a scar that wouldn't heal quickly.
The party didn't last any where near long enough, the president got down to business quickly. First to be hit was Broadway, a number of plays were shut down as seditious. The one that hit the headlines was a production called "Allegiance," a musical about the unjustified interment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Films and Television suffered similar raids. The writers and actors in these productions were offered a choice, issue a public apology for their involvement in these un-American activities or be branded "sympathisers." We all knew that the trials for treason would follow. Most bowed to the pressure, fearful for their careers and possibly their lives. The retractions were wooden and unbelievable. Some were battered and bruised as they appeared on the news via a remote feed from God knows where. A few did not appear, they issued no retraction and the media crucified them in their absence.
The same plays, films and shows were halted in the UK as well, not with the same show of force, but subtly. They just disappeared. People stopped going to see them or turning on the TV and runs stopped suddenly without warning. When they continued fires would break out. Midnight showings of "Das Experiment" at art house cinemas were suddenly cancelled after a fire broke out in London, mid-showing, killing several patrons who did not escape in time. "Schindler's List" was pulled from airing twenty minutes before it was due to start. The various Right Wing parties abandoned their names and formed a coalition under the name "The British Party of The People" and as various liberal politicians disappeared from public life, their presence and majority in Parliament grew. All public buildings now bore their symbol in the forms of flags and emblems.
Interment! The answer to an attempted bombing of the supports of the San Francisco Bay Bridge at rush hour. All US forces stationed domestically were scrambled, as were the National Guard. They swiftly placed all serving Muslims in stockade and placed large wire fence enclosures at various military bases around the country. Air bases were the location of choice as the runways were filled with these temporary pens. Into them Muslims and Asians were herded at gunpoint. The military was under orders that they were potential enemy combatants. The borders closed, while measures were put in place to halt the travel of Muslims into the country. Ironically, Muslims were also stopped from leaving so they could be interred. The argument was that they would swell the ranks of the terrorists in the Middle East.
The president announced all of this after it had happened, while there were a few Muslims unaccounted for, most had been rounded up successfully. He chose to announce it at a party rally and the applause, even through the television was almost deafening. He raised his hands in triumph to receive the accolades of power, palms outstretched at arms length.
"Still think this will pass?" my wife whispered.
I didn't have the heart to respond.
"I thought so."
A week after the internment measures were concluded the trials started. George Takei, the writer and one of the stars of "Allegiance" was first. He had refused council, he must have known as we did watching it that any defence in law would be useless now. The trials were conducted as Military Tribunals. In the middle of a moving an eloquent speech describing the treatment of himself and his parents in World War II and likening the situation the Muslims found themselves in to both that and the Ghetto in Germany, the trial was halted and he was dragged from the Chamber for the Tribunal to find him guilty in his absence.
A march of people dressed in the iconic Star Trek yellow jersey he had worn in the original series was dispersed by automatic gun fire the next day. Surveillance footage was reviewed by the authorities and we were told that anyone found to be on that march would be arrested shortly and tried as well. Science Fiction fell off the television schedules from that day on.
"They've announced a list of 'safe books' that are authorized," my wife announced as she returned from work one day.
"Who? The Americans?"
"Not just the bloody Americans!"
"The People's Party?"
"Yup, it’s just a matter of time now before they announce an unsafe list. I have a feeling most of the books we have in this house are likely to be on that one."
"Shit."
"I'm not sure how safe having that souvenir Koran you picked up in Jerusalem is to have in here."
"It's in Arabic, I can't even read Arabic!"
"Like they'll care! It's a sodding Koran!"
"Fine, I'll bury it at the weekend along with anything else that they might ban."
"Good—Darling, you know I'm no happier about this than you are, but it has to be done. Remember, we aren't destroying them, just burying them."
"I know, I know— But books! They're just books."
My wife shot me that look, the one that says "I know, but just do it before I have to start shouting."
The weeks that followed were punctuated by more and more ridiculous bans, seeking to eradicate the Muslim influence on our culture. In a move of such fear induced moronism, even curry was banned. It went so far as to extend to curry sauce served with chips. How curry was meant to be seditious I never worked out, but such was the atmosphere of the day, the demands, ever more outlandish were implemented and never complained about. The next day it was pyjamas.
The president started announcing that America had lost its way, that the War on Terror was being held back by a lack of traditional values. The rhetoric of "One Nation Under God" started being used to end his speeches. The anti-Muslim message had started to peter out, massive gains in Syria and Iraq, with dark net reports of mass graves and massacres were commonplace. The US and UK, with help from other allies who were, even now following policy decisions from the president, had smashed the terrorist camps with massive indiscriminate bombing and artillery strikes. Ground troops were pouring into the Middle East daily to reinforce the territorial gains.
In the UK, pubs had started playing the news channels non-stop. There was no more music in these venues, apart from specialist music pubs, who were licensed to allow live music. My wife and I had ceased to socialise any more, failure to agree quickly enough with the broadcasts brought suspicious glances and muttering. Opposition to the War was considered to many to be treason and we recognised the signs. To allay suspicion we both paid our dues and purchased membership of The British Party of The People. We both threw our sashes and badges on the floor with disgust when we returned home from that expedition. The days started with a standardised start time and a playing of the national anthem. This had been piped through our mobile devices, how they had infiltrated the operating system was a mystery but every morning at 6:00am "God Save the Queen" would wake us up.
Talk of God, and Britain being Christian had become commonplace at work. It had fallen from favour in recent times, but was now re-emerging as though we were in the Victorian period. Talk of abomination and sin were the topics of the day, abandonment of God had allowed the Muslim menace to arise, and it was this that must be rectified. I am an atheist and I saw the fallacy immediately apparent. People got annoyed when you try and bomb the hell out of other countries, particularly with a common religion. It was the same way the president had come to power, spreading fear and panic in his wake to cement his power. Brian, a data entry clerk from accounts had been found outside beaten to a pulp for being "queer," he never returned to work. It didn't take much to work out some of his colleagues had been behind it.
The War had continued with guerrilla tactics being used to delay the ground offensive, more and more troops were required to hold ground already captured, bunkers and bastions started to spring up across the Middle East, and started spreading into Afghanistan and the Indian Subcontinent. The president, under the guise of The War on Terror, had succeeded in aggressively colonising much of Asia and had effectively made vassals out of the European states. Only one place looked to stand free of these structures, for Africa would be easy pickings if the Middle East was quelled. That place was Russia, despite its appalling record in human rights it was beginn
ing to be the most moderate country in the world. It stood like a dark menacing defender poised to interfere. It had made no secret that it would brook no interference with what it saw as its sovereignty and it continually refused to cooperate with the allies even though it too was pursuing its own war against the terrorist organisations. Whether this was an ideological choice or not was anyone's guess as the Russians did not seem to follow any coherent foreign policy. They were the lesser of two evils.
I reached a tipping point when the show trials made a return to television, as the number of possible criminals had reduced, either through interment, or through the trials reaching their inevitable conclusion, so had the trials until they were few and far between. Little were we to know that it was just the first phase that had ended. Dragged into the dock in a mass of chains was the celebrated magician, Derren Brown. Openly gay, he had been extremely critical of the new policy of Christianity as state sponsored religion. Before the president came to power, he had made a number of programs about various practises of certain