Activism killed the radio star

Abjol Miah, a leading activist in the Respect Party and in the Jamaat-e-Islam front Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), has lost his appeal to the Press Complaints Commission after he complained about an article in the Telegraph, which identified him as…an activist in the IFE.

Mr Miah, Respect’s leader on Tower Hamlets council, is no longer a councillor, and his party was all but wiped out, after he was exposed as an IFE activist by the Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches. We also played the viewers a secretly-recorded tape of Mr Galloway, you might remember, saying that his election to Parliament in 2005 owed “more than I can say, more than it would be wise for me to say, to the IFE.”

Mr Miah complained about an article headlined “Is Respect the stupidest party in Britain?” He claimed that we had said that he was a member of the IFE, something he denied. Not so; we said he was an activist – as we have said many times before – and we produced what the PCC called “a substantial amount of on-the-record corroborative evidence” to prove it. Such as, for instance:

• the fact that he was one of only four main presenters on the IFE’s radio station;
• that he was described as a “member of the IFE” by John Rees, the former secretary-general of Respect;
• that he was a former office-holder or senior figure in three IFE-linked organisations, the Young Muslim Organisation (the IFE’s youth wing), Blyda, and Elite Youth.

The PCC ruled: “The Commission did not consider that the complainant [Mr Miah] had been able to establish that the article had been significantly misleading or inaccurate on this point such that it warranted correction or clarification under the Editors’ Code.”

Why is Abjol Miah so determined to distance himself from the IFE? Anyone would think that association with this fundamentalist Islamic pressure group might harm a person’s political ambitions.

If that is the case, why are Abjol Miah’s political allies in the Respect Party out to wreck his political career by writing this about him:

Abjol divides his precious spare time between relaxing with his family, fishing and cycling and presenting a regular slot on the locally acclaimed radio show Easy Talk.

Mr Miah might want to communicate with his Respect Party partners to let them know that you are not an IFE activist if you present a “regular slot” on the IFE radio show, Easy Talk. Even if the PCC refuses to believe it.