The IFE Crushed in Tower Hamlets

The Islamist powerplay of the Jamaati-Islami entryist group, the IFE, in Tower Hamlets has come to a dismal end with this piece of news:

Lutfur Rahman, the Labour leader of Tower Hamlets council backed by radical Islamists, has lost his job. At last night’s Labour group meeting, he was replaced as leader by another Labour councillor, Helal Abbas. Abbas is the man who protested last year that Tower Hamlets council was controlled by the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), based at the hardline East London Mosque.

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As well as Mr Rahman, Lutfur Ali, the IFE-linked assistant chief executive of the council, lost his job as a result of the programme. The Respect party’s Abjol Miah, an activist in the IFE, came third with 16 per cent of the vote in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency – and is no longer a councillor. Respect, which won 12 seats at the 2006 council elections, is now down to just one seat. Respect’s George Galloway, who boasted that he “owed more than I can say” to the IFE, was humiliated, also coming third in Poplar and Limehouse and failing even to turn up to the count.

So hearty congratulations to Helal Abbas and a note of thanks to the many anti-extremist journalists, bloggers and activists who have worked hard to foil the advance of extremist and communalist politics of the IFE and their support groups and lobbies in Tower Hamlets. Thankfully sense has prevailed in the the face of 20+ years of Islamist positioning.

Is the struggle is over?

The fight is not over. Later this year, Tower Hamlets will hold its first election for a directly-elected mayor. The IFE described in undercover footage taken by Channel 4 how it was organising to “get one of our people in” to the job. It will now be pouring all its resources into the effort to secure victory for its candidate. But given the way it has been pushed back this week, the auguries look hopeful.

Does the IFE still believe they can push “laughing boy” Azad Ali for the Mayoral office? We wait and see.