Photo of me. Yes, this post is all about me

Well I must admit I was completely taken aback when the local radio called and said they wanted me to appear on a program and talk about myself. Naturally I assumed they weren't serious, right until the interview itself that was on Sunday morning, I assumed we'd be talking about more interesting things like ID cards and the database state, maybe a bit of Science and Technology, maybe a bit about terrorism, Islam, the UN and Iraq, something like that, things that people might have a hope of being interested in.

John Conyers, here pictured with Martin Luther King, comments on Democracy in the United States at the Harper's Forum on the 22nd July 2005.

"One of the problems with the media these days is that we are flooded with mostly useless crap that has nothing to do with anything. And the few things that count – if they do get broaded, they are gone in an instance. We have to realize that. We have more technology than ever before in the history of men – and yet more and more people - given the levels of education in america - are more uninformed than anybody else.

Meanwhile, here in Cambridge, the Libra Aries bookshop is holding a No2ID information evening on Wednesday 29th March - that's today. Feel free to drop in any time between 6:30pm & 8pm to chat to No2ID activists, get more details on what the government proposes and how we're opposing it, and pick up literature, car stickers and badges. All welcome.

I will be saying a few words there at 7pm. Don't worry, this time I'll keep it short and sweet. Sometimes I talk too much I know. I think it's something to do with being Iraqi and wanting to make up for lost time.

Photo Copyright (c) 2006 Marc Vallée. All Rights Reserved.

March for Free Expression. Trafalgar Square, London, 25th March 2006.

Thank you for giving me the ability to speak.

9/11, Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Saddam’s Iraq, the Holocaust – which happened. Death threats, murders, and imprisonment in response to the expression of what any person feels or believes is unreservedly wrong. Such violent threats, acts and situations should never arise in the name of any civilised value, religion, government or ideology. We stand here today. Not only united against such acts. But historically, in the UK, in solidarity against such acts, not as white people, or Europeans, but as people from all places, all backgrounds, and all walks of life.

Too much power can be a bad thing especially for those who have the misfortune of wielding it.

For example governments, if they have been too long in power, will tend to try to take steps that will affect every sex, age group, race, and religion in our society because they involve a shift in power from the Individual to the State. If we can muster enough inter-religious hatred, racial tension and genuine mistrust between people, we may be able to pass the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Photo: UNICEF

This was in many senses a cartoon meeting. But as we know from the Nazi examples, discriminatory cartoons have a serious side as well. Here is what I can say. Iraq expressed support for the meeting's conveners and purpose. These were our comments on the proposed OIC statement:

"It is obvious such cartoons will cause a strong reaction. Such defamation has no relation to the right of freedom of expression, and condemnation for them has been appropriately given. These works however should not provide justification for violence. This spoils the image of Islam. Such over-reaction and violence do not reflect the peaceful spirit of Islam. Muslims have full rights to protest against such defamation, and we support such protests in the context of a civilised approach."