Category Archives: UK Politics

This is a cross-posted article by habibi from Harry’s Place:

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Next Monday Parliament’s Communities and Local Government Committee will hold a hearing about government policy on extremism.

Preventing Violent Extremism

Oral evidence session

Prevent is a cross-cutting policy that is led across Government by the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) which is part of the Home Office. Its aim is “to stop radicalisation, reduce support for terrorism and violent extremism and discourage people from becoming terrorists.” In this inquiry the Committee will be considering the effectiveness of the ‘Prevent’ programme to date, and its likely effectiveness in the future, with particular reference to whether the Prevent programme is the right way of addressing the problem of violent extremism in communities, and whether the Government’s strategy for dealing with communities has been effective, and appropriately targeted. The Committee will also consider whether the programme has reached those it aimed to target, how the programme has been received by communities and whether the Government has been speaking to the right people when formulating the ‘Prevent’ programme.

Nick Cohen surveys the continuing rehabilitation of the Islamist extreme-right by the Labour Party. The depressing phenomenon of pandering to “faith groups” has been legitimised at the cost of suppressing liberalising voices within the Muslim community. In practice, this turns out to be nothing more than a strategy, by John Denham and friends, to re-empower the same old gang of non-representative Islamist dinosaurs, religious supremacists, alleged war criminals, homophobes and pathological anti-semites unfamiliar with the concept of freedom of expression that make up the MCB and its core support group.

Last Sunday, John Denham, the communities secretary, announced: “Anyone wanting to build a more progressive society would ignore the powerful role of faith at their peril. We should continually seek ways of encouraging and enhancing the contribution faith communities make on the central issues of our time.”

This is a cross-post by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens from the StandPoint blog

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I have previously blogged about Scotland’s leading Islamist (and prospective MP for Glasgow Central), Osama Saeed, having to return more than half of the £200,000 he was given by his mate Alex Salmond to set up an event called Islam Fest. The event never happened, and questions were still being asked about where the remaining funds went.

Saeed’s Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) repaid nearly £130,000, and today the BBC tells us what happened to the remaining £70,000 of taxpayer money:

Organisers have repaid almost £130,000 and said the remaining £70,000 has been spent on setting up the event and securing partners.

Brill. So that’s £70,000 of OUR money that Osama has unceremoniously flushed down the toilet. Thank you Osama. Next time try to waste your own money on these little Islamist vanity projects.

Good to see the Centre for Social Cohesion giving the Tories a run for their money on their record on anti-Islamism and making sure they behave themselves when they (inevitably) come to power. Conservative Home published this challenge to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens:

Earlier this year, the Mayor’s office backed the East London Mosque (ELM), who on New Year’s Day 2009 broadcast on their premises a video sermon of pro al-Qaeda hate preacher Anwar al Awlaki.

In the above response to the CSC from the Mayor’s office, they refer to Robert Lambert’s involvement in initiating their relationship with Mr. Harrath. Robert Lambert is, according to the most recently available documents, an employee of iEngage, an online organisation which includes Mr. Harrath as one of its trustees.