Peace talk - Milan Rai

The last time peace activist Milan Rai was in Lewes he spent two weeks in the prison for refusing to pay a fine in compensation to the Foreign Office for statements painted on the FCO building in the run-up to the bombing of Fallujah. Rai is back tonight in the more salubrious setting of Southover Grange to give a talk about the premise of his latest book The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War. The book is an examination of the motivation behind the bombings.

Tony Benn is much better qualified than us to discuss the importance of the book. ‘Milan Rai’s book about the July bombings in London,’ writes the seasoned activist, ‘is clear, scholarly, analytical, powerful, persuasive, and very readable. Seeking the real explanation for those events he completely destroys the illusion spread by the prime minister that they had nothing to do with Britain’s illegal aggression against Iraq, which no one really believes. The author, a man committed to peace, holds no brief for the violence in those attacks and the suffering they caused, but patiently takes us through the circumstances that played a part in motivating those that carried them out. This is a book that everyone with a serious interest in the crisis we face must read if they are to hope to understand it, its causes, its effects, and how we might resolve it.’ The talk is organised by the Lewes branch of the CND. AL