Filling in the blanks in the IFE

Last week Ted Jeory published a transcript of his interview from last year with Mohammed Habibur Rahman, when Rahman was then the president of the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE). Worth reading in full, if you get a chance. Here is an excerpt:

Ted Jeory: Well, you’re president…who else is actually on the management structure?
Habibur Rahman: Who else? Well, it would be good for us to sit and talk. Are you just looking for names, we’ve got about 20 people who are managing the organisation
Ted Jeory: The other name that’s always mentioned is [Tower Hamlets council children's services officer] Hira Islam.
Habibur Rahman: Hira? You see, I think someone is trying to push an agenda with you.
Ted Jeory: Well, that might well be the case, but that’s why I’m coming to you to talk to you about it.
Habibur Rahman: Hira Islam is part of IFE, of course he is, but he is also very involved with the Labour party. He’s a member of the Labour party, so he knows a lot of people and people say that because he is working with us, people probably think that he is trying to push an agenda on our behalf.

Thanks to the information revealed in that interview, Andrew Gilligan has now published the identities of two further IFE activists. The reason for going public with these names now and not at the time the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary was broadcast in March is because of “legal advice”, says Gilligan. Explaining why the unidentified IFE activist had to be referred in the transcript of this interview with Councillor Lutfur Rahman, and is alleged to have worked for the Councillor, as “Mr A”.

Today, however, we can reveal that “Mr A” is Hira Islam, a Tower Hamlets council officer, former trustee of the IFE-controlled East London Mosque, director of a number of IFE-linked companies and senior member of the IFE. Hira Islam’s was the name we put to Lutfur in the interview. His was the help and canvassing that Lutfur refused to deny receiving. Lutfur did deny, however, that Hira made any promises or threats to councillors on his behalf. Hira himself refused to comment, when approached.
We can give you Hira’s name thanks to Ted Jeory, the former deputy editor of the local paper, who has just posted on his excellent blog a transcript of a taped interview he did last year with the then president of the IFE, Mohammed Habibur Rahman. I’ve heard the tape myself, too. The IFE president states that “Hira Islam is part of IFE, of course he is… he is working with us.”

Another allegation, made by the local Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, was that several Tower Hamlets councillors, as well as Lutfur Rahman, had connections to the IFE. We named one councillor at the time – Abjol Miah – as an IFE activist, because despite his denials we had substantial evidence for this. Last week, Miah lost a Press Complaints Commission complaint against us for describing him as an IFE activist.

Now, thanks to the same Mohammed Habibur Rahman interview, we can name another councillor who Mr Rahman states has “associations with” the IFE (though is “far too busy with his politics to do anything else.”) He is Alibor Choudhury, who under Lutfur Rahman’s leadership held the key job of cabinet member for employment and skills. Mr Choudhury is a former manager of another IFE-linked organisation, Nafas, which has received a great deal of money from Tower Hamlets council.

Bunglawala’s organ iEngage is not happy at all with this information being brought to the public domain. They refer to this Andrew Gilligan’s journalism, using characteristic Islamist hyperbole, as a “Crusade in Tower Hamlets”!

This time, his “expose” acts as a prompt to highlight the upcoming selection of Tower Hamlets’ first directly-elected Mayor. What use could his comments have except in attempting to, once again, undermine and de-legitimise the active participation of British Muslim citizens in the democratic process? In a time of heightened Islamophobia in the country, the comments of Mr. Gilligan can only serve prompt to the xenophobic elements of our society to continue their tirade against Muslims.

But the “crusade” schtik is ridiculous because as we know, the majority of Muslims in Tower Hamlets voted against Islamist politics (Respect) in the last election and most of them oppose the Islamist partisanry of the IFE outright. The IFE is and always has been as “mainstream” as the BNP.