More fallout from the Channel 4′s Dispatches documentary. The East London Advertiser takes up the story of Peter Golds, whom the ruling Labour group are trying to oust because of his involvement in the programme.
Members of the ruling Labour group are planning to table a resolution to suspend Tory Opposition leader Peter Golds after he took part in journalist Andrew Gilligan’s programme Britain’s Islamic Republic.
They accuse him of leaking confidential documents about the controversial appointment of Lutfur Ali as the £120,000-a-year assistant chief executive.
Gilligan’s programme, which heavily researched breaking news from the East London Advertiser over the past three years about the internal politics of Tower Hamlets and the power block at the Town Hall, examined Mr Ali’s qualifications and questioned his CV.
Peter Golds was a dissenting voice on the appointments panel who challenged Labour’s choice and spoke openly on the programme.
But he insisted last night: “I did not leak any documents, nor would I. This is an orchestrated campaign and totally undemocratic.”
The ‘documents’ in the programme were his own letters.
He said when approached by the Advertiser: “If you look carefully at the programme, I am reading from a letter I wrote to the Audit Commission and the Standards Board for England complaining of procedures appointing Lutfur Ali.
“I have a public duty as any councillor to undertake due diligence when someone is appointed where they’re being paid in excess of £100,000 and a massive pension exceeding the salary expectations of virtually everyone in Tower Hamlets.
“As is well known, there are extraordinary gaps and omissions in Ali’s job application. I have previously called for these to be investigated.”
It looks like Golds is another whistleblower for whom there will be virtually no progressive support.
The programme also said projects with links to the IFE and its allies were awarded £10m from council taxes while other groups were losing out, a claim later denied in a Tower Hamlets council statement.
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I today stumbled upon this site and am hearten by its code and content and look forward to adding it to my favourites and hearing what people are really saying after I watch 1/3/10 despatches. “The World is one country and we are its custodians”
The conveniently discarded and vast scale of good work committed by this magnificient institution cannot be undermined…
London Muslim Centre hosts World Record on World Book Day
Over 3000 children will be walking through the doors of the London Muslim Centre, East London, on Thursday, 4 March 2010 to take part in the BIG Read. Over 35 schools across London and from as far as Reading and Croydon will participate in this unique event, which seeks to highlight the importance of literacy, locally, nationally and internationally.
The world record attempt will involve authors, teachers and some special guests reading from Roald Dahl’s classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ to the assembled children. Celebrities taking part include journalist, Victoria Brittain, BBC London presenter Asad Ahmed and Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old holocaust survivor.
Former stars from the BBC hit show The Apprentice will also be taking part. They include, Ghazal Asif, Tre Azzam, Majid Nagra and Syed Ahmed. Baroness Pola Uddin, George Galloway MP and the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, Lutfur Rahman, will also be participating.
A special guest appearance will take place by John Stephens who worked as part of the special effects team on what turned out to be the cult film, ‘Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.’
Reverend Jesse Jackson, is lending his support to the BIG Read. At a forum at the House of Commons on Friday, 26 February 2010, the Reverend Jackson stated: “I support the BIG Read because if you can read, you can reason. Reading is like a light to your brain. It takes you out of darkness… Literacy liberates. Reading and reasoning are forces for change, for the good”.
Rizwan Khaliq, CEO of IF Charity stated ” To have an opportunity to attempt this World Record on World Book Day is fantastic, it will give our global education program for 2010 a great start”
The London Muslim Centre is proud to be hosting an event which will inspire children to read and learn. Events such as these are exactly what IFE do. It is inspiring that children of all ages will take part in such an exciting event.
Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, Lutfur Rahman, expressed “We are delighted for Tower Hamlets Council to be part of this World Record on World Book Day. What a fantastic way of bringing communities together to read one of Roald Dahl’s timeless classics”.
Tufail Hussain, Acting Fundraising Manager at Muslim Aid said “Encouraging a child to read is important because it broadens the mind and helps to develop skills that these young people will need to become constructive members of society. The Big Read has already made a very important statement, all that’s left now is to break this record and send this message to millions of people across the world.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
To register online please click on http://www.big-read.co.uk
IF is a fundraising charity that organises fun and innovative events to raise money for worthwhile causes both in the UK and worldwide.
IF’s partners for the BIG Read are the London Muslim Centre (LMC), the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), Muslim Aid and Tower Hamlets Council.
The BIG Read will be seeking to beat the current record of 3,032 people achieved by The Kindergarten Starters School at Global Village in Dubai, UAE on the 12th November 2008.
Children taking part in the event will be between 5 and 18 years old.
According to a report from the Government Office for London, Tower Hamlets is ranked as the 3rd most deprived out of the 354 local authorities in England. The BIG Read is the first chapter of IF’s Literacy & Educational Programme for 2010, the aim of which is to reduce child illiteracy around the world, in support of the UN Millennium goal that every child should be literate by the year 2015.
Further statistics on deprivation in Tower Hamlets can be found here: http://www.go-london.gov.uk/boroughinfo/borough.aspx?bid=30
For media enquiries, please contact Ruhul at ruhul@ifcharity.com
We would like to thank Islam Channel, Channel S, Press TV, ARY Digital, Universal TV, Al- Hiwar, Bangla Post and Sisters Magazine, for all their help and support.
IFE – Islamic Fascist Enterprises?
I am sure that the IFE has contracted Carter-Ruck to try and pull the second installment from broadcast. Just as MCB/Jamaat-e-Islam did with Carter Ruck with the “War Crimes File” documentary also shown on C4 back in 1995. That one dealt with the alleged war crimes and murders by MCB stalwart Choudhury Mueen Uddin, of course.
I am willing to wager money that the same machinations are afoot in the case of Gilligan’s documentary.
The only crime committed in bangladesh was that of mujib the dictator and pharo of the time came to power. You sad bengali foga’s get a life and forget about that country, you are british this is your land not that piece of dirt.
So we all now know that these so called modernists and secularists have willingness to accept britain as their mother land, sad you bunch of extremists and as you guys have put it your self ‘why dont you leave the country’ since all you ever think about is banga-desh.
I guess what Wiki is saying is that it’s OK to kill Sylheti Muslims and rape Sylheti women in Bangladesh, as long as Jamaat do the killing and raping.
What is the partisan obsessions with the Bangladesh war? If it is accurately and fairly proven that people from either sides committed crimes then they deserve to be condemned and punished for it…simple as. Partisanship has nothing to do with it.
Respct to Respectabilia hit the nail on the head, here here
What is the partisan obsessions with the Bangladesh war?
What is the Islamic justification for the involvement in a genocide and rape of millions of Muslims? Where is that justified in the Qur’an and Sunnah?
Why are the actions of the Jamaat in 1971 obsessively ignored by the Jamaat in 2010? Surely if they did nothing wrong, they would be able to discuss and justify these actions openly and clearly?
Reread my comment Dawood. This time, with the shades off.
I am asking for the justification of Jamaat’s involvement in the genocide and rape of millions of Muslims, as per the Qur’an and Sunnah.
You’re trying to evade the question.
Who is being partisan?
Horrendous.
These Islamists are shameless supporters of mass-murder.
Kick the jamaat out of London Muslim Centre!
No, re-read it again.
“If it is ACCURATELY and FAIRLY proven that people from either sides committed crimes then they deserve to be condemned and punished for it…simple as. Partisanship has nothing to do with it.”
Bangladeshi citizens have the right to fight an invading military force. That is their justification.
Jamaat-e-Islam partnered with the Pakistani forces in their genocidal campaigns and in the rape of thousands of Bangladeshi women.
If “Partisanship has nothing to do with it”, why are you unwilling to provide the justification of Jamaat’s involvement in the genocide and rape of millions of Muslims, as per the Qur’an and Sunnah? You’re trying to evade the question, so who is being partisan?
I don’t see what’s wrong with Respect’s point Dawood. Nor why you can’t understand it.
I guess you – or those who make the accusations – need to prove that this group Jamati Islam were murderers and rapists as you claim (you can’t merely claim it). That’s what your whole argument is based on. And after they’re tried in a fair court of law and proven to be as you describe, then we can throw blame around at those who support rape and murder instead of condemning, not before that. But before that, I guess he/she’s right…it’s all partisan stuff. There’s no question to dodge.
Wow, is it half-term or something? Seems like it the number of angry South Asian teenage boys that have come onto this site to squeeze their cyber zits and tell us all how angry they are. When I was about 17 I would get off down the local offie, buy some cheap cider and head for the local rec with my mates and some local chicks for some underage drinking, dope smoking and sex. I suppose these things are out of the question if you are a Pakistani or Bangladeshi teenager obsessing about religion and feeling dirty every time you want a wank. I recommend sex and drugs and rock and roll, boys. Get a life, in short.
Cheers now.
There are still surviving victims of the Pakistan military/Jamaat mass-rape, genocide and death-squads alive in Bangladesh today. They are penniless, silenced and discarded but their accounts count more than the accusations of “partisanship” from denialists like “Respectabilia” and the IFE lot who now congregate here, whose self-interest it is to keep the name of their party, Jamaat, out of the history books or revise them altogether.
Thankfully, there are people who will not be phased or prevented from getting justice.
http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/
As a political party that is based on the doctrine of the Quran and Sunnah, it is incumbent on Jamaat to furnish justification for it’s involvement and actions in the death-squads, genocide and rape of millions of Bengali Muslims, as per the Qur’an and Sunnah. Failure to answer that question is partisanship.
http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/?page_id=16
http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/?p=296
Abu FOGA is the one who is supporting the genocide of Palestinians by the terrorist state of Israel. He also supported the genocide of the Bosnians by the Serbs, the genocide of the Muslims in Turkmenistan, and also supports china in its murder of Muslims. The basic point is if you are a Muslim being killed he supports the killer, unless of course the ‘so called Muslim’ dying is a Bangladeshi patriot, that’s all he cares about. I though you were British give it up.
i think you must be reading some other website, wiki. perhaps your tinfoil hat needs replacing.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Will Wiki show wevidence for any of his accusations against me, please?