On Monday’s expose of the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) on Dispatches, Andrew Gilligan conducted an interview with Lutfor Rahman, Labour Leader of the Tower Hamlets council. In the face of overwhelming evidence and given that we now know that a number of councillors are IFE entryists or that a senior member of the IFE helped him win the leadership of the council, Cllr Rahman refuses to deny any of it.
The following is a transcript of that interview taken from Gilligan’s blog.
Q: Lutfur, why is the local Labour Party in special measures?
Cllr Rahman: It has been in special measures since 2001, it’s a question you should direct to the regional office.
Q: But you are the leader of the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets.
Cllr Rahman: The London region could give you that answer.Q: We’re quoting a Labour Party spokesman [from the local Tower Hamlets newspaper] in our film, as saying they are ‘trying to prevent organisations filtering in who may try taking over the party.’ Is that something you’re worried about?
Cllr Rahman: I’m not concerned with that. I haven’t seen any signs of that. However if the London regional party have concerns, they will no doubt would have raised it, and would raise it with Tower Hamlets Labour Party.
Q: They haven’t raised it with you at all?
Cllr Rahman: That’s something you need to seek further clarification from London region.
Q: Have they raised it with you?Cllr Rahman: They’ve raised various concerns with me, but those concerns have been around since 2001, way before I’ve been the leader, in fact before I’ve been a councillor.
Q: But they’ve raised concerns quite recently, is my understanding.
Cllr Rahman: There are some concerns that the region have raised, with London, erm Tower Hamlets Labour party, erm.
Q: What are those concerns?
Cllr Rahman: Those are internal matters, party matters.
Q: What are the concerns that they have raised?
Cllr Rahman: They are internal party matters that I’m not at liberty to discuss on TV, or with you, the internal workings of the Labour party.
Q: Are they concerns of the nature I’ve just described to you?
Cllr Rahman: There are various concerns Andrew, you have a quote from the London region, what I suggest with the greatest of respect to you, that you raise and seek further clarification from the London region.
Q: But it’s relevant to you, it’s relevant to the council, because it’s specifically related to the council, that’s what they’re telling us.
Cllr Rahman: I tell you what’s relevant to me. I’m leading a council which is high performing. I’ve been the leader for the last two years, I’ve been a councillor for eight years. What matters to me is more social housing, what matters to me are kids going to school, doing well, achieving, fantastic GCSEs. What matters to me is the worklessness in the borough being addressed. What matters to me is having a borough where people feel safe to live in, to visit, a borough where the crime rate is falling. That’s what matters to me.
Q: Of course, but we’re talking here about an Islamist organisation, an organisation that believes, in its own words, in changing this country from a secular state to an Islamic state. Isn’t that something you should be concerned about?
Cllr Rahman: What organisation are you referring to?
Q: The Islamic Forum of Europe [IFE].
Cllr Rahman: Right. I think you should talk to them about their ideologies. I work in this organisation [the council]. This council works with some 1700 organisations as an authority.
Q: But you’ve admitted to me that the Labour Party has raised concerns with you.
Cllr Rahman: They’ve raised concerns with Tower Hamlets Labour Party.
Q: Of which you’re the leader.
Cllr Rahman: I am the leader of the Labour Group of this council, I’m not the leader of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party – we have a chair, we have a secretary. But what matters to me Andrew, as I said, is doing well for this borough, serving all the communities, that’s important to me. We have some 1700 organisations in the borough. And we will work with every one of them, as long as they aspire to our principles of delivering high quality services for all our communities, that’s what matters to me.
Q: At the last Labour Group annual general meeting, the previous leader, Helal Abbas, said that the IFE controlled the council. Do you agree with that?
Cllr Rahman: You’ll have to ask Mr Helal Abbas on his comments, I cannot -
Q: What do you make of his comments?
Cllr Rahman: I cannot comment on the comments that he’s made. What matters to me is this. That the Labour group is run by Labour councillors, of which I am the leader.
Q: Do you agree with that comment that he made?
Cllr Rahman: The Labour group runs this council.
Q: But you’re not denying that comment?
Cllr Rahman: I am denying that no other external organisation influences the Labour Group. I’m denying that; I as a Labour member, as the Labour leader of the Labour Group, I together with my other 32 Labour councillors, we run the Labour Group.
Q: Okay. Your own party colleague, Jim Fitzpatrick, has said that the IFE are quote ‘acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties.’
Cllr Rahman: I have a lot of respect for Jim. The comments he makes, they are his views. I’m working away very hard to make sure -
Q: Is he wrong?
Cllr Rahman: – he gets re-elected. The comments he’s made are his comments, I’m not going to comment on those comments. What matters to me -
Q: He’s the MP, he’s the MP for this area, for the seat we’re sitting in right now.
Cllr Rahman: I cannot comment on what Jim has said. I have a lot of respect for Jim, I’m working away very hard with my Labour colleagues -
Q: But you’re not denying that that’s the case.
Cllr Rahman: I cannot comment on what Jim has said in private to you. I can’t comment on that.
Q: It’s not in private, it’s in our film.
Cllr Rahman: Andrew, I have not seen that film, I wish I had seen that film.
Q: I’ve quoted you what he’s said, that’s a fair comment on what he’s said.
Cllr Rahman: Sure, sure.
Q: Do you disagree with that? I mean, I haven’t heard, yet, a denial.
Cllr Rahman: Andrew, thank you very much, I’m not going to be drawn into those sort of arguments. All that I can say is that I have a lot of respect for Jim, we are working away hard for him to be elected as a Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse. And what matters to me, Jim and I, together with our other Labour colleagues, [is] to continue to deliver excellent services for the people of Tower Hamlets, that’s what matters to me.
Q: Mr Fitzpatrick also says quote ‘ there is a suggestion that there are a number of Tower Hamlets councillors who are very close,’ to the IFE. ‘It is difficult to believe that to be other than the case.’
Cllr Rahman: Sure. This concerns me. This suggestion concerns me.
Q: Is it wrong?
Cllr Rahman: This suggestion concerns me, whether it’s right or wrong. I mean only he’s told -
Q: You’re not saying it’s wrong?
Cllr Rahman : Can I just finish, please, Andrew. What matters to me is this, and I’m concerned that this suggestion has been made. If any of my Labour councillors belong to an organisation which they have not declared, give us the evidence. Give us the evidence, and we will ask the legal officer to investigate such allegations. But without such allegations being put forward to us, I cannot comment on those comments.
Q: In Bethnal Green and Bow [constituency], why did the membership of the Labour Party double over a two-year period when it was falling in other places?
Cllr Rahman: First of all, I cannot comment on the number of members in Bethnal Green and Bow. I welcome people to join our party.
Q: You’re a member of Bethnal Green and Bow Labour Party.
Cllr Rahman: I am a member of Bethnal Green and Bow Labour Party.
Q: You’re aware there’s been a giant increase in the membership of that party?
Cllr Rahman: I’m aware of the Bethnal Green and Bow Labour Party. I’ve been a proud member for many years. I’m very proud that people care to join my party. It’s the party of equality, party of social justice. A party that delivers for the community, and I’m glad people join our party -
Q: But elsewhere in the country Labour membership has been falling, but here membership has gone up. From 551 members in 2006, to more than 1100 members in 2008.
Cllr Rahman: This clearly demonstrates the support that the Labour Party has in Tower Hamlets.
Q: Why only in Tower Hamlets? What’s so special about Tower Hamlets?
Cllr Rahman: I don’t know, go and ask the rest of the country why.
Q: It’s suggested to us that it’s because of infiltration by the IFE. That is what the Labour Party itself believes.
Cllr Rahman: Andrew, what I would suggest to you is that that is because the people of Tower Hamlets are very politicised, are very conscious, are very committed Labour Party supporters. It demonstrates the level of support for our party, for our great party.
Q: Why are nearly all these new members Asian? Is support for the Labour Party simply confined to the Asian community?
Cllr Rahman: No, I’m sure we have members across the -
Q: Nearly every one of those – Ninety-eight per cent [in fact 90%] of those new members are Asian.
Council officer: We’re going to have to call a halt here, thanks. Councillor Rahman’s got another meeting.
Q: All right. You want to talk about your council, we’ll talk about the council now. Do you know a man called Mr A [official in the IFE; name omitted for legal reasons]
Cllr Rahman: I know Mr A.
Q: Did he canvas [councillors] on your behalf in the leadership election?
Cllr Rahman: Labour Party members across Tower Hamlets canvas for people when it comes to election and there are various people across Tower Hamlets who get excited, who get involved, who enjoy -
Q: Did he make any promises or threats to councillors on your behalf?
Cllr Rahman: Under no circumstances.
Q: That is the allegation from councillors to us. From some of your own councillors.
Cllr Rahman: Sure. It saddens me. It concerns me. If my councillors feel they’ve been threatened by anyone, they should raise this with me. We have a proper process with the Labour Group, group and its procedure, we have a proper process within the Tower Hamlets Labour Party. No-one should be going round making threats to anyone. I do not condone that kind of behaviour. However, if any of my councillors feel they have been threatened, they’ve been cajoled, they should come to me, or they should come to the party.
Q: So Mr A did canvas on your behalf.
Council officer: We are going to have to wrap up now Mr Gilligan.
Q: Of course. Mr A did canvas on your behalf?
Council officer: It [the interview] has gone on [beyond the allocated time.]
2nd council officer: Mr Gilligan, our time is up now I’m afraid.
Cllr Rahman: All I’m going to say say is people -
Council officer: Time is up now I’m afraid. The leader has to get to another meeting.
35 Comments
Here is Lutfor Rahman’s latest declaration of interests.
http://sps2ksrv.towerhamlets.gov.uk/meetyourcouncillor/PDFs/Lutfur-Rahman-4.pdf
Every councillor must produce one under the Local Authorities (Mode of Conduct) Order 2oo7, delivered by the Local Government Act 2000. Note that in this declaration the councillor must provide details of any membership of bodies that the councillor belongs to beyond the local council.
Breach of these regulations may lead to quite serious repercussions.
wow a transcript of a discredit programme we have already watched. still no new facts then? this is getting tiresome.
Lots of new facts, just the same old squeals of “Islamophobia”.
wow a transcript of a discredit programme we have already watched.
It’s been discredited? Where? Any links?
you should read things that are beyond spittoon, harry’s place and the daily telegraph.
Sorry, we’re not all privy to internal IFE memos “discrediting” the Dispatches documentary that you are.
I wonder if mahoob might explain how the program has been discredited?
My money is on an internal memo that roundly abuses all concerned as “Islamophobes”, “gays” and – of course – “Zionists”; and then goes on to make disparaging remarks about the sizes of the offenders’ genitalia.
On the other hand, mahoob may be referring to the astounding “discrediting” of the programme by the MCB, MAB and IFE that amazingly took place before the programme was aired and before any of these constantly aggrieved interested parties had even seen the programme!
Amazing – Islamists predict they are going to be very angry about something else. Shock!
If this really is a debating site, as you claim, then that’s a good thing. If the dispatches programme helps to concentrate the debate, that’s a good thing too. It highlights issues, which so clearly need to be opened out and discussed. Otherwise…what ? Start drawing up battle plans and digging trenches ? Some, on both sides, are itching for all that to start.
If Muslims don’t feel welcome here, they should ask themselves a simple question. Why not ?
A man comes to my door and he’s thirsty, hey I’m a human being; renowned for human kindness. Am I going to ask him what religion he is ? No, it doesn’t even cross my mind. I’m going to offer him a glass of water; maybe even invite him in. If he starts moving the furniture around, I might not be that bothered; the sofa may even look better wherever he wants to put it. But if he begins to tell me how to live my life, and starts getting vocal and threatening to boot; then that’s the point I’m going to ask him, very politely, to finish his glass and leave.
no unfortunately for you I do not receive internal IFE memos (i think they are just announcements after prayer in the mosque) I do manage to read widely and unlike you have a sense of reality and realise that no one in the community has taken these accusations seriously. I see Effendi has still not been able to provide any facts that show IFE have infiltrated Labour – after having all of his points destroyed on the previous post. What’s the problem? run out of things to say?
by the by, what do you house Negroes think of the Tory party being infiltrated by Evangelical Christians? I suppose it does not matter, the white folk are so much more civilised than these rowdy Muslims.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/12400596-16ac-11df-aa09-00144feab49a.html
Mahboob
“by the by, what do you house Negroes think of the Tory party being infiltrated by Evangelical Christians? I suppose it does not matter, the white folk are so much more civilised than these rowdy Muslims.”
I know you IFE are overtly anti-black. Apparently Gilligan has collated a lot of evidence of your racist stance. But do you want to explain your use of the “house Negroes” race slur before I ban you?
actually, mahboob, that is quite interesting and i’m going to look into it further, thank you. i don’t like the idea of the tories being taken over by evangelical nutters any more than i like it when so-called “christian zionists” try and influence the israeli government to be more religiously right-wing and intransigent. i’m a traditional jew, but no thank you very much. if you know anywhere where such people have infiltrated a town hall, exerted undue influence on government policy or received vast amounts of government patronage whilst pursuing an anti-democratic or fundamentalist agenda i would love to hear about it, so please feel free to let us know.
b’shalom
bananabrain
ooo ban me, still no response then – you guys are pathetic. And now you pull the racist card, I guess you really don’t have a leg to stand on
Thank you for your contributions, they have been educational. Bye.
@bananabrain – maybe you can get Davud Toube to fund Gilligan and Steve Boulton to go undercover and expose these Christian fundo’s. It is highly unlikely though, he is only interested in going after brown folk. Mind you, I would avoid using Gilligan, even after his year long investigation – he has failed to find a shred of evidence that links IFE to Labour – and that they have infiltrated town hall, or even received government patronage. I’d be pretty pissed off I were funding this programme.
“Andrew Gilligan has collated a lot of evidence” ooo more facts
There you go ‘boobs, you’re allowed back. But only to give you a taste of what banning looks like. Now chin up, on your best behaviour and play nice.
Here’s Craig Murray’s response:
“Channel 4 Dispatches used to be a haven of serious documentary, but has degenerated into a stream of Islamophobia. It touched rock bottom today with a truly pathetic effort by Andrew Gilligan which found – shock horror – Muslims in the East London mosque!”
Read the rest:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/03/muslims_found_i.html
Craig Murray has about as much credibility as a three pound note.
I guess I could say the same thing about half the posters here, Effedni, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You asked for some proof where it got discredited, not proof where it got discredited and you agreed with it.
Proof means evidence-based data from credible sources. Do you know the difference between an evidence-based refutation and a cheap, partisan denial?
If that’s the case, then Gilligan’s reporting and all these cut-and-paste blogs on Spittoon are likewise cheap, partisan claims.
In that case, you lack the powers of discernment to differentiate between evidence based assertions and a partisan denials. Moreover, simply shouting “Islamophobia” is the cheapest partisan denial of the lot.
If you call claims from political opponents ‘evidence’, you lack understanding of the English language.
Moreover, shouting ‘extremist’ is the cheapest partisan claim of the lot.
Evidence is evidence, political opponents or not. Partisan squealing is, well, partisan squealing.
Moreover, shouting ‘extremist’ is the cheapest partisan claim of the lot.
Only if you can’t differentiate between a Muslim moderate and a Muslim extremist. And that smacks of anti-Muslim bigotry and, what do you call i?…oh yes, a “colonial mindset”.
In that case, Craig Murray also voiced his political view. Keep squirming.
And Effendi, you’ve displayed your victim mentality. Unless you also post under the name Raziq, I never called you a ‘colonial mindset’. But go cry in the corner if yo want.
In that case, Craig Murray also voiced his political view. Keep squirming.
Murray has expressed his opinion and a denial. No counter evidence. Keep bullshitting.
You didn’t called me “colonial mindset”, but you implied that a supine acceptance of Islamist values and/or criticising them is enforcing a “colonial mindset” or like another Islamist bigot explicitly said upthread, that we are “House negroes” for doing so.
Secular Bengalis gave opinions and claims on the programme, no evidence. Now that’s bullshit.
Stop putting things into my mouth. If you insist on having a colonised mindset, I couldn’t give a shite!
Secular Bengalis gave opinions and claims on the programme, no evidence.
Stakeholders in Tower Hamlets who were denied privileges that were provided to IFE-related groups gave evidence on the programme, they were non-IFE members, and funnily enough *happened to be* secular Muslims.
As opposed to derisory opinions and attempts to discredit them, which is all you and your boy Murray have come up with.
That’s not evidence, that’s a claim.
And accusations of ”derisory opinions and attempts to discredit’ coming from a site like Spittoon, chums of Harry’s Place? Are you serious?
A claim backed by demonstrable evidence, surely. What part of that sentence are you having trouble with?
What evidence have you actually got that they are lying? If you don’t have any, what you have is just an opinion and a set of partisan denials. And Craig Murray. Good luck with that.
‘A claim backed by demonstrable evidence’ is not the same as evidence by your own admission, it’s a claim. Bring forward the evidence and then it ceases to merely be a claim.
Again, what evidence have you actually got that they are lying? If you don’t have any, what you have is just an opinion and a set of partisan denials.
It is the duty of the claimant to provide evidence to uphold their claim, not the duty of the counter-claimant to disprove the former.
from what i know of david t, he opposes fundamentalism in all forms, not just islamism. there are already a large number of people working to counter christian, jewish or hindu (or whoever) fundamentalist influence, including myself, as someone who is committed to both liberal democracy and religious pluralism for all, be they whatever colour. i know it’s convenient for you to try and paint david t as a racist, but anyone with half a brain knows otherwise. as for gilligan, i think someone else could have been just as effective at fronting the programme – and i for one would have preferred someone with no links to press tv and therefore the payroll of the iranian regime.
Mind you, I would avoid using Gilligan, even after his year long investigation – he has failed to find a shred of evidence that links IFE to Labour – and that they have infiltrated town hall, or even received government patronage. I’d be pretty pissed off I were funding this programme.
what, other than the undisputed receipt of government patronage by the mcb, the demonstrated links of the mcb and the ife trustees and management, the demonstrable concern of the labour party for their tower hamlets organisation, or, for example, the controversy over the influence that obtained the appointment of lutfur ali, about which labour councillors expressed their concern?
is that the lack of evidence you’re talking about?
b’shalom
bananabrain