RAM ­ Residents Action Movement
Media release on Voices of Peace
13 July 2007

Backgrounder on George Galloway
British Respect MP & world peace campaigner

Testimony to US Senate about Iraq in May 2005

George Galloway, left-wing British MP & international peace campaigner, will be speaking against Islamophobia in Auckland on 27-28 July at meetings hosted by RAM, the Residents Action Movement. (Meeting details below.)

Mr Galloway defines Islamophobia as "racism against Muslims". This new racism, says the British MP, is an inevitable flow-on from the deliberately misnamed War on Terror begun by Washington to monopolise oil fields in the Muslim Middle East as part of the US state's strategy to remain the world's dominant power.

"As a prominent anti-war politician, Mr Galloway was targeted by a US 'black propaganda' campaign in an attempt to blacken his reputation as a grassroots advocate," said RAM organiser Grant Morgan.

"Falsely accused of being in the pay of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Mr Galloway demanded to testify before the US Senate in May 2005. There he turned the tables against the powerful elites profiting from death and destruction in the Middle East, putting them on trial for crimes against humanity In March this year, British enforcement authorities admitted that Mr Galloway had no case to answer."

"Mr Galloway is one of the West's most high-profile opponents of Islamophobia," said Grant Morgan. "In his Auckland meetings, Mr Galloway will detail the close linkage between America's wars in the Middle East and its state-fuelled Islamophobia which attempts to give ideological justification to Washington's unjust crusade for oil and power."

Following are two mainstream media reports on Mr Galloway's testimony before the US Senate. The first is from The Nation, a respected US journal of political commentary. The second is from the BBC News, a pillar of British news reportage.

Mr Galloway goes to Washington

by John Nichols
The Nation
17 May 2005

Explosive showdown in US Senate

by Matthew Davis
BBC News in Washington
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4539429.stm

VOICES OF PEACE
AUCKLAND MEETINGS
GEORGE GALLOWAY will be addressing these two meetings:

TOWN MEETING
7.30pm, Saturday 28 July.
Auckland Girls Grammar School Theatre.
16 Howe St (off Karangahape Rd).
The three other speakers are:
- JAVED KHAN, president of Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ.
- PAUL BUCHANAN, international security analyst & director of the Working Group on Alternative Security Perspectives at the University of Auckland.
- GRANT MORGAN, organiser of RAM ­ Residents Action Movement.
Limit of 800 seats, so those interested are being advised to get there early. NO DOOR CHARGE. Donations will be accepted.

UNIVERSITY MEETING
6pm, Friday 27 July.
University of Auckland.
Venue to be confirmed.
The three other speakers are:
- NIBRAS KARDAMAN, young Muslim woman & representative of the Working Together Group.
- STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE of the campus organising group.
- GRANT MORGAN, organiser of RAM ­ Residents Action Movement.
NO DOOR CHARGE. Donations will be accepted.

Both meetings OPEN TO THE MEDIA.

WORKSHOPS
There will also be Voices of Peace workshops where topics touching on Islamophobia can be discussed together by Muslims and non-Muslims. George Galloway will give the introduction.
2-5pm, Sunday 29 July.
Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings.
Limit of 250 participants, so those interested are being advised to get there early.

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