Winston Churchill café protester insists they were RIGHT to label Britain’s wartime saviour as a ‘racist’
A protestor at the Blighty cafe demonstration has said it was 'deeply disrespectful to glorify Winston Churchill'
A PROTESTER who joined the demonstration at the Churchill-themed café in north London has claimed they were right to speak out over what the group see as the wartime leader’s “racist” views.
The lefty mob took their protest to the Blighty café in Finsbury Park due to its Winston Churchill theme which has a life-sized model of the former Prime Minister as well as model Spitfires and an air raid shelter.
The group – mainly students from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), part of London University – disrupted diners last Saturday morning.
Now one of the protesters Shukri Habib Ali has defended their actions, saying “it was deeply disrespectful to glorify Winston Churchill, without mentioning those who truly suffered at the hands of colonial rule.”
Mr Habib Ali, who is of mixed Pakistani and English descent, claimed in the New Statesman that Churchill cannot be separated from Britain’s “bloody colonial history”.
He also wrote: “Churchill did fight for all of our freedom, but he also hated South Asians and said that they followed a beastly religion.
“Should I then be content with businesses in my local area celebrating his legacy?”
He added: “If I could ask the café owner to do one thing, it would be to read more into the darker side of Churchill’s legacy, and its effects on colonised people.”
They read out sections of Heathcote William’s poem ‘Great Britain’s, Greatest Beast’ followed by chanting “Churchill was a racist”.
The group, which also included a junior doctor Timesh Pillay, was defended by the university’s student union.
A rambling statement claimed the patriotic eatery is "offensive to those who continue to experience institutional racism".
It whinged: "On Saturday members of the Students’ Union led a protest against a cafe called ‘Blighty’, which celebrates British colonialism.
"At the Finsbury park location there are murals of war criminal Churchill and breakfast options such as the ‘Winston’ and the ‘Gandhi’.
"The protest involved reading out sections of Heathcote William’s poem ‘Great Britain’s, Greatest Beast’ followed by chanting ‘Churchill was a racist’.
"The cafe exercises a concerted historical amnesia of British colonialism, which is offensive to those who continue to experience institutional racism.
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"The protest was targeted at the owner - calling for them to change the decorations and imagery of the cafes - and to the customer - to boycott until the owner takes these actions.
“The SOAS Students’ Union continues to fight against colonialism and all manifestations of it. Our educational priorities this year included ‘Close the Attainment Gap’ and ‘Decolonise the Education and the Institution’.
“The Students’ Union seeks to address and interrogate colonial legacies and how these manifest within our institution.
“We echo the protesters in their statement on Saturday: ‘you will never make colonialism palatable’.”
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