The MP for Shah Alam, Khalid Abdul Samad from Pas, received a standing ovation and thunderous applause from 350 parishioners of the Church of the Divine Merch in Shah Alam. He had offered to meet the parishioners for a dialogue session on 27 March.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support,” he said, adding that he had achieved a majority of 9,314 votes in Shah Alam.

“On the part of Pas, we will now be a coalition government. Our policies will be based on consensus. There will be no attempts by any member within Pas to impose any form of law on the general public. We will be fair and just.”

We will do as required by the community and what is good for the community, he added. “We will carry out our duties based on good governance, transparency and accountability. I hope you will continue to give us your support and your suggestions and we will try to be worthy of your trust.”

I used to walk along the aisles of the magnificent Westminster Cathedral, the “mother church” of the Catholic community in the UK, in awe of its unusual Byzantine style, its heavenly choirs and the majestic organ music that reverberated across its cavernous interior. The Cathedral has been described as “a very special place of prayer, a refuge from the busy city, a space to find one’s own thoughts.”

But last night how the Cathedral must have groaned and sighed as Tony Blair, the war criminal, took to the pulpit to preach on “Faith and Globalisation”. The former British premier converted to Catholicism last year but has so far not publicly apologised for the invasion of Iraq despite huge anti-war demonstrations and opposition from Pope John Paul II in 2003. More than a million Iraqis have died since the invasion.

As for other casualties, The Canadian reports:

While large U.S. media organizations like CNN, NBC, ABC, FOX and the New York Times document that about 4,000 US military personnel have lost their life, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs data documents a death toll of over 74,000 U.S. military personnel from Iraq Wars, as of May 2007. Award-winning investigative journalist Dahr Jamail documents that the U.S. political-military-industrial complex is apparently pursuing a “divide and rule” strategy by actually arming the same groups, that are labelled as “extremists” or “terrorists” against a stated objective of “stability” and “peace” in Iraq.

Anti-war protesters, including Catholics, turned up outside the Cathedral yesterday to let Blair know exactly how they felt.

I must say this sounds like it’s going to be an unusual - if noisy! - anti-war protest directed at Blair. Spotted this on the Indymedia UK website:

Sounding Out Tony Blair

Stop the War Coalition | 31.03.2008 14:13 |

SOUNDING OUT BLAIR: Westminster Cathedral : 42 Francis Street: London SW1
Thursday 3 April 2008 at 7.00 pm (assemble from 6.30 pm)

A nun with a buglar alarm is one of many Catholics who will join the Stop the War protest outside Westminster Cathedral on Thursday 3 April, when Tony Blair gives his lecture on ‘Faith and Globalisation’. The protest aims to sound out Tony Blair with musical instruments and sound-making implements of every kind — drums, trumpets, saxophones, violins, cymbals, whistles, sirens, horns, rattles, cowbells, saucepans and cans. At least two choirs and musical ensembles of every type will be attending, along with numerous individual musicians, drummers, percussionists and students from the Royal Academy of Music.

Brian Eno will be joining the protest, which will be preceded by a silent vigil organised by the Catholic organisation Pax Christi from 6.30 - 7.0 pm. Others include: students from Royal College of Music, Caryl Churchill, Band ‘The Rub’ - a cycled-powered DJ system!, Peace Not War musicians, Voices in the Wilderness, Pax Christi, Senior Catholic journalists, Strawberry Thieves choir, Raised Voices choir, Catholics with banner with Pope John Paul II peace quotes, Stop the War London groups …. and Royal National Institute for the Deaf contacted us to recommend earphones for participants! Perhaps though we should offer them to the audience who will have to listen to Tony Blair.

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“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” - Benjamin Franklin

Rough music is the term which has generally been used in England since the end of the seventeenth century to denote a rude cacaphony, with or without more elaborate ritual, which usually directed mockery or hostility against individuals who offended against certain community norms.

A definition of the term from 1811 said it involved the use by the rebellious and disaffected populace of: Saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, &c. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous processions.

In ‘Customs in Common’ E P Thompson wrote: “I find much that attracts me in rough music. It is a property of a society in which justice is not wholly delegated or bureaucriticised, but is enacted by and within the community. Where it is enacted upon an evident malefactor – some officious public figure or a brutal wife-beater – one is tempted to lament the passing of the rites …. Rough music belongs to a mode of life in which some part of the law belongs still to the community and is theirs to enforce. It indicates modes of social self-control and the disciplining of certain kinds of violence and anti-social offence (insults to women, child abuse, wife-beating) which in today’s cities may be breaking down.”

Substitute the last eight words above with “which in today’s politicians may be breaking down” and there you have it.

Stop the War Coalition
e-mail: office@stopwar.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.stopwar.org.uk