View From a March Against War

A Scot anti-war protester holds a dove of peace during a demonstration against war on Iraq in Glasgow, February 15, 2003. Photo by Jeff Mitchell (Reuters)

The march, which took place on February 15, 2003, had been well publicized so that there would have been plenty of time for rail authorities to make provision, but when we got there we had to queue for ages for tickets only to be prevented from boarding the empty train that was waiting on the platform. We were given misleading information about platforms and times only to be locked into a train not knowing whether it was moving or not. Then we were told, in no uncertain terms, to get off and join carriages at the back. They finally got us on our way, but we felt that we were being prevented from free movement as we would have had, had we been ordinary passengers.

The march was so big that when we got to Glasgow we were able to join it at the station with still two hours worth of people ahead and behind. I have never seen such numbers, even during the anti-apartheid days. Along with Muslims were peace activists, socialists, Christians, Green party members and Scot Nationalists, union bodies, firemen, students and, of course, countless people with no label, just people who had decided that they were obligated to show their dissent. In their posters and pictures there were the reminders of the children Bush and Blair were intending to kill, and those who were already dead.

There was not much chanting on this march as there usually is in marches of that sort. There were a few exuberant whistles, trumpets and bagpipes – this being Scotland – but mostly the mood was of respectful quiet. Yet people now know in this country that marches can send a message and give a push, but they are not enough in themselves. They know that they can’t go home after a day in the frosty sunshine and feel they have done their bit, because demonstrations can only be one weapon in their armory.

Blair’s response to the crowds that thronged his conference center there in Glasgow was given a little earlier than scheduled. He was whisked away to be saved from embarrassment.  Rather than be shamed into a rethink by these millions of dissenters, he just applauded the fact that we are able to express free speech in this country, as if by his largesse he would allow the people their protest, yet he was going on with his agenda regardless.

Helicopters that circled overhead attracted our attention, but it was the window of one of the council flats that was more cheering, where a mother and her children waved at the crowd and staged their own little protest with homemade banners several stories high. Across oceans and along avenues of protest they establish their bond with the families of Iraq.

I pray that Allah brings about the wishes of the protesters on the march, because as one of the banners at the march had it, we are told in the Qur’an that they may plot and plan but Allah is the best of planners.

Sarah Louise Baker is a Muslim British novelist who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. She embraced Islam while working in Japan in 1990. Her novel, From Utah to Eternity, on Islamic conversion, was based partly on personal experience. She just finished a book about everyday experiences of wearing the hijab (the Islamic headscarf). You can reach her at baitulankaboot@yahoo.co.uk