Category Archives: UK Politics

Strict with Lutfur Rahman, Fluffy with Ken Livingstone

By avicenna | Published: October 27, 2010

Here is Ken Livingstone giving a clear-cut message of endorsement to Lutfur Rahman, while criticising the NEC’s decision to expel Rahman and downplaying Rahman’s replacement:

Labour have taken swift and strong action against Lutfur Rahman and, given his appalling track record, rightly so. Andrew Gilligan reports:

The Tower Hamlets Labour councillors met last night at Westminster. According to several of those present, they voted:

  • to ban their members from joining Lutfur Rahman’s cabinet or acting as paid advisers to him.
  • to oppose Lutfur’s and all his supporters’ readmission to the Labour Party.
  • to ask Labour’s National Executive Committee to investigate the role of Labour Party members in Lutfur’s election campaign and to treat them all equally.

This last bit is clearly aimed at Ken Livingstone, whose action in campaigning against Labour and for Lutfur continues to appal many members of the Labour Party.

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Also posted in Tower Hamlets | 4 Comments

Lessons from Tower Hamlets

By Effendi | Published: October 27, 2010

Luftur Rahman, the former Labour council leader, has been elected as the mayor of Tower Hamlets on  a turnout of 25.6%. Lutfur, who had previously been expelled from Labour and stood as independent, is linked to the Islamic Forum Europe. Lutfur’s nomination papers were reportedly signed by Abul “Abs” Hussain, a man expelled from RESPECT for racism while his campaign was run by RESPECT.

There is a must-read piece by Councillor Jessica Assato on the Labour Uncut blog. She argues for the need for Labour to take a more hands-on approach to politics in Tower Hamlets. Most of which is it imported wholesale from Bangladesh, and continues to taint the political landscape in the community with communalism and inter-Muslim tensions.

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Also posted in Communalism, Islamism, Tower Hamlets | 3 Comments

A Dummy’s Guide to Lambertism

By Ziryab | Published: October 23, 2010

This is a cross-post by Amjad Khan

Over the last few years, entry level Islamist organisations, certain sections of the far-left, and a handful of academics and policy wonks have been advocating a theory, now commonly referred to as ‘Lambertism’, named after it’s most vocal proponent, Robert Lambert. This theory essentially advocates governments building closer ties with non-violent Islamist groups and hard-core Wahabis in an effort to defeat violent Islamist extremists. In essence, let’s work with non-violent extremists to defeat violent extremists. Advocates of this approach would argue that non-violent extremists are best placed to deal with violent extremists. In this article I hope to explore some of the implications of this approach and the motivations behind some of those advocating it.

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Also posted in Islamism, The Far Left | 2 Comments

Why Lambert and Githens-Mazer are wrong on radicalisation

By Ziryab | Published: October 21, 2010

This is a cross-post by Robin Simcox

It seems increasingly trendy to believe that ‘non violent’ Islamists can be a bulwark against al-Qaeda in preventing terrorism in the west. Chief proponent of this thesis is Robert Lambert, director of the European Research Muslim Centre (ERMC). Along with Jonathan Githens-Mazer, his co-director at the EMRC, Lambert believes that Salafi and Ikhwani ‘street’ legitimacy and religious knowledge work as a safety valve in reducing the threat.

This is convenient, considering the ERMC receives all of its funding from Ikhwani-sympathetic organisations. The Cordoba Foundation, described by the Prime Minister in March 2008 as a ‘front for the Muslim Brotherhood’, donated £50,000 to the ERMC for the year 2009/10; and Islam Expo, whose registered directors and companies secretaries have a variety of links to the Brotherhood, another £50,000.

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Also posted in Activism, Entryism | 2 Comments

DCLG’s Senior Muslim Advisor Mohammad Abdul Aziz Rakes It In

By Ziryab | Published: October 8, 2010

This is a cross-post by Lucy Lips of Harry’s Place

Earlier this year we ran a guest post on Aziz:

Mohammad Abdul Aziz is a Senior Muslim Advisor at DCLG. He is also a honary trustee of East London mosque (ELM) and the London Muslim Centre (LMC), as well as having been an advisor to the MCB. He was formerly an executive committee member of YMO, which is the youth wing of Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) – an Islamist entryist group. After spending years in YMO propagating the teachings of the Islamist ideologue Maulana Mawdudi, Mohammad Aziz resigned to follow a stricter and more conservative form of Islam known as ‘Salafism’. As a student he attended UCL to study Law, grew a lengthy beard and would roll his trousers up over his ankles to conform to his new stricter interpretation of Islam. During his time as a Salafi he influenced a whole generation of young Bangladeshis in East London. He later came under the influence of a senior Jamaati Islami member Khurram Murad who eventually convinced him to once again join entryist Islamism. Mohammad Aziz then went onto represent the MCB at a number of events.

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Also posted in Entryism, Islamism | 3 Comments

Lutfur Rahman Suspended From The Labour Party

By Ziryab | Published: September 21, 2010

This is a cross-post by Lucy Lips

I have just been told that Labour’s NEC has suspended Lutfur Rahman, the IFE-supported candidate for Mayor.

Readers of this blog will be aware of the detailed and serious allegations of vote banking that have been made in relation to this candidate.

Suspension from the Labour Party will mean that Lutfur Rahman cannot run as the Labour candidate for Mayor. That will mean that the IFE/ELM clique will not get their hands on the £1 billion budget that Tower Hamlets will command. Perhaps RESPECT will take him on as their candidate.

Labour’s candidate is likely to be Helal Abbas.

Labour is to be praised for its timely actions. I expect that Labour will now face a law suit, brought against it by Lutfur Rahman’s solicitor, Makbool Javaid. Javaid is an extremist who opposes “man made law”, supported the creation of a Caliphate from an Al Muhajiroun platform, and signed a “declaration of war” on the United Kingdom.

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Also posted in Entryism | 6 Comments

The David Kelly conspiracy

By Ziryab | Published: August 22, 2010

This is a cross-post from Harry’s Place

According to the Daily Mail (ho, ho ho), only one in five of you believe David Kelly committed suicide.

According to an exclusive Mail opinion poll, only one in five people accepts the Hutton Inquiry’s finding that the government weapons inspector took his own life.

The survey also reveals that eight out of ten people want a full inquest. With senior MPs making the same demand, the Coalition is under strong pressure to act.

It comes as a medical report says it was ‘impossible’ that Dr Kelly bled to death in the way described by the inquiry.

The “impossible circumstances” of Kelly’s death are described by the pathologist who examined Kelly in today’s Sunday Times (paywall) as:

“an absolute classic case of self-inflicted injury. You could illustrate a textbook with it. If it were anyone else and you were to suggest there’s something foul about it, you would be referred for additional training.”

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Also posted in Media, Politics | 2 Comments

Is this the “counter-Enlightenment”?

By bananabrain | Published: August 6, 2010

i’ve not posted for a while, mostly because of pressure of work, but there are a number of things which are currently causing me to more or less lose sleep.

recently, i gave up posting on pickled politics, partly because of the level of personal animosity i was facing, but mostly just in frustration at my apparent inability to get my point across. now, i suppose i have nobody very much to blame for that apart from myself, but i’ve never felt that was a problem before now. now, i think i’m starting to work out what it is that is bothering me; certainly, it’s not about the denizens of one blog, or even the blogosphere, or even the media. it’s not any one set of views, not any one person, but a set of trends, a collective movement i sense in wider society.

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Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Civil Rights, Democracy, Entryism, European Fascism, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Islamism, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Multiculturalism, Obscurantism, Sectarianism, Secularism, The Far Left, The Regressive Left | 37 Comments

Another story of government advisers undermining government ministers (this time in the battle against extremism)

By Ziryab | Published: August 4, 2010

This is a cross-post from Conservative Home

By Tim Montgomerie

Hats off to The Sunday Times (£) for yesterday’s scoop exposing senior Home Office officials who rubbished the Home Secretary to supporters of the Indian Islamist leader Zakir Naik – after she had banned him from coming into the country because of his extremist preaching.

The pair – both employed by the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism – went behind Theresa May’s back and told friends of the excluded televangelist Zakir Naik that they were “gutted and mortified” by their ministerial boss’s decision, which they considered to be “a huge error of judgement”.

One high ranking civil servant, Sabin Khan, has been suspended pending an investigation. Also in the frame is Charles Farr, the OSCT’s Director General.

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Also posted in Activism, Entryism, Politics | 4 Comments

“Violent” and “Non Violent” Islamists

By Guest | Published: July 25, 2010

This is a cross-post by Lucy Lips at Harry’s Place

So, it is almost that Global Peace and Unity time of year again.

Regular readers of Harry’s Place will remember that, every year, the Islam Channel invites some of the most extreme and nasty Islamists – supporters of attacks on our troops, of terrorism (outside the UK, of course), Holocaust denial, wife beating, and so on – to bunfight. Each year, leading politicians from all three parties are invited. Sometimes, they attend.

Labour’s performance on this matter has ranged from excellent to terrible.

The Lib Dems have been atrocious – not only did they attend the event, they rubbished Policy Exchange’s attempt to brief leading politicians on the nature of the invitees to the conference.

The Tories’ Dominic Grieve did turn up, and very impressively expressed his disappointment at the nasty views espoused by some of the attendees. If you are going to attend, that is the way to do it.

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Also posted in Islamism | 11 Comments

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