The capture of Tower Hamlets
People like myself who have warned for some years now about the steady Islamisation of Britain receive a torrent of scorn and abuse from the so-called custodians of our culture. Terms such as ‘scare-mongering’, exaggeration’ or ‘alarmism’ tumble out alongside the inevitable ‘Islamophobia’.
Now we can see what these cultural kamikazes are helping bring about. In the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, a man with reported links to radical Islamism, Lutfur Rahman, has been elected Mayor of the borough, giving him control of a billion-pound budget and thus the apparent installation of a platform for the progressive intimidation and silencing of British Muslims who do not want to live under sharia law, let alone the non-Muslim majority in the area.
In order to know anything about this crucial development, you have to read the Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan who has been closely following what’s been going on in Tower Hamlets during the past year. He writes on his blog:
For the last eight months – without complaint or challenge from Mr Rahman – this blog and newspaper have laid out his close links with a group of powerful local businessmen and with a Muslim supremacist body, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) - which believes, in its own words, in transforming the “very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed… from ignorance to Islam.” Mr Rahman has refused to deny these claims.
We have told how the borough’s change from a conventional council leader to a mayoral system came about as a result of a campaign led and financed by these two groups – and how the IFE, in its words, wanted to “get one of our brothers” into the position.
We have described in detail, again without complaint or challenge by Mr Rahman, his deeply problematic two years as council leader until he was removed from that post six months ago, partly as a result of our investigations. After he secured the leadership with the help of the IFE, millions of pounds were channelled to front organisations of the IFE, a man with close links to the IFE was appointed as assistant chief executive of the council despite being unqualified for the position and the secular, white chief executive was forced out. Various efforts were made to “Islamicise” the borough. Extremist literature was stocked in Tower Hamlets’ public libraries.
We have described, once more without complaint or challenge from Mr Rahman, how he signed up entire families of sham “paper” Labour members to win the party’s mayoral nomination – acts which caused him to be sacked as the Labour candidate by the party’s National Executive Committee.
Now, however, Mr Rahman has won as an independent – getting more than double the number of votes of the Labour candidate imposed in his place, Helal Abbas. As mayor, he will have far more power than he had as a council leader. And unlike a council leader, no-one can sack him, except the voters in four years’ time.
Here also is a transcript of Gilligan’s earlier Channel Four Dispatches on the same subject. Yet as far as I can see, no-one apart from Gilligan has even mentioned last week’s seismic development. Gilligan himself generously ascribes this silence to the fact that only he has been given the resources systematically to track what has been happening in Tower Hamlets. True enough, no doubt – but I can’t help feeling that, in the current climate of intimidation and bullying, other media outlets are just too timid to take this on.
Much responsibility for this debacle must be laid at the door of the Labour Party which, as the Labour MP Mike Fitzpatrick warned earlier this year, was failing to deal with Islamic entryism so that the IFE had effectively become a party within a party. This evening a brave Muslim, Dr Muhammad Tahir ul Qadri who previously issued an anti-terrorism fatwa and is is currently facing death threats from al-Qaeda and the Taliban, is due to issue another anti-extremism call at a meeting in east London. But what chance does he have given the failure of the British ruling class to tackle Islamic extremism?
Elsewhere, the indigenous culture of this country is under siege. Today, the Mail on Sunday reports that the diocese of Bradford may disappear altogether because so few Christians are worshipping there any more, outnumbered two to one by Muslims:
Insiders said the crisis was particularly acute in parts of the country where population shifts had accelerated a general decline in churchgoing, hitting church collections which feed diocesan coffers. One said: ‘Some areas with a high concentration of Muslim migrants have experienced “white flight” and the Church is struggling to maintain a foothold.’
Statisticians have predicted that there will be more Muslims in Britain’s mosques on Fridays than Anglicans in church on Sundays within a decade – though Church spokesmen point out that Anglicans increasingly worship at other times of the week. The latest figures suggest this milestone has already been passed in the Diocese of Bradford, which was founded in 1919 and covers the city, the western quarter of North Yorkshire and parts of East Lancashire, South-East Cumbria and Leeds.
The crumbling of church membership is due overwhelmingly to a profound loss of spiritual purpose and moral nerve within the Church of England – and the vacuum is being filled by Islam. Instead of defending its own territory, and with it the religious and moral underpinning of British society, the CofE has decided to stamp upon its Jewish theological roots and instead appease -- through its strategy of Christian-Muslim dialogue -- the creed that seeks to supersede Judeo-Christian culture.
The outcome is that Britain’s establishment is actively assisting the progressive Balkanisation of Britain, in accordance with the global strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies to take over the west. Astoundingly, the security and political establishment even now still chooses to embrace the Brotherhood, treating them as authoritative Muslim spokesmen and even employing them as counter-extremism advisers, on the ludicrous basis that they are merely religious ideologues who can be used to divide British Muslims and divert them from al Qaeda.
The idiocy of this approach was recently underlined when the Brotherhood’s ‘supreme leader’ Muhammad Badi (sic) called for jihad to bring about the end of the US and Israel. As Barry Rubin observes:
The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood has endorsed (Arabic) (English translation by MEMRI) anti-American Jihad and pretty much every element in the al-Qaida ideology book. Does that mean the Egyptian, Jordanian, and all the camouflaged Muslim Brotherhood fronts in Europe and North America are going to launch terrorism as one of their affiliates, Hamas, has long done? No.
But it does mean that something awaited for decades has happened: the Muslim Brotherhood is ready to move from the era of propaganda and base-building to one of revolutionary action. At least, its hundreds of thousands of followers are being given that signal. Some of them will engage in terrorist violence as individuals or forming splinter groups; others will redouble their efforts to seize control of their countries and turn them into safe areas for terrorists and instruments for war on the West.
In Britain, long turned into just such a safe area, there is alas precious little chance that this will be understood. This devastating analysis by Hadar Sela itemises the extent to which the Brotherhood has the useful idiots and malign ideologues of the British progressive establishment in its clutches. As she so bleakly states:
There is barely an aspect of British life today in which Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas supporters lack influence. From the academic world, including student organizations, through politics and government, trades unions, the media, the legal system and even some Christian churches, they have succeeded in re-writing the prevailing narrative by means of the employment of the language of charity and human rights. Skilfully, they deflect criticism by the use of anti-racism laws and social mores and manage to market themselves as the face of ‘moderate Islam’ so successfully that they are often invited to act in an advisory capacity to decision makers and are even able to secure government funding.
But of course, it is Islamophobic exaggeration and scare-mongering to say so.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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Peter
October 24th, 2010 4:08pmWe appreciate the work you’re doing of exposing the gradual Islamisation of this country and those who have allowed it to happen. The politically correct cowardly elite have failed miserably to oppose political Islam. At least there are some still brave enough to defend what is right.
Archibald
October 24th, 2010 4:16pmYou've outlined the problem very well.
Now, what is the solution?
LNI
October 24th, 2010 5:25pmThe day cannot be too far away when it will be a Muslim party that holds the balance o power in Wetminster, and not the Lib-Dems.
I wonder what they will demand to support the government?
Liz
October 24th, 2010 5:54pmFor any socialist to support Islam and its intensely cruel and controlling Sharia Law, is a complete anathema to me. What on earth is going on here? Does the modern lefty know something that the rest of don't? Are they simply willing to toady up to anyone 'radical' who hates Christians and Jews to the degree that the 'Brotherhood' does? Or are they simply keeping themselves safe from an Islamic 'Passover' that will spare friends and kill off foes? I think we should be told.
In the meantime, more power to your elbow Mel. There are more people around that appreciate the work you're doing exposing these people than you'll ever know!
Captain Bryn WAYT
October 24th, 2010 6:53pmYou sat it as it is, and I thank you for doing so. It is a great pity some, if not all, of our MP's give you the support and alter the entry points from being wide open to tight closed.
We have been idiots letting these flood gates remain open.
Allan
October 24th, 2010 7:10pm"In the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, a man with links to radical Islamism, Lutfur Rahman, has been elected Mayor of the borough, giving him control of a million-pound budget and a platform for the progressive intimidation and silencing of British Muslims who do not want to live under sharia law, let alone the non-Muslim majority in the area."
That should read "...billion-pound budget..."
Frank Sutton
October 24th, 2010 8:12pmRahman won with the votes of only a minority of the electorate - the majority stayed away, if I understand Andrew Gilligan's figure correctly.
Why did they stay away?
Michael Roberts
October 24th, 2010 10:04pmExcellent piece Miss Phillips, and thank you for continuing to write about what I truly believe is the biggest problem the West is going to have to face in the lifetimes of my children, grandchildren and even myself.
As for solutions: it has to lie in what one hopes is the reasonable but seemingly quiescent majority of ordinary Muslims who are quite happy to partake of Western society's freedoms and reasonably equitable dispensations, but do not publicly, loudly, and often proclaim it from the rooftops. Perhaps from the minarets would be good.
We are told, and I live in an increasingly Muslim-dominated area, that in inter-community group meetings and the like, that friendly, helpful, altruistic, neighbourly sentiments are clearly and readily expressed. Similarly in private conversations of my own with Muslim friends and acquaintances (quite happy to say Paki: they often use it themselves - nothing insulting about it except by deliberate inference, most often by the white PC brigade)
But so many of the 'community leaders', many of whom have been co-opted onto governmental bodies, have been exposed as having links to jihadist groups and yet they continue in their roles.
Of course, we mustn't upset the Muslims, and to use a phrase such as 'useful idiots' would unleash the forces of hell from the usual fellow-travelling suspects (and of course I wouldn't dream of deliberately insulting anyone ... except the ufts ... but in the long term the alternative may well be blood on the streets of Europe and Britain. There are so many parallels in recent history, but the details are always a bit different, and the lessons always need to be learnt again.
Governments need to take far more heed of what ordinary people say (where have I heard that before?) and ordinary Muslims need to come out in the open (particularly the women), make more of an effort to blend into Western society, which of course also means possibly dangerous confrontation with some of the lunatics in their midst.
Voluntarily discouraging the burka would be a really good start - but has anyone ever heard a Muslim admit that they understand how offensive it is?
No one should have the right not to be offended - except Muslims?
I should of course add that I am very well aware that we have our own fair share of lunatics, and we have a responsibility to close them down as well.
Please keep up the good work :-)
Keep up the good work.
david elder
October 24th, 2010 10:09pmThe Muslim Brotherhood gaining a British foothold? Crazies from their inception (early 20th century) - ask the leaders of countries like Egypt. The Church of England seems to have done little to hold the fort, with a leader who seems to agree with whoever he talked to last, especially if they are trendy.
Muhammad Haque
October 24th, 2010 10:38pmYou quote Andrew Gilligan as follows:
“We have told how the borough’s change from a conventional council leader to a mayoral system came about as a result of a campaign led and financed by these two groups – and how the IFE, in its words, wanted to “get one of our brothers” into the position.”
On that basis, it would appear that you and Andrew Gilligan would have rather that Tower Hamlets Council stayed under a “conventional council leader” system. In that case there should be no post of an elected mayor. That in turn would have made sure that there would have been no candidate for mayor.
So why has Andrew Gilligan been suppressing news about the campaign against an elected mayor that has been going on in Tower Hamlets since 4 January 2010?
Cromwell
October 24th, 2010 11:32pmIt will take an event like Rahman being caught siphoning public money to Hamas for the supine guardians of our culture to wake up. Perhaps not even that will do. Certainly it will take something pretty awful for our intellectuals to stop believing their own spin and see the results of their folly.
So, curiously, I am not too despondent about this, depressing as it is. Only when open war breaks out will the smokescreen so elaborately created by the Islamists and their liberal fellow travellers be finally blown away.
A.
October 24th, 2010 11:45pmWhat is the per centage of Britons who are Muslim; and of Muslims who are Islamist?
Margaret Muller-Johansson
October 25th, 2010 1:28amWelcome to Londonistan.
Jenny
October 25th, 2010 3:00amI would be interested to know what research you base your article on, Melanie.
I have lived in Tower Hamlets since leaving university nearly 30 years ago. I have known Lutfur Rahman for about ten years. The picture you paint of him is unrecognisable. I have seen him chat happily with Christians of all varieties and a rabbi. When you talk to him, you can see he's interested in what you have to say. When you tell him about a problem you have, he will follow it up and try to sort it out.
When he was leader of Tower Hamlets Council (May 2008 to May 2010), the Borough improved a great deal. It was more focussed on delivering good services. It seemed to be easier to get questions answered and get things done than under previous leaders. Lutfur seemed to be able to cut through routine waffle you used to get from Council officers and actually get things done in a sensible way.
When Andrew Gilligan was one lone voice bleating nonsense on his blog, although it was offensive it didn't seem to be a priority to answer him back. If other journalists are just going to accept what he says at face value, perhaps we voters in Tower Hamlets will have to enter the debate.
I would really like to know what evidence you have for stating that Lutfur wants a "platform for the progressive intimidation and silencing of British Muslims who do not want to live under sharia law, let alone the non-Muslim majority in the area." That's a really serious allegation. I know Lutfur, so I know that allegation is utter nonsense. I wonder how many people who do not know Lutfur have read your piece and believe what you say.
If you are a serious journalist, rather than just a superficial writer who wants to repeat what others say without checking the facts, can I suggest that you go and meet Lutfur - and then let us know what you think of him?
TomG
October 25th, 2010 5:48amPeople. The writing is on the wall. If we continue to sit and whine about it instead of fixing the problems these left wing morons have saddled us with, Enochs predictions of rivers of blood will truly be realised. the meat head football fans that were eradicated in the 90s have found a new home in the EDL. do we really these people representing us on the world stage as the cultural protectors of Britain? It really is time to stand up and be counted.
James Jones
October 25th, 2010 6:04amI think that we in Britain are now pretty much doomed. Hidden forces have it now appears been at work for a decade or two actively promoting unconstrained immigration. Now a few people have woken up however it may well be too late.
Both Left and Right wing supporters seem hell-bent on maximising immigration from anywhere that will supply warm bodies, each seemingly for their own idealogical agendas. The Left perhaps aiming to antagonise the Great Satan and to directly subvert Capitalism by importing and supporting Islamist non-capitalist ideologies. The right intent on driving down wages by increasing the labour supply until the entire population is enslaved. Many seem intent on promoting the superior rights of muslims to take ready offense at any criticism and to issue death threats (and of course not just threats) willy nilly.
The latest marvellous ruse is the so called Free Schools initiative which seems sure to be exploited by those intent on separatism as tools to subvert and indoctrinate children in their hellish ways. The astonishing thing is that we are apparently going to pay for this insanity.
Balkanisation and/or civil war seems the inevitable result.
Time for anyone with the means to head somewhere else I think.
Ian
October 25th, 2010 7:17amThe people of Tower Hamlets are obviously happy with this situation as the majority clearly shows that the residents there either dont care of are happy with this situation.
Terry Sanderson
October 25th, 2010 7:58amThe answer to this is not a revival of Christianity and a susbequent religious war, but a secular society that stops any religion taking control
Simon
October 25th, 2010 9:09amFrom Jenny "I have lived in Tower Hamlets since leaving university nearly 30 years ago. I have known Lutfur Rahman for about ten years"
yeah right.....
Not in the UK
October 25th, 2010 9:24amSo, how is it that the UK lets this happen? If the voter fraud is obvious, who in power lets them get away with it?
Andre
October 25th, 2010 9:51amTerry Sanderson I couldn't disagree with you more. The secular left has tried to marginalise Christianity but in its turn has let us down by failing to stand up to the encroachment and abolition of our traditional rights and freedoms. radical Islam is filling albeit horrendously a religious vacuum not only here bit throughout the word It is a vacuum the left cannot fill. This must mean all should look afresh at the claims of Christ and his historic and enduring fellowship, the church. Get beyond the superficial criticisms of the inquisition, infallibility and Adam and Eve etc, and look at the truth - if it is the truth - which informs this gentle faith. Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Babs
October 25th, 2010 10:19amMelanie I have read your book, "The World Turned Upside Down" (thought-provoking and as well-written as one would expect from you) in which among other things you make similar points about the effects on us of decline of religions other than Islam in the UK.
My only quibble with that is that one shouldn't need to possess an external driver, a religion, in order to be a "good enough" person. Where one does and relies too much on it, the religion becomes a container rather than a developer and facilitator of moral reasoning.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about the Muslim Brotherhood, and their steady accretion of power thanks to successive governments' blindness and mindless subscription to their versions of multiculturalism, which of course means the privileging of Islam (and therefore Islamism) over other belief systems.
That a corrupt Muslim Brotherhood supporting Islamist should gain power in Tower Hamlets does not surprise me. We are sleepwalking to our doom unless we wake up soon.
Andre
October 25th, 2010 10:58amTerry Sanderson I couldn't disagree with you more. The secular left has tried to marginalise Christianity but in its turn has let us down by failing to stand up to the encroachment and abolition of our traditional rights and freedoms. radical Islam is filling albeit horrendously a religious vacuum not only here bit throughout the word It is a vacuum the left cannot fill. This must mean all should look afresh at the claims of Christ and his historic and enduring fellowship, the church. Get beyond the superficial criticisms of the inquisition, infallibility and Adam and Eve etc, and look at the truth - if it is the truth - which informs this gentle faith. Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Terry in Oz
October 25th, 2010 11:11amI recommend that British Jews leave sooner rather than later. As with the previous bout of antisemitic fascism, many saw the writing on the wall just before they were shot in front of it. Europe is sinking in a mire of modern fascism, dressed up as 'moderate' islam. And, as in WW2, when stalin and *itler happily entered a pact to take over Poland between them, the left applauds from the stalls. Extreme left and extreme right are mirror images of each other. When they join together, only genocide and degradation fo civilised standards can result.
Ordinary europeans can live with the the dhimitude they have created for themselves. Jews should go to Israel now.
Derek Pasquill
October 25th, 2010 11:44amWhat is this but a case of the classic pincer movement?
The Lambertinis and their allies have been stampeded onto the Muslim Brotherhood horn out of fear of the even more pug ugly al Qaida.
Aust. Soldier
October 25th, 2010 11:53amI have been watching this situation unfold for quite some time now. And am petrified of the same sequence of actions and decisions happening here in Australia.
It sickens me that EVERYBODY is too politicaly correct to stand up and voice what EVERYBODY is thinking deep down.
I hate to imagine what its going to be like for our children....
Linda Smith
October 25th, 2010 12:22pmAndre, what do you mean by "radical Islam"?
Lijnda Smith
October 25th, 2010 12:28pmJenny says in defence of Rahman: "When he was leader of Tower Hamlets Council (May 2008 to May 2010), the Borough improved a great deal. It was more focussed on delivering good services."
Delivering good services was how Islamist Hamas and Hezbollah ingratiated themselves with the local populations.
elixelx
October 25th, 2010 12:40pmAh! the old "he was elected democratically and cannot be removed, except democratically".
I can't wait! Will there ever be another election in Tower Hamlets? There hasn't been one in Gaza either where the ruling party was democratically elected and has gone 2 years past its mandated time!
Watch the election laws of Tower Hamlets morph! Listen to the Hudna time bomb tick! Feel the taqqiya flow!
Linda Smith
October 25th, 2010 12:49pmDid anyone else notice the fleeting mention on Saturday BBC radio news that "militants" in women's clothing launched an attack in Afghanistan.
That should be sufficient to provoke a serious discussion on banning the burkah in the UK on security grounds, but interestingly that news item vanished into the ether.
benny
October 25th, 2010 12:57pmNot in the UK
My thoughts exactly, Who lets them get away with it.
Andre
October 25th, 2010 1:33pmLinda Smith The imposition of sharia law and the idea that it is legitimate to kill the perceived enemies of Islam. A wide definition, I know, but that is what I see as threatening. Old style internal battles against ones carnal nature I can quite respect .
benny
October 25th, 2010 1:54pmand still you vote for your own demise
Robert Speirs
October 25th, 2010 2:33pmIt's hard to say that Social Fascism (I don't call it "Socialism" any more) is better for anyone than Sharia law. But that's no kind of choice. You don't beat a religion with a non-religion. So until the majority of Westerners find a religion they can believe in and follow unto death Islam will keep growing.
Linda Smith
October 25th, 2010 2:45pmAndre, your definition of "radical Islam" is the same as the definition of "Islam". As Erdogan has told us, there is only one Islam. The West is done for unless it stops pussyfooting around.
Andre
October 25th, 2010 4:10pmLinda Smith Linda you are absolutely right - as so often on these boards. I guess I was trying to be politically correct. Islam to me is mistaken, wrong. The west tries in vain to excuse its iniquity and as you say needs to stop pussy footing around - forgive me for being momentarily craven.
Matt
October 25th, 2010 5:54pmMelanie:
The simplest way to solve this problem is for our political classes to tell the truth about Israel, i.e. that Israel is the good guy and is a close ally of Britain. Make it an issue. Our failure to make this plain gives the Islamists something to use to drive a wedge between the government and Muslim populations and increase their feeling of alienation from politics. No Islamist will ever support Israel, but moderate Muslims could be persuaded to if it meant stopping this ideology in its tracks.
SAM ARMSTRONG
October 25th, 2010 6:41pmTerry from Oz: "Ordinary europeans can live with the the dhimitude they have created for themselves. Jews should go to Israel now".
What an ignorant statement.
What about the Europeans who have supported Jews?
And what about the Jews in Europe who have apologised for Islam?
You sir, are a bigot.
mostly harmless
October 25th, 2010 11:50pmJust been to see Avi Shlaim at the LSE, it's great to get a shot of the truth every now and again.
Dixon
October 26th, 2010 12:20amWheres Abratheblabberer.I thought he would be here by now to lecture us on why we must allow an Islamic state in London as natural justice in recompense for Dubya Bushitler bombing all the peace-loving "Muslim countries".
I still want to know how he would feel about FGMif it were MGM and he'd had a starring role?
On which topic I guess genital mutilation will be a local; health-care policy in Tower Hamlets as soon as the Mullar O-Mayor can institute it.
I dont get out much anymore
October 26th, 2010 1:35amThe C of E is not alone. in 1642 the congregationalists split from the church of england but now they agree that gaza terrorists and their baby sheilds are more worthy than either christians or jews.
No wonder I dont go to my own church anymore.
Life is so ironic, the church I go to once in a blue moon is where darwin is commemorated and there I found some books on jewish history (josephus) and hebrew grammar.
Jenny
October 26th, 2010 3:27amFrom Simon:
'From Jenny "I have lived in Tower Hamlets since leaving university nearly 30 years ago. I have known Lutfur Rahman for about ten years"
yeah right.....'
What is your point, Simon? Yes, that information is right. What is your point?
Jenny
October 26th, 2010 3:43amLinda says:
"Delivering good services was how Islamist Hamas and Hezbollah ingratiated themselves with the local populations."
So what? That doesn't prove that every UK Councillor who takes their job seriously and at face value is an Islamist, or that Lutfur is.
What I am contributing to the discussion on this page is that I know Lutfur Rahman and he is no militant Islamist. I have met hundreds of people who were delighted to vote for him because he they know he is a decent man and has been a good councillor and a good Council Leader. These voters include Jewish people and Christians of several varieties.
I don't mind if you choose not to believe me. After all, time will tell.
I would appreciate it, though, if you took on board the fact that there are those of us who disagree with Andrew Gilligan on the basis of our local knowledge and considered being open minded and waiting to see how our Borough develops over the next three years.
journeyman
October 26th, 2010 6:14amA quote I feel over :
" The Left have a greater fear than the fear of the barbarian--it is the fear of self-repudiation.
The Left is terrified of losing the political argument here at home and seeing iots cultural hegemony wither away in the face of uncomfortable truths.
They would rather mid-wife religious fanatacism than lose the universities , the newsrooms and the national narrative. ( ideological narrative to their hated opponents.
In short , the Left would rather see our entire civilization subsumed to the totalitarian " other " , than to acknowledge for one moment that a mere idea , multiculturalism , may have been a mistake.
Multi-minus-own-culturalism.
Embracing multiculturalism is denying ones own culture.
Simon
October 26th, 2010 8:22amJenny
my point was that you were lying to prove a point that you were trying to make.
Useful idiot springs to mind...
Mark
October 26th, 2010 10:40amCan someone explain the moderation policy on this blog? I've had post blocked which has simply asked someone to provide evidence or a quotation for a view that they have attributed to a large group of people.
Menwhile Jenny, whilst providing acounter argument to the theme of this posting has been gratuitously labelled a liar.
Jenny
October 26th, 2010 10:48amSorry, Simon - I wasn't lying. Everything I said was true.
Was it the bit you quoted you thought was a lie? I am a white, 50-something woman who went to university in the north of England in the late 70s/early 80s. I grew up in a family which took the Daily Express on a daily basis for years, and later the Mail. My late father was a career soldier. I work as a practice manager in a solicitor's office (not Lutfur's firm, in case anyone wanted to insinuate that).
I am known by my friends for being ruthlessly honest to the point of pedantry, and not suffering fools or dissemblers at all, let alone gladly.
I met Lutfur Rahman about ten years ago, when he was the Council's Lead Member for Education and Youth and I worked at the local university. I did find that he was open to dialogue and new ideas. I found that if you talked to him about an area of education policy he didn't know, he would go and find out about it before coming back to you for more dialogue.
I got to know him better over his two years as Leader of the Council because I am very involved in my Tenants and Residents organisation, which had to go to the Council for help with some big problems we had (which arose because of the foolishness, dogma and probably negligence and maladministration of the previous ten years' worth of Council leaders, actually). Lutfur saw our problem and gave us his unstinting support in trying to get the matter sorted out. Our residents' organisation is a very mixed bunch, but it includes many white residents of Christian and or Jewish background, so I have seen Lutfur trying to help this group of people.
Similarly, a mixed group of residents has been trying to re-open a swimming pool which was closed by the Liberal administration in Tower Hamlets in the late 80s. That's a really popular local campaign, involving many people of all backgrounds. As the Borough is bounded by the Thames and includes many dock areas, getting schoolchildren to learn to swim is a big priority. Lutfur's the first Council leader since the campaign started in about 1994 to find a way of getting us on track towards getting that pool re-opened.
It's local campaigns on fairly mundane things that show that Lutfur really is interested in residents of this borough getting the things they want. And it's by seeing Lutfur in those campaigns that I and others can insist that he doesn't have an Islamist agenda and is not an extremist.
I am not an idiot and don't let myself be used by other people. I very seldom put comments on blogs or newspaper articles, but I was genuinely concerned that Melanie Phillips appeared to be repeating information without checking facts herself or researching for herself whether the views she was advancing were widely held - and I wanted to put a marker down to balance her article.
I can see now that much of the comment this article has generated includes views with which I do not agree. I can live with that. I would ask you to do the same, Simon, and not to dismiss me as a "useless idiot": I disagree with you - deal with it. As I said to Linda, time will tell which of us is right.
Ian Walker
October 26th, 2010 11:25am"Islamisation", "so-called custodians of our culture", "cultural kamikazes", "current climate of intimidation and bullying", "the British ruling class", "the indigenous culture of this country", "just such a safe area"
All of these are pretty poor. But this:
"The crumbling of church membership is due overwhelmingly to a profound loss of spiritual purpose and moral nerve within the Church of England"
is just appalling. The dwindling attendance is due to universal education lifting the ignorant out of the clutches of the churches.
JRR Catstrangler
October 26th, 2010 11:42amWhat I'm waiting for is the formation of Geert Wilders' British branch of the Freedom Party which he has promised to set up in the very near future. If the likes of Melanie and Andrew Gilligan come out in support and give it the publicity it needs then the fightback can really begin. The country is crying out for such a party but as yet,only the tainted, divided BNP and the demonised EDL are prepared to stand up and take the flak.
Oh, what I'd give to see Wilders on Question Time!
Rosie
October 26th, 2010 3:01pmI read Andrew Gilligan's blog last week and could have wept. We are sleepwalking into the abyss.
Keep raising this issue Melanie we owe you.
Isn't there some way central Govt can reclaim Tower Hamlets from the Islamic militants?
Peter
October 26th, 2010 3:32pmIt looks like Melanie is one of the few people left that wants to preserve our culture and cares about the indigenous people of this land.
JJR Catstrangler
October 26th, 2010 4:21pmSomeone has informed me that more than half the votes cast in Tower Hamlets were postal votes, and therefore the result is decidedly dodgy. Can anyone confirm this?
Electoral fraud (an entrenched Muslim tradition)is a national disgrace and stamping it out should be a govt. priority.
JOHN ROOSEVELT
October 26th, 2010 5:26pmLinda Smith says: "Andre, your definition of "radical Islam" is the same as the definition of "Islam". As Erdogan has told us, there is only one Islam. The West is done for unless it stops pussyfooting around"
Is there anyone out there with a compelling counter argument to this truth?
AY
October 26th, 2010 8:37pmFreedom Party would be good banner, but some practical issues might be solved in a much faster way.
Just visit your MP and/or MP candidates and ask (or request in an e-mail) - is there a program to confront Islamism in our area, and what is the program? Get the answers, compare, make conclusions. Inform others who are intersted. Vote correspondingly.
Such tactics when applied massively, will bring fruits very fast, without any new parties.
Dixon
October 27th, 2010 12:07amJenny,Jenny,Jenny....I belieeeeeve you! But nothing you have said proves anything one way or another. Remember,just about everyone who ever met Hitler said he was really charming, attentive and good with kids.
I think you would do well to rest your judgements less on the broad, charming toothy smiles of crocodiles and more on a study of their natural disposition. There is a key principle in Islam of which the Arabic term is transliterated as "taqiyya" (with variations in spelling). I urge you, for your own future well being, do look up its meaning.
Dixon
October 27th, 2010 12:11amAy...anyone who does that will have their details passed to the police, I promise you.
On the contrary,as the experience of everyone from Geert Wilders to Elisabeth Sabbaditch-Wolf, taking in Pam Geller and the bloke fired by NY Transit Co attests, anyone who dares question Islam is well advised to do so under assumed names,with their realidentity hidden
For example, when I come here I do so using a pay-as-you-go connection affording me an untraceable IP.
Dixon
October 27th, 2010 12:27amIan Walker:
" The dwindling attendance [of churches] is due to universal education lifting the ignorant out of the clutches of the churches."
I agree. But pleeeeeease tell us mate, what does the booming attendances of mosques and construction of ever larger ones tell us about their congregations!
Jenny
October 27th, 2010 1:32amTo JJR Catstrangler on postal votes....
I do not know the exact number of postal votes cast in the mayoral election, but shortly before polling day some 4,000 postal votes had been cast. The final figure is unlikely to be much different, which would make them about 10% of votes cast.
All three mainstream political parties have had campaigns over the last five or so years to get their regular supporters to obtain postal votes. Certainly many Conservative supporters are registered in the area because their second homes are in docklands, so I believe the Tories make a point of asking those supporters to get postal votes because with two homes there's no telling if their supporters will be able to vote in person. In fact, four years ago the Conservatives were delivering postal vote applications to every household in the riverside properties in Docklands. When the Conservatives first won Council seats in docklands, the number of postal votes cast in that election was particularly high. I don't have a problem with that, but mention it to point out that prioritising postal votes is not the province of muslims (the Conservatives locally are not a muslim dominated party and have just one muslim councillor in a group of eight on the Council).
The Lib Dems were caught up in a postal vote scandal five years ago which I know about because it involved my near neighbour. His family had moved from our block to another property in the north of the ward just before the election and were therefore entitled to cast their vote down in our polling station still. They had never applied for postal votes as they enjoyed the tradition of going to the polling station together, as a family. When they tried to vote in May 2006, they were told they had a postal vote. It was discovered that the postal vote was to be sent not to their new address, but to the address of the Lib Dem agent for that ward. The police mounted a thorough investigation, including taking formal witness statements and fingerprinting the postal vote application form and suspects. The Lib Dem agent denied all knowledge of the fraud and there was no prosecution. However, I think the thorough and prompt attitude of the police had an effect in ensuring the mainstream parties issued firm rules to their supporters not to collect postal votes from voters.
I am not aware of fraud being an entrenched Muslim tradition, but there have been no suggestions locally that postal vote fraud or cheating played any significant part in the May 2010 local and general election results or in last week's mayoral vote.
AY
October 27th, 2010 8:10amDixon - oh c'mon, there are many public figures criticising Islam as political ideology.
They are very different people - Douglas Murray, Andrew Gilligan, Tommy Robinson, Richard Dawkins, Nick Cohen, Tony Blair, Lord Pearson, Nick Griffin, Richard Littlejohn, Pat Condell and many more, including Mrs. Phillips.
They are different people but agree in one point - to act systematically against Islamist takeover, without breaking any laws, - is duty and obligation of citizenry. In the end, British soldiers are sent to do that for Afghans, for ****'s sake.
One of the measures in that program should be, to ensure the readiness of local police to protect unity of law.
And another is to campaign for abolishing practices of HRs gathering data on religion, ethnicity etc., as this clearly contradicts anti-discrimination principles.
First, they won't repress everybody.
Second, one must make choice anyway, - or to live as free man in free country, or to leave to a free country nearby.
In which case Netherlands and Germany increasingly look like possible candidates. But even in the UK, not everything is lost, the resistance here is only starting.
Andre
October 27th, 2010 10:16amJRR Catstrangler and AY me too - but am slightly nervous at the choice of words. I can't help remembering the old Janis Joplin lament 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..' oddly apposite as our pasty faced Bobby McGees cave into Islamism time and again.
Ian Walker
October 27th, 2010 11:28am@Dixon
I don't have access to any figures (and given the motives involved, any that are available are probably wildly biased), but I suspect the rate of conversion from either atheism/agnosticism or directly from another cult, to Islam is very small.
The increase in the congregations at mosques will come largely from importing believers, and from indoctrination of the children of those followers already here.
JRR Catstrangler
October 27th, 2010 11:48amJenny - Just google "postal vote fraud" and take a look at the convictions then come back and tell me this is not a Muslim thing. It doesn't matter what the political party is - Muslims happily infiltrate all of them and will swap from one to the other at the drop of a hat.
I understand that a reporter from the Indie got a broken nose when he asked too many questions about fraud before the General Election -- and it wasn't a Hindu or a Sikh who punched him.
And the swimming pool you mentioned earlier - is that the one which turns away bathers if they don't have Muslim approved swim-wear?
Dixon
October 27th, 2010 3:23pmIan Walker,I dont know if you are being disingenuous, you seem straightforward, but in that case you are either a bit dim or need to read my cut-n-paste of your remarks again.
OBVIOUSLY, the implication of your agreed observation that churches are empty because their pool of potential congregants have been "lifted out of ignorance" IMPLIES by its own logic, the inverse that Mosques are over-full because their growing pool of congregants are still steeped in the same ignorance!
I didnt think I would need to spell that out. Kind of dims the irony. Like explaining the punchline of an elementary joke.
Soldier Of Old
October 27th, 2010 5:24pmThe eradication of the paritioners in the Bradford diocese is no accident.
Here in Walsall, our church closed down due to the congragation being driven away by intimidation, culminating in vandalism to cars and property.
Who carried out this intimidation? The local muslim youth gangs. As the area became more culturally enriched, the locals moved out, businesses closed, local meetings places such as pubs and clubs lost custom, and the new inhabitants became bolder, louder and more physical in their attitude to other locals.
Did the Police or council help? Not one bit.
My friend who is a Sikh said they were having trouble also and have taken the extraordinary step of having "patrols" at night to prevent any further vaandalism.
Our church closed two years back now and has been reconstituted in the form of a mosque!
I fear for the future of my grand children in this country.
AY
October 27th, 2010 9:17pmShe was cynical and even not always sober, but - I think Janice would make right choice between "nothing to loose", and life at mercy of psychotic misogynist totalitarian barbarians.. even less to loose.
maddy1
October 28th, 2010 5:53amWell the prophets wrote this one on the subway wall in the sixties. You can be seriously prosecuted for telling the truth, this also has already been written! Take care! They can prosecute one person protesting outside a mosque but not one million!
Cecil
October 28th, 2010 3:50pmAnd now that the Islamization of Britain is coming true, will the PC ideologues see it? A rational person could see it long ago, but when your brain is suffocated by PC and utopian ideals it is difficult to clear away the delusions.
martin feldwick
October 28th, 2010 6:11pmI half joking once said "no -one in Britain can say no to a N.........." after calling me a fascist and a Nazi ,suddenly they all see the point .We just cant say to them , whether coming ,in the country,staying here ,getting all the benefits of people who have lived here for generations ,often more because its much easier to say no to whitey ,especially an old whitey . Ethnic Clensing ? Boris . You aint seen nothing yet , .but who will be cleansed
Enoch was warning against the EDL and such but no-one listened .?
Brianna
October 28th, 2010 11:01pmWell Britain, it was nice knowing you.
Billy D
October 29th, 2010 7:42amThe UK is pretty much a write off at this point.
Sandra Clayton
October 29th, 2010 1:14pmMayor Rahman won the Mayoral election by a majority. Gilligan and Co including Tower Hamlets Labour Party have brought about many allegations against him and we are all still waiting for them to show us the evidence.
Its funny how the Labour Party Tower Hamlets withdrew all their allegations against Rahman after the nomination date had passed after de-selecting him as the Labour Candidate.
Gilligan as nothing credible to report, he tarnished his reputation and lost all form of credibility after the Dr- Kelly saga and for 6 years had nothing else to report.
What a better way revive his dead career BUT to scare people into this whole Islam is taking over Britain nonsense. No ISLAM isn’t taking over Britain and NO we don’t want Sharia Law here either. But he really believes but reporting fake propaganda stories, feeding people with lies will revive his career. Quite Sad really. This is Britain, we are governed by English law and nothing else, and no one wants any other law but the law of this country.
What’s to say Rahman does not come out with a documentary sexing up lies about you or others - should we believe him or should anyone with a normal sized brain ask themselves, hang on is this documentary credible?
Oh I forgot one rule for some and another rule for others.
Frank P
October 30th, 2010 12:27amAndre
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
[and nothing ain't worth nothing - but it's free].
Janis Joplin may have lamented about it, but Kris Kristofferson wrote it (when he was busted flat at Baton Rouge).
Now I shall take my old harpoon out of my dirty red bandana and play it, while trying to work out WTF poor Bobbie McGee should be labelled a Dhimmi.
As I recall it, somewhere near Salinas he let her slip away, looking for the home he hoped she’d find, but remember, he would traded all of his tomorrows for a single yesterday holding Bobby’s body next to his.
Perhaps if he'd known she'd convert to Islam he wouldn't have bothered to write the song. Now that would have been a real shame!
Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so; help me Jesus, I know what I am. Now that I know that I needed you so, help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hands.
Kris's repentance almost matched his sins. Almost ...
(That'll teach you to attribute one of my favourite poet's words to a mere warbler).
Frank P
October 30th, 2010 12:55amBtw Andre, Willie Nelson sang it far better than JJ, too.
And come to think of it - Johnny Cash did an even better rendition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYgl0sE9lA
[Sorry Melanie, but a little light relief is no bad thing, midst all this apocalyptic gloom?]
Garnet
October 30th, 2010 5:55pmIt's disgusting how good people sit back and let themselves be taken over by those who would destroy them. We all need to get up some backbone and strike back to save our freedom, whether in the UK or the U.S.
Melvin
October 30th, 2010 6:18pmThank you Melanie Phillips. Keep on highlighting the problem with political Islam in the UK. We appreciate all you do.
Frank P
October 31st, 2010 2:00amMelvin
"Keep on highlighting the problem with political Islam in the UK."
No need to qualify it - Islam will do. All religion is 'political'.
maddy1
October 31st, 2010 11:12am@Garnet
October 30th, 2010 5:55pm
Yes but it is a bit like the problems the Malaysians had . They protested against the treatment of Anwar Ibrahim for instance but at the end of the day they did not want to see their hard earned society fragment as in the neighboring countries. Some of our great leftshit conscience receive benefits to protest at the drop of the hat. The real UK. tax payers do not have the time to protest. Perhaps no representation without taxation would no longer be such a payne here! Politics in safety net countries so much easier!
Deanna Johnson
November 1st, 2010 3:26pmStand up and fight for your country. Don't move elsewhere, stand up and take it back.
toby runcorn
November 2nd, 2010 1:43pmDon't waste your words. We are all going to hell anyway. It is written. Pass the turkish delight Mufti.