Having become sick of the IFE and their Islamist entryist tactics, community groups in Tower Hamlets have got together and issued the following press release:
PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TOWER HAMELTS COMMUNITY STANDS UP TO FIGHT FASCISM IN ALL ITS COLOURS:
The entry of the English Defence League (EDL) into Tower Hamlets to protest against a meeting at the Troxy in East London is a direct provocation to stir up racial tensions, foment dissent among faiths and attempt to bring disunity amongst the communities of the borough. We condemn the fascist EDL whose sole objective is to act as storm troopers for the British National Party (BNP) and pick up the pieces for them after their miserable rout in the local and national elections in neighbouring Barking and Dagenham Council. Under the guise of being non-political and upholding “English” values they are propagating a virulent form of naked Islamophobia which is rejected by the communities of Tower Hamlets. We will do everything in our power to defend the peace in the borough, protect the lives of Muslims and ensure that the unity amongst all is maintained.
This borough has a rich tradition of successful challenge to fascist forces of the Blackshirts and the National Front. The Battle of Cable Street in the 30,s and the Struggle for Brick Lane following Altab Ali’s murder in the 70’s and the move to oust Derek Beackon in the 90’s is part of our common history. The values of universalism, anti-racism and no compromise with fascism inform our thinking and has become part of our existence. We will build on this rich tradition as we face Oswald Mosley’s grandchildren. The irony is those who attacked the Jewish community in the 30’s have tried to usurp the flag of Israel to mount their challenge today. United with the Jewish community we condemn such blasphemy.
As we confront the fascist thugs of EDL we in the Bengali and the Muslim community are being asked to stand side by side with Islamic Forum in Europe (IFE). This we refuse to do. The IFE does not represent the Muslim community in Tower Hamlets. They do not uphold the glorious tradition of Cable Street, Altab Ali and the anti racist movement. Under the patronage of an exclusivist Islam emanating from Saudi Arabia they are attempting to impose it amongst the Bengalis in this borough. Just as the EDL takes the guise of being ordinary English citizen to hide their true identity of fronting the fascist BNP so do IFE act as the sole representatives of ordinary Muslims but are in fact operating under the direction of their parent organization Jamaat Islam in Bangladesh. It is Jamaat that was party to the massacre of innocent Bangladeshis in the 1971 war of independence that establish the independent state of Bangladesh. A war Tribunal has been established in Bangladesh to try leaders of Jaamat Islam who are IFE’s real ideological and organizational gurus. In other words IFE represent a virulent form of political Islam that is fascistic in nature like Jaamat Islam and verges on the anti-Semitic and is very exclusivist and undemocratic.
In defending the people of Tower Hamlets and especially the ordinary Muslims we do not have to defend IFE. EDL is attacking the Muslims of this borough and we must protect them. IFE must not be allowed to use this occasion to propagate their very reactionary version of political Islam.
We must also alert the entire community about the opportunist and divisive politics of IFE. Using this latest EDL threat to the local community, it is clear to us that the IFE brigade is trying to terrify the most vulnerable in our community – the Bangladeshi women and children into joining their ranks under the banner of ‘defending the Ummah’. It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools to ask them to join forces and defend Muslims and East London Mosque from imminent threat of destruction.
All progressive forces must realize that the gut reaction to EDL is to defend everybody including IFE because they might be accused of being Islamophobic. But we boldly proclaim that it is not Islamophobic to have no trucks with the heirs of Fascist Jaamat? It is not Islamophobic to denounce the anti democratic credentials of IFE and their Saudi patrons? It is not Islamophobic to show solidarity with the Muslims of Tower Hamlets and their diverse representative organizations without marching under the leadership of IFE? We cannot be consistent in fighting the fascist EDL if we elect the “fascist” IFE as our Imam. In line with the best in the Islamic and Bengali tradition we reject the siren calls of IFE as we prepare to organise against EDL.
On behalf of:
Harmuz Ali (Bangladesh Welfare Association (BWA), Ataur Rahman Chowdhury (Brick Lane Mosque), Shamsuddin Shams (Altab Ali Foundation), Badrul Islam (Centre for Citizenship and Development (CCD), Akikur Rahman (Bangladesh Youth Association), Rajonuddin Jalal (London Bangladeshi Association), Ansar Ahmed Ullah (Nirmul Committee), Mahmoud Rauf (Brick Lane Business Association), Abdus Subhan Gedu (Banglatown Restaurant Association), Ethnic Minority Enterprise Project (EMEP), Abdul Ali Rauf (Chicksand Citizen’s Forum), Collective of Bangladeshi School Governors, Tower Hamlets Parents Centre, Tower Hamlets Parents Association, APASENTH, BYM, Nurul Islam (Kendrio Shaheed Minar Committee), Sundar Miah (Tarling Tenants & Residents Association),Nooruddin Ahmed (Bangladesh Youth League), Ruhul Amin (Progressive Youth Association), Taimus Ali (Bangladesh Youth Front), Shahab Uddin Ahmed Belal (Human Rights Secretary (Awami League), Cathy Forrester, Claire Murphy, Phil Maxwell, Terry Fitzpatrick (Blair Peach Project), Syed Sad Ahmed, Fanu Miah (Golden Moon Youth Project), Altafur Rahman, Sheikh Noor, Sirajul Islam, Shofiq Ahmed, Tanu Miah and others.
For further details:
On behalf of UNITY PLATFORM AGAINST RACISM AND FASCISM
C/O Centre for Citizenship and Development, Business Development Centre, 7-15 Greatorex Street, London E1 5NF
The begining of the end for IFE : )
46 Comments
An excellent and brave move by Tower Hamlets communities!
Let’s now hope the govt stops funding the IFE, ELM, their supporters and ignores the advice of IFE infiltrators in govt departments.
This is good news. The IFE ship is sinking without the weight of govt grants.
IFE still have one hope left in Tower Hamlets: Lutfur Rahman to become elected mayor.
Tower Hamlets communities must unite to ensure that this does not happen.
Hilarious, this is an old ‘press release’ from before the EDL counter march in Tower Hamlets. Clearly a new use of the word ‘unanimously’ in the headline, must be one of those words cunningly used in the opposite sense of its original meaning. Because, as we know, people in Tower Hamlets did march together, including the IFE, having ignored this pitiful attempt to sow division and exploit tensions in the local Bangladeshi politics power play.
Oh, and it turned out to be even funnier when some of those groups on the release denounced it, having never been consulted about it.
Keep Bangladeshi politics out of Tower Hamlets!
Keep IFE & Jamaat-e-Islami out of Tower Hamlets!
“Keep Bangladeshi politics out of Tower Hamlets!”
Yes this would be the same as keeping IFE & Jamaat-e-Islami out of Tower Hamlets!
Keep Bangladeshi politics out of Tower Hamlets!!!
That’s right. The only Bengali political groups in Tower Hamlets are the IFE & Jamaat.
Their poltics must be kept out of Tower Hamlets!!!
I think we can develop a consensus against keeping Bangladeshi corrupt and thuggish politics out of Tower Hamlets.
This should begin with including the thugs like the JI heads.
IFE is just JI Bangladesh UK, this is in fact the difference between it and other Islamist organisations in the UK which are off shoots of IFE e.g. Dawatul-Islam.
IFE’s version of JI – Islamism that wishes to invent a normative form of Political Islam and impose it upon the Muslims and preesent it to Non-Muslims as authentic Islam, should be seen for what it is: Saudi/Wahabi/”Salafi” religion combined with Mawdudian neo-facism – trying to follow the same politics as the far right and claim democratic credentials.
Keep it all out of Tower Hamlets – all types of Facism, whether right-wing, Islamist – KEEP IT OUT!
Partisan Bangladeshi party politics is a problem in Tower Hamlets. We should keep BD style personality politics out!
Sadly the article here is itself partisan. Just as East London mosque has Jamat elements, many of these signatories are affiliated with Awami League members.
I take it that Faisal and others at spittoon equally oppose the presence of Awami elements as well?
The Islamist threat is overblown in the Bangladeshi community.
Most of us are ethnic Sylheti Bengalis in the UK. We follow the Sufi Muslim heritage of Shah Jalal which doesn’t sit well with the Saudi/deobandi influenced Jamat I Islam or IFE offshoot.
The current financial climate is good in one sense; no goby money for either secular or Islamist ‘community groups’!!!
Abdul H – perhaps you don’t know that ELM has recieved tons of money through Prevent & Cohesion grants, where as other mosques such as Brick Lane Mosque haven’t recieved a penny.
ELM & IFE are lucky that they have their people working in senior posts across Whitehall who push for these grants i.e. DCLG’s Senior Advisor on Muslim affairs is an Honary trustee of East London Mosque ‘Mohammad Abdul Aziz’. There ae also others like Azad Ali & Assan Ali.
If the majority of Bengali Muslims in Tower Hamlets are Sufis and followers of ShahJalal then why do ELM/IFE & MCB claim to represent the majority of Muslims there?
EDL have nothing against ordinary muslims, we stopped the preachers of hate at the troxy and withdrew our protest so we did not come to Tower Hamlets.
EDL attacked no one and have no intention of attacking anyone, there were many lies put about by such people as the Respect party and the UAF with the intention of manipulating locals into violence.
EDL have no connection whatso ever with the BNP and we hate Nazis as much as most people in this country.
Further more racist are not welcome in the EDL and we will deal with any that try to infiltrate our organisation.
EDL welcome all to join our protest against extremist regardless of colour, religion or race.
Don’t listen to the lies of the respect party, UAF and the IFE.
Arthur.
Arthur – Thank you for your post above.
I wish I could believe that but sadly I can’t. I find there’s a tremendous amount of ignorance amongst followers of the EDL.
To give you one example, I was passing an EDL demo in East London a few months back and your guys at the demo were all shouting ‘Whitechapel’ is full of S***. This then changed to ‘Southall’ is full of S*** and later to ‘Bradistan’ is full of S***. This was not just a handful of EDL people but 99% of them. How do you explain this sort of behaviour if, as you say, you are not against ordinary Muslims and you are not racist?
If what you say above is true then your group must stop labelling whole communities and areas as being full of S***. Once you do that then maybe we can believe you. Your chants should be against extremists and not whole areas like Whitechapel, Southall or Bradford. The vast majority of Muslims in these areas are also against extremists like the IFE, & Islam4UK etc. You really need to educate your followers first.
Ashraf
I think the EDL are actually keeping Islam4UK type groups going. If it wasn’t for EDL and tabloids such as The Sun, they would have been forgotten long time ago.
yes Tower Hamlets communities (i.e. four people) reject IFE. Bravo
Hi Ashraf, some times angry people get carried away in the heat of the moment, altho I’m not excusing bad behavour and instructions are given out before each protest telling supporters to be carefull what is chanted.
We pulled out of the Whitechapel/Tower Hamlets demo because the speeches were cancelled, it may have been an unofficial demo.
We fully realize that there are a majority of muslims who are against extremism and we want them to stand up and be counted, throw out the extremist preachers from the mosques etc.
People say we are Nazis, racist, yet we carry banners saying black and white unite, we have a Jewish division, Nazi? We have an LGBT division, we try to be as inclusive of all people.
We have muslim members, Sikh members, all sorts of folk.
We believe in our country and invite all who feel the same to join us. Don’t judge us by the lefts propaganda.
Maybe you should join our forum, http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/
There you will find the truth.
Arthur.
Arthur – I will checkout your website.
You must believe me when I say that the vast majority of Muslims are against extremists such as IFE, Islam4UK & HT. These groups are very fringe organisations and only represent themselves. Muslim communites are sick of them.
I am with you in exposing extremists. HT & Islam4UK have been kicked out of nearly every Mosque in the UK. The IFE only have one mosque stronghold which is the ELM.
These extrmist groups have also been in Bangladesh & Pakistan. Nobody likes them or wants their twisted version of religous politics.
EDL must recognise this.
Ashraf, I hope that you will check us out, thank you for doing so.
The whole of the statement by the Tower Hamlets community is based on fiction, has any one of the groups that signed up to it, ever had any dialogue with the EDL, we are always prepared to talk but every one just takes it for granted that we are what the media and others portray us.
Take the so called connection to the BNP, it simply does not exist, we have no connection to any political party, nor would we want to, we are a one issue pressure group, so officially we have no opinion on party politics. We would certainly never ever share a platform with the BNP.
Our position is very clear, preachers of hate out of the mosques,shari’ah courts closed down. The funding of mosques and faith schools from Saudi Arabia to be banned. For muslims to come to terms with free expression, I mean that if I write Jesus was plonker, the local church of England vicar is not likely to call for my beheading.
Muslims have an absolute right to practise their faith and that is completely non negotiable, but they do not have any right to make the rest of us to respect or not to criticise those beliefs.
We in EDL believe that our culture is being eroded and England is very slowly becoming Islamised in many ways, halal meat for example, English law says all animals should be stunned first, RSPCA says it is cruel to do otherwise. Australian muslims are happy with this, why not UK muslims. It should be one law for all, simple, why should any one be exempt from the law, equality means equality. Surely?
Just look at some of the facts, Galloway makes a speech saying that if we touch a muslim womens hi-jab or the hair of a muslim beard there would be 10,000 bodies, as if EDL had done this already and the anger of the crowd he was addressing was palpable. He is a politician looking for the muslim vote and manipulating the muslims into believing he is on their side, typical politician.
All this bull about cable street and nazis, fascists etc, EDL are neither left or right, we are simply the EDL, our selves.
Arthur – Do you think the availability of Kosher meat is also eroding British Culture?
How about Jewish law courts?
Afzal, groups like Muslims4uk, MCB and IFE are as ‘representative’ as EDL, Jewish Board of Deputies or Hindu Forum ie. Self appointed groups desperate for publicity and courting govt or other sources of patronage.
They are full of unrepresentative people without a balanced view of the modern British reality of multiple and competing individual identities.
I ASK THE QUESTIION AGAIN:
ARE WE SECULAR PROGRESSIVE BANGLADESHIS AS OPPOSED TO THE PRESENCE OF AWAMI LEAGUE OR BANGLADESH NATIONALIST PARTY IN TOWER HAMLETS AS WELL AS JAMAT I ISLAM?
neither of these are widely available, nor are they imposed on people against their will – as long as shari’a products and procedures are opt-in, they should be safe. however, it is notable that the backlash provoked by the behaviour of islamic fundamentalists has, in the name of “fairness and balance”, targeted the jewish community as well. thus, people seeking to justify poorly organised and variable-quality islamic institutions have targeted jewish institutions that are neither, despite the fact that jewish fundamentalists are not at war with this country. see my last post on the “counter-enlightenment” for details, because it is of course less simple than i’ve just made it sound.
and here we have a perfect example. the board of deputies is directly elected by the members of the communities that belong to it – and the vast majority do, unlike any of the other groups you mention. this is a case in point – jewish institutions are assumed to be as disorganised, undemocratic and desperate for patronage as muslim (and, in this case hindu) institutions when in fact this quite simply isn’t true. the board of deputies, for example, is self-funding by a levy on constituent communities, as far as i’m aware, and has been since its inception. obviously, those who are not members of an affiliated community are not able to directly elect or fund it, but they can remedy this by joining an affiliated community – there are very, very few communities which aren’t affiliated, although there are plenty of people who aren’t affiliated with any community, but the board does do its best to try and take soundings from it. not to sound like an advert for the board, because there is a lot wrong with it, but there’s also a lot right with it which other minority communities would do well to learn from and, in many cases do. the difference between the board and the mcb, however, is that the mcb resembles not the board, but one of its larger members, the united synagogue, in many of its least attractive ways.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Sadly it was expected that supporters of these groups engaged in the identity politics industry would defend their own groups crying ‘exception’.
That is kinda the point I made with my earlier post about Awami League supporting Bengalis only criticising Jamat involvement in Tower Hamlets politics.
We need to have n honest debate rather than reflexively defending our own groups.
“That is kinda the point I made with my earlier post about Awami League supporting Bengalis only criticising Jamat involvement in Tower Hamlets politics.”
But the dissent against the IFE entryism into Tower Hamlets council is not necessarily all partisan and ‘pro-Awami League’. There is also a position that can be adopted against the theocratic, regressive and anti-secular politics of Jamaat and the IFE without being aligned to other Bangladeshi parties.
Surely this is obvious to people who purport to be “secular progressive Bangladeshis”?
Arkhan, of course it is possible to be progressively secular without getting involved in dirty Bangla party politics. In fact ALL Bangladeshi parties regardless of claimed secularity are socially conservative and utterly corrupt. No?
But are you seriously telling me any petition aigned by the so-called Awami League ‘human rights secretary’ will be seen as anything more than posturing by unrepresentative AL affiliated groups?
Any neutral Bengali group would not co-sign to protect their neutrality and credibility
“But are you seriously telling me any petition aigned by the so-called Awami League ‘human rights secretary’ will be seen as anything more than posturing by unrepresentative AL affiliated groups?”
But I think you will find that this person you refer to is not the only signatory on that list! I also see the signatures of other Bangladeshis on the list who are not aligned to either AL or any other Bangladeshi party. What about these people?
Could it be that you are unaware of the possibility whereby one can oppose the theocratic, fundamentalist, religious supremacist, anti-secular, sectarian politics of Jamaat and its proxy organisations in the UK (IFE, LMC, ELM) without being a member or a supporter of the Awami League?
The very fact that your position is that ALL Bangladeshis who oppose the politics of Jamaat and the IFE are partisan Awami Leaguers or their “affiliates”, is itself a partisan generalisation in its own right.
i’m not supporting or defending the board of deputies – i have simply pointed out factual inaccuracies in your grouping:
1. about receipt of public money
2. about democratic representation
3. about a wide base in the community
the thing is that the jewish institutions have been in existence for over a century, so we’ve had time to work this stuff out – it quite simply hasn’t happened yet for muslim or hindu institutions, although there’s no reason it shouldn’t. you are actually indulging here in what i believe is called the “fallacy of equivocation”:
1. muslim groups are in receipt of public money but do not possess a representative democratic mandate from across their own community base
2. jewish and hindu groups exist in order to represent their community base
3. therefore the jewish and hindu groups must also be in receipt of public money (false) and without a representative democratic mandate (false)
the assumptions you’ve made may well be because of “confirmation bias” – but as to that, i couldn’t speculate.
you see?
b’shalom
bananabrain
Arkhan, my position has been that debates about issues of identity, multiculturalism and combatting extremism in Britain would be more effectively and credibly led by British Sylheti Bengalis involved in mainstream British politics rather than dubious self appointed groups (of either Islamic or secular leanings) with one foot firmly still in Bangladesh.
The fact no elected official or candidate from Labour/Conservatives or Lib Dems of Sylheti Bengali origin are involved in the petition above shows the fickle appetite for these straw man ‘secular v Islamist debates’ which arise from the intention to settle scores from Bangladeshi party politics.
Btw, spittoon constantly (quite correctly) scrutinise Jamati links to East London mosque and IFE but what about one of the signatory mosques here ie. Brick Lane mosque. This mosque is known in our community as the ‘nationalist mosque’ with Awami links.
Check this article which I assume is the Bangladesh Nationalist/Jamaat position about Brick Lane mosque and it’s partiality to Awami-affiliated politics:
http://disha-bangladesh.blogspot.com/2006/11/when-policy-exchange-treats-with-awami.html
Shouldn’t we maintain consistency and reject ALL regressive Bangla party politics in Tower Hamlets?
Abdul H – Unlike the MCB, IFE & Jamaat, the Awami League has never claimed to represent all the Bengali Muslims in Tower Hamlets.
No Abhiman, the Awami League have just murdered, raped, abused and stolen public funds from Bangladeshis in Bangladesh since 1971 (the same as their rival parties).
That is a good resume for the involvement of Awami affiliated groups in Tower Hamlets, yes?
Bananabrain, can we have some evidence regarding your pleading of ‘special exception’ for the Jewish Board of Deputies.
The MCB and constituent entities can claim the things you are claiming for your organization.
• The MCB and ELM have impressive financial clout thanks to non-govt funding from Middle East.
• The IFE is admirably organised (eg. entryism into a mainstream party in Tower Hamlets) more disciplined and organised than any comparable Awami-affiliated diaspora group. This is why despite little actual support for their brand of Islam, they punch above their weight.
• Finally, the MCB too has constituent community groups, including from perfectly acceptable constituent groups like the Islamic Foundation for Ecology & Environmental Science Association or the Muslim School Governors.
http://www.mcb.org.uk/affiliates.php
The MCB supports Palestinians as a matter or reflex and JBD does the same for Zionism & Israel. Same difference.
“No Abhiman, the Awami League have just murdered, raped, abused and stolen public funds from Bangladeshis in Bangladesh since 1971 (the same as their rival parties).”
Can you show any data or evidence to back up that claim?
Abdul H – I see you are now openly supporting the MCB & IFE despite claiming not to earlier ; )
Joker.
Obiman how did I support these groups when I pointed out above that ife tried to take over Tower Hamlets Labour party thanks to their organisation? Or that MCB automatically supports Palestine as JBD does for Israel?
This is the only argument left to you ppl since you can hardly defend Awami or the other parties.
How did I support these groups when I pointed out above that ife tried to take over Tower Hamlets Labour party thanks to their organisation? Or that MCB automatically supports Palestine as JBD does for Israel?
This is the only argument left to you ppl since you can hardly defend Awami or the other parties.
Looks like Abdul H, a so-called “SECULAR PROGRESSIVE BANGLADESHIS AS OPPOSED TO THE PRESENCE OF AWAMI LEAGUE OR BANGLADESH NATIONALIST PARTY IN TOWER HAMLETS AS WELL AS JAMAT I ISLAM”
has turned out to be a most partisan supporter of Jamaat and its UK proxies: IFE and the MCB.
What a surprise! (not)
Abdul H – you are not the first to come on here claiming to be progressive & secular but then suddenly doing a ‘U’ turn.
You’ve been exposed you prat. Now go back to the MSF/IFE hole or wherever you came from.
that’s true, they can claim it and they frequently do, but of course it is a claim, rather than a fact. and the board is not “my” organisation, i don’t work for it, but as i say it is pretty representative in community matters.
i’m sorry, what? you’re claiming that that makes them like the board of deputies? the board is *not* supported by “non-govt funding” from the middle east, it is supported by members of the british jewish community, not the british government or overseas governments or NGOs. the israeli government does not have to fund the board, it has an embassy. israeli political parties have local “friends of” charities which raise funds in the UK, everything from likud-herut UK to peace now, the new israel fund and indeed the anti-zionist ultra-orthodox parties like agudat yisrael, but those are one-way funds – what you are talking about is the precise opposite; NGOs (in other words, rich mostly-hardline-salafi-funded-by the gulfies and saudis) attempting and often succeeding in coopting the UK mostly-pakistani-and-bangladeshi communities to go along with their views. what you are saying is hardly an argument for the british taxpayer to subsidise salafi and wahhabi fundamentalism for it to subvert other varieties of islam (at least more than has already been done in the last generation) but a reason to make sure their influence and financial clout should be *reduced*.
which doesn’t make them democratically accountable, because the MCB does not actually represent even a majority of the community. it doesn’t represent the shi’a, it doesn’t represent anyone very much:
http://www.imaginate.uk.com/MCC01_SURVEY/Site%20Download.pdf
the best the MCB can do is support from about 4% of the commmunity. in fact, i take back what i said about it being like the united synagogue, which actually represents more like 60% of the british jewish public – the only real similarity is that it seems to think it’s entitled to speak for everyone, thus you have the head of the united synagogue being called the “chief rabbi of great britain and the commonwealth”, but not representing the masorti, reform, liberals, ultra-orthodox, sephardis or mizrahis.
you mean it’s equally anodyne, unreflective and glosses over major differences in opinion in the community? i’d agree with that anyway. but that’s not my point, the point is that the more you try to point out the similarity between the MCB and the board, the less convincing it is.
b’shalom
bananabrain
This article and the responses from Brit Bangladeshi supporters of ye olde Bangladeshi party politics is a prime example of debates on Islam and secularism being hijacked by partisan groups so that Shitty Bangladeshi Party A can score points over Shitty Bangladeshi Party B.
This is more the reason why this debate should be led by mainstream Bengalis from British parties and not the undersigned fringe.
Neel, the transgressions of Awami, Bnp & Jamat against ppl are so great and varied that google really is your friend.
You might start by reading Awami demigod Mujibar Rahman’s bio on wiki. This provides sourced links about Awami turning Bangladesh into BKSAL one party state with Mujib as a typical third world ‘president for life’. And complete with Rakhi Bshini militia immune from prosecution to murder and torture. Zia andsubsequent military leaders were no better.
AbdulH
Lol..you mean the debate should be led by MCB/IFE & ELM etc
Your shitty Bengali party politics stinks!!!!
This debate is eye opening about the situation in the Bangladeshi community.
Answer is simple to me: British citizens shouldn’t get into politics of another country. It’s that simple.
Wickd points abdul
true say about brick lane mashjid.
Fingers can be pointed both ways.
“This is more the reason why this debate should be led by mainstream Bengalis from British parties and not the undersigned fringe.”
I am glad the point has been made by Abdul H in particular.
All Bangladeshi parties are in some way or another tainted by authoritarian despots. Some more than others, of course.
But as we all know from the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary: There is only *one* Bangladeshi political party which is using entryist techniques into the Labour and Conservative parties. There is only *one* Bangladeshi political party which has its members embedded in Tower Hamlets council for the last ten years and is fielding a candidate in the upcoming mayoral election in the borough.
And I’ll tell you what – it’s neither the Awami League or the Bangladesh National Party. It is Jamaat-e-Islam.
All those rejected by peoples of Tower Hamlets can not claim that they are still voicing for the community; they should have self-respect. Many organizations does not exist at all and some of those are pockets organisations.