins and share a community… You cannot criminalise people’s history, and the language that emerged from that.”

What was particularly striking about the prosecution case is that the prosecutor Jonathan Bryan argued that coconut was a well-known racial slur:

"[It has] a very clear meaning – you may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside”…

“In other words, you’re a ‘race traitor’ – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”

Though on this occasion the prosecutor was talking out of other than his mouth, it does raise serious questions about our current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

Starmer spent his entire time as leader of a Labour party accusing Jews at a frightening rate of being anti-Semitic. In fact, 53% of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) officers faced actioned complaints of antisemitism, a rate 180 times higher than non-Jewish Labour Party members.

In other words, a non-Jewish Labour leader told Jews in his party that they were anti-Semitic, and even suspended and expelled some of them for it. Is that not the very definition of claiming that they are ‘race traitors’?

As George Orwell wrote in his book, 1984 with crazy prescience:

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

We can now safely add to his list,

“Anti-racism is racist. Anti-terrorism is terror.”

The UK is now completely Orwellian: just as depicted in 1984, we are experiencing a complete inversion of reality.

Today the UK is very intentionally using the laws designed to protect against racism and terrorism to shut down anti-racist protests and anti-terror activism.

Marieha Hussain was at a pro-Palestinian protest aka a protest against Israeli apartheid and genocide of Palestinians. In other words, she was at an anti-racism march protesting against racism. To then use the law to try and smear her as a racist is utterly malevolent.

The anti-racism laws that should be used to protect those individuals Marieha is advocating for, are instead being weaponised to suppress the voices of those calling for an end to the racism against them.

During her trial, Marieha argued that her use of the term, ‘coconut’ was a form of political critique against what she said were "politicians in high office who perpetuate and push racist policies". Indeed, her placard depicted the two people who have undoubtedly caused significant racism and Islamophobia in the UK. The UK state is now so bad in its anti-Muslim and racist rhetoric, that the UN has called it out. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published its findings on 23rd August, saying it was concerned by the presence of racist speech on various platforms, particularly where perpetuated by politicians and public figures. It also called for the suspension of the ‘Prevent’ strategy which violates the rights of Muslims and ethnic minorities in the UK, and which Amnesty has long called to be abolished.

Rishi Sunak - as unelected Prime Minister - smeared pro-Palestinian protestors who use the term, “from the river to the sea” as ‘useful idiots’ or those who ‘wish to wipe the Jewish state from the map’ - a highly defamatory and inflammatory statement. Of course, the only idiot in the room was Sunak himself, who seemingly had no idea that the only use of the statement with the intention of ‘wiping’ of any state from any map is from Israel itself, and comes verbatim from the Likud Party charter of 1977 which says: “Between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the Jordan, there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” The other reference to wiping out an entire state using the term was by Benjamin Netanyahu himself in the middle of his Gazan genocide. It is only Netanyahu and Likud who have used the term to mean the ethnic cleansing of a people and the full annexation of Palestine.

As PM, Rishi Sunak also refused to call out the deplorable and outrageous Islamophobic statements of Tory MP Lee Anderson, as Islamophobic. Lee Anderson bizarrely claimed that "Islamists" had achieved "control" over London and that Muslim London Mayor, Sadiq Khan had "given our capital city away to his mates.” By not identifying and acknowledging the anti-Muslim hatred Lee Anderson spewed out as what it was, Rishi sent the message that he condoned anti-Muslim sentiments, even if critical of the delivery of them. And so, only a few months later, when a GMP police officer was suspended for kicking an immobile Muslim man in the face and then stamping on his head whilst he lay face down on the floor, Lee Anderson said that the officer in question deserved a medal for his actions. This dangerous rhetoric and the complete impunity of hateful stupidity is what happens when the Prime Minister and his government do not call out anti-Muslim hate for what it is.

Likewise, Suella Braverman is notorious for her batsh*t and toxic racist rhetoric. Some of her most disgusting Hall of Fame moments were her ludicrous statements that pro-Palestinian marches were ‘hate marches’ and that grooming gangs were predominantly “British Pakistani males who hold cultural values totally at odds with British values." She has been criticised by the UN and Amnesty International for her outrageous comments about asylum seekers and multiculturalism and was called out by a Holocaust survivor for her dehumanising language towards refugees, which she refused to apologise for.

It is therefore beyond parody that in calling out the racist dog-whistling of the PM and Home Secretary, it is Marieha who was gaslighted and smeared as the racist - a typical narcissistic DARVO technique: where the perpetrator never accepts blame, but instead claims the victim is the perpetrator.

And it is not just anti-hate laws. We are also seeing that terror laws enacted to prevent terror are now used to shut down all criticism of Israeli terror. Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Craig Murray, Richard Barnard - voices calling out against terrorism and the end to Israeli terror - have all been deplorably arrested or detained under terror laws.

As such, in the UK, the laws to protect citizens are now being used to abuse them; and to promote racism, and to support terrorism.

There is no doubt about the fact that Israel is committing terrorism. This is confirmed by the definition given by the UK Supreme Court itself in R v Gul [2013]. In this case, the Supreme Court clarified that even acts of violence by state forces, could be considered terrorism under UK law, if they fell within the very broad definition of the Terrorism Act [2002]. The Act states:

1. In this Act, "terrorism" means the use or threat of action where:

   (a) the action falls within subsection (2);

   (b) the use or threat is designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public; and

   (c) the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.

2. Action falls within this subsection if it:

   (a) involves serious violence against a person;

   (b) involves serious damage to property;

   (c) endangers a person's life, other than that of the person committing the action;

   (d) creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public; or

   (e) is designed to interfere with or disrupt an electronic system.

3. In this section:

   (a) "action" includes action outside the United Kingdom; and

   (b) "electronic system" means an electronic or electrical system, including any system used for processing data.

Pretty clear-cut that Israel is committing acts of terrorism, don’t you think?

Back to the Coconut trial. Determined to waste taxpayer’s money, the Met police continued on their witch-hunt:

“The court heard that the investigating team had also contacted three experts in racism to give evidence for the prosecution, but they had all refused. One of those, Black Studies specialist Prof Kehinde Andrews, sent “quite a lengthy response” saying the word was not a racial slur, and asked that this be shared with the CPS.”

Yep folks, while the government is releasing thousands of prisoners early - ostensibly to ease prison overcrowding - they are simultaneously arresting any pro-Palestinian supporters under bogus pretences and dragging them to trial. And this is what the police investigating teams are spending their time and your hard-earned tax on - trying to find professors to take the stand and say an anti-racism protestor is racist for holding a non-racist poster. You cannot make this sh*t up. Kafka would be appalled. Of course, the release of 5,500 prisoners early, many with unsolved drug addictions and sent into homelessness was really smart, and on the same day he was released, one was already rearrested for a sexual assault. Don’t you all feel safe that the Met police are going after the real criminals – like Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Craig Murray and now Marieha Hussain and her coconut placard?!

Pregnant at the time of her arrest, Marieha waited months in agonising stress before trial. Such stress on a pregnant woman could cause her to deliver prematurely and put the baby’s life at risk. The State didn’t care. Why would it? The British State do not take responsibility for their brown children. Just ask Shamima.

Worst still is that while Marieha - a brown, Muslim woman whose history allows her to own the word ‘coconut’ as part of her colonised heritage - is being harassed by the Met police and paraded through the courts, the BBC has an actual show called ‘Coconut’ depicting a brown, Muslim family embracing ‘white’ British culture.

Yes, this is an actual TV show on the UK’s national public TV network, as established by Royal Charter and accountable to Parliament.

Why is the BBC not in the dock for this ‘racial slur’? The BBC, headed by Tim Davie, who is ultimately in charge of what content goes out, has not been arrested, charged, investigated or taken to court about this show. Tim Davie, of course, is a white man who has decided ‘Coconut’ is a show he is allowed to air on national TV. Remember folks, it is totally permissible in the UK for a white man to appropriate and stereotype ethnic cultural histories, but not for the actual ethnic minority - whose actual cultural history it is - to express it.

As Marieha’s lawyer, Rajiv Menon KC said:

"That Marieha Hussain of all people is being prosecuted for a racially aggravated offence whilst the likes of Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - aka Tommy Robinson - and Frank Hester are seemingly free to make inflammatory and divisive statements ... is, I'm afraid, incomprehensible to many people."

Indeed, Mr Menon, indeed.

BBC Director-General, Tim Davie incidentally, apologised to the pro-Zionist Board of Deputies in response to their claims that the BBC was biased for speculating that the Al Ahli Arab hospital was bombed by Israel in October, when Israel said it was Hamas bombing the hospital up themselves - and no-one knew for sure the truth at that point. Of course, Israel has only bombed and made inoperable every single hospital in Gaza, refused to allow in medical supplies including children’s insulin pens, cut off water so wounds cannot be washed, has kidnapped, tortured and executed hospital staff, and dug mass graves in hospital complexes where the dead bodies of children have been found to have had their hands zip-tied behind their backs, so it is still up for debate whether they also did the Al Ahli Arab one too, and Tim Davie was right to fall to his knees.

Fortunately, the case against Marieha was dismissed by the judge who ruled that the placard was:

"part of the genre of political satire", and that the prosecution had "not proved to a criminal standard that it was abusive" and further, “The prosecution has also not proved to the criminal standard that you were aware that your placard may be abusive."

Thank God that in the madness of everything, there was at least one judge who could look through the circus and find some common sense.

If there is one thing the coconut trial has revealed to us, it is this. The oppression and suppression of British Muslims and anyone speaking out for the Palestinians - is here. It is here. The laws enacted to protect against racism and terror are used to inflict both. They are being weaponised and abused and used to silence. This is fascism.

We are here in the realm of fascism and we are in full bloom.

There are no more ifs, there are no more buts. We must fight it with everything we have because unchallenged, fascism does nothing but grows like cancer and inflicts the death and suffering of malignancy.

I have quoted him before, but I quote the lovely, mild-mannered Craig Murray again:

“If we are to survive this descent into fascism as a society, we need to be prepared to dissent now, and each of us needs to be prepared to go to jail if necessary.”

The jails are being emptied of criminals to be filled with political prisoners: those who protest against state brutality at home and abroad. Those who stand against genocide and state terror. Those who decry racism and discrimination. And they will all be smeared and imprisoned under the very laws designed to aid them in their activism.

And it seems that as a British Muslim, and a woman of colour, even the simple expression of my colonial history will render me a criminal in this fascist state.