Sunday Times on Suicide Bombers: "I don’t really mind if they don’t leave the country, so long as they blow themselves up – somewhere a decent distance from where the rest of us live. Tower Hamlets, for example"

I have just made my first ever complaint to the press regulator https://www.ipso.co.uk/complain/ about the article yesterday in The Sunday Times about suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Tower Hamlets. 

Not only I have worked in Tower Hamlets for 25 years and have lived next door in the even more diverse London borough of Newham for even longer. I can remember being woken up by the noise of the 1996 IRA bomb in Canary Wharf, which murdered two people and hurt over a 100, some permanently disabled and disfigured (it also wreaked the headquarters of my employers).

I also remember the Brick Lane nail bombing by a Nazi extremist in 1999, which injured 6 people.

Never mind all the residents in Tower Hamlets I have met who lived through the fear and destruction of the second world war Blitz.

Bombing in Tower Hamlets is not a laughing matter.

So this is what was said yesterday in the (paywall) Sunday Times article about suicide bombers, by their long time commentator, Rod Liddle. He said: “I don’t really mind if they don’t leave the country, so long as they blow themselves up – somewhere a decent distance from where the rest of us live. Tower Hamlets, for example.” (my emphasis)

Is blowing up a bomb in Tower Hamlets supposed to be a good thing or somehow inconsequential? So is he saying "normal people" the "rest of us" - don't live in Tower Hamlets? Only muslims and suicide bombers live there - so who cares?

This is not only clearly discriminative against all Muslims but will also only give succour to violent Nazi racists who make constant threats against the Borough. The Sunday Times may soon have blood on its hands.

Ironically, the ignorant Rod Liddle, does not seem to realise that if a bomb went off nowadays in Brick Lane, it would probably kill or maim non muslim tourists who are in search of a decent curry.

People say that the IPSO is a toothless tiger controlled by the industry. If this is not true then now is the time for it to act.

Hat tip Ejaz

Sadiq Khan MP - Keynote speaker to #LabLink14

The keynote speaker to the National Forum was Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Minister for London Sadiq Khan MP.

Sadiq started off with a joke pretending he was a delegate from London region moving a motion at this forum then stated that there was no danger of the press trying to misinterpret his speech, since it will be published in full afterwards (another reference to the recent problem that Jon Cruddas MP experienced).

He introduced himself as the son of a bus driver, whose sister is a teacher and brother works in the NHS. He salutes our public services. Public institutions hold our society together.

Eleanor, (the Chair of Labour Link - Eleanor Smith) as a theatre nurse knows that the NHS is having now a summer crisis never mind a winter crisis. This shows you can never trust the Tories with the NHS.

Sadiq asked how many of us were Councillors? A number of us put our hands up. He thanked all Councillors for their hard work and pointed out that unless things change Councils will soon have to close all but statutory services.

The huge new fees on Employment tribunal applications is depriving rank and file workers justice. Cameron claims to champion the rule of law. Sadiq argued we must stand firm on further attacks on access to justice.

The Tories simply fail to understand public services and this is just as damaging as cuts. There is no accountability as you can see from the privatisation of the Probation Service. The next Labour Government will face massive debts but Labour and Ed Miliband are up for it.  The attack by Ed on Murdock and the Energy companies shows this. The Tories however attack the player and not the ball. Remember what happened in 1992 and expect further personal attacks on Ed.

He praised Ed's plan to devolve power and money away from the centre and empower our great cities and councillors. Sadiq promised not to sign any contract to privatisation which are on his desk as Justice Minster in 2015 and his first task will be how to unpick existing contracts.

He looks forward to working with us to kick out the Tories and the Lib Dems in the next 10 months. UKIP in the recent London elections went from being 20 out of 2000 Councillors to only 12.  We must tell people that UKIP leaders pledge that they want to keep alive the spirit of Thatcherism. They want to privatise the NHS. Get rid of maternity rights.

Labour elects Councillors that reflect the community.  We went from control of 15 to 20 London councils. We even won the Tory flagship Council of Hammersmith and Fulham on a "Save our NHS" campaign.

During the Q&A Sadiq said we ask tough questions at UNISON conferences. "I knew I should have gone to Unite". (a joke) In a question about how to combat Islamic extremism Sadiq pointed out that there are only tiny number of extremists out of the 3 million UK Muslims. Muslim values of respect, faith, family and working hard are the same as traditional British values.  The people he breaks bread with to end his fast have nothing to do with those who go to fight for ISIS and we shouldn't tarnish all Muslims with the same brush.

Hat tip picture my NEC colleague Chris Hanrahan

Forgotten Heroes - Remembering the Muslim sacrifice in the battle against tyranny

On Thursday I casually retweeted an interesting looking tweet from Rokeby School about "Remembering the sacrifice of Muslim soldiers, who gave their lives and their limbs in the name of duty"

Today I had a closer look at the tweet and its link to this article and video.

I would recommend that all EDL and UKIP supporters should read about the sacrifice of Muslim soldiers in the first and second world war, who fought and gave their lives to save Britain from tyranny and for their King.

Some highlights:-

"Visit the Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium and you will see these and numerous other obviously Muslim names on the memorial that is dedicated to the commemoration of soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient of the First World War, whose resting places are unknown. It is a large Hall of Memory, honouring 54,896 British and Commonwealth soldiers who could not be buried, their names cut into vast panels.

"The marble in Ypres that bear these names will endure, but they remain cold and silent. As a country – and as Muslims in particular – we have failed to honour the memory of those who fought to protect the freedoms we enjoy today. The memorial in Ypres testifies to the service of Muslim soldiers but we, their descendants and their debtors, have neglected to remember the scope of their sacrifice"

"Military historian Major Gordon Corrigan says the role of the British Indian Army was vital to the war effort; had they not helped fortify the front line during the First World War the Germans might well have broken through and made it to the ports on the English Channel. “The Punjabi Musselman was regarded as the backbone of the old Indian army, and constituted about a third of the British Indian Army. Known for their reliability, they were steady men who could be depended on to carry out any task at hand.”

"From the trenches "In May 1915 Subadar Muhammad Agia of the 57th Rifles wrote, “It is just like the grinding of corn in a mill; there is no counting the number of lives lost. Not a single British or native officer of the old regiment is left, and not one sepoy.”

"British officers who led Indian regiments immersed themselves in the culture of India; learning to speak the same language, even eating the same food as the men they were leading. Major Corrigan explains, “The reason the British were better at running armies not of their race was because of the accommodations they made; unlike the French who would make recruits learn their language, the British Officer was expected to learn the language of his men. Urdu was the official language of the Indian Army at the time but they also had to learn regional dialects and have specialist knowledge of the religious needs of their men.”

"Stationed in France at the time of Eid in July 1917, Abdul Ali Khan wrote, “All of the Muslims of the Division had their prayers together and the assembly was close to our regiment. We, as far as possible, gave them food and tea. About 1,500 men assembled and prayers were offered for the victory of our King.”

"so important was the Muslim contribution in both World Wars that Churchill himself wrote, “We must not on any account break with the Muslims who represent 100 million people and the main army elements which we must rely on for the immediate fighting.”

"Field Marshall Sir Claude Auchinleck, a British army commander during World War II, “Britain couldn’t have come through both wars if they hadn’t the Indian army.”

"there was also the Palestine Regiment; and in World War II Arabs and Jews fought together under the British flag against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy".

"World Wars I and II connect every family in Britain. “If more was known about the contribution of so many Muslim soldiers of the British Indian Army, it might help to restore a sense of pride, and cement the social bonds of different communities in British society,” Jahan suggests. “This would turn the idea of a shared heritage into a meaningful weapon against prejudice.”

"The recognition of a shared past has the potential to give us a sense of a shared future; a future not marred by war, but rather one of contributing to the common good. That is why this Remembrance Day we must honour all those who died, including the Muslims who gave their lives for the freedom of this country".

...and so say I. Last Remembrance Day I went to Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium and you could clearly see the names on the monument of the many Muslim, Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died in Flanders fields.

This is a True Story (it must be true because its on the internet - or is it a lie to infuriate the stupid?)

Great stuff. Don't believe the silly troll nonsense on the Internet or Facebook and tell those who do - to wake up and stop being so daft. Also those of us who consider ourselves to be "progressive" (whatever that means) ought to be careful about the posts we make about the Tories et al. If we resort to over simplistic slagging off then we will be little better than the right wing trolls (I will admit and plead guilty to this charge at times but there are limits). Hat tip David Wilson on Facebook.

Christian and Muslim Brainwashed Morons

Read the captions on the photographs. This is a great question to ask islamophobes. The answer is of course that all of these brainwashed morons above do not represent Christians or Muslims. They are fanatics who only represent their own twisted and bigoted egos. All men I note. Hat tip Cllr Shadab Qumer via FaceBook

Letter from Nigeria (2)

See previous post here. A friend has forwarded me this report which arrived last night 24 January 2010.

I guess by now the whole world knows what has been happening in Kuru Jenta. I assume you have read or seen the reports from AFP, Al Jazeera and the BBC, all of which seem to accurately depict the situation in our village. Well over 160 bodies have so far been recovered, but there are still more scattered around the area and it will take some time before the final toll is known. I feel extremely bitter that despite all efforts this needless slaughter was allowed to happen. I sincerely hope that a proper investigation will be carried out by both local and international bodies, that justice will prevail, and those responsible be appropriately punished. Unless this happens we will continue to see endless repetitions of these tragedies.

Our farm is more or less intact. Our store was looted and four of our six water pumps stolen. We have managed to recover most of them. Our crops are still there, but very dry, and need several days of watering before we can start harvesting again.

As you know, our Muslim staff are all gone. We have confirmed that several of them including women and some of the older ones who were security guards have been killed, some of the young ones are in refugee camps with the remains of their families, and some of them are still not accounted for. The condition of the corpses recovered by the Red Cross and military authorities was such that identification is virtually impossible, as they were either burnt, or decomposed in the wells into which they were dumped. So we may never know the actual fate of some of our workers.

We are currently assessing the future of the farm. We have assembled a skeleton staff of some of our old workers, but we have many problems to sort out before things are returned to normal. The Christian staff who are around all had their houses burnt, as the whole village was completely razed, so they have no where to live. They also lost all of their belongings, and need to be resettled, rooms rented for them in nearby settlements, and provided with basic necessities like mattresses, blankets, cooking utensils and clothes for themselves and their children. If we can do this, then they should be able to do a reasonable amount of work on the farm before we can engage some new staff.

Our first priority at the moment is ensuring that those of our staff who are in refugee camps are safely transported to neighbouring states like Bauchi and Kaduna where many of them have relatives they can stay with. It is very painful to see them as refugees, and most of them have lost members of their families. We are trying to raise funds for their transportation, as transport fares around the Jos area are extremely high and buses are very difficult to get.

We will definitely not be able to deliver any vegetables this coming week. But we will use the time to try to get the farm into some reasonable shape, and will let you know before the end of the week whether we will be able to begin delivering the following week,.ie the first week of February. For the past week the banks in Jos have not been functioning, and everyone has run out of cash. The little money we had in hand at the start of the crisis has been used to support our staff who literally have nothing left by way of food or belongings. Petrol is also extremely difficult to come by. So these things will have to normalise somewhat before we are in a position of resume deliveries.We will also have to see if we can recover from the losses we have suffered sufficiently to be able to run the farm.

We would like to thank all of our customers for their support by way of encouragement, and also donations made to the Red Cross and other agencies for the refugees. I know you have all done a lot to help, and all of us at ****** ******do appreciate it very much.

We will keep you up to date with developments, and write again after a couple of days when we see how far we can go this week to revive the farm. We would love to be able to resume deliveries the following week, but as I said, it depends on many factors that are not in our hands.

To all of you who have expressed concern about my own safety and that of our remaining staff, you can put your minds at rest. As of today, there are three armed soldiers posted in front of our house in Jos to prevent any retaliatory attacks. As you know, my name was mentioned prominently in several newspaper accounts and some people here are not very happy with me. But rest assured that we are well protected. I have lived in Nigeria since the Civil War, and have seen many things here, so this is by no means my first experience of crisis. But it has certainly been one of the most traumatic because of my personal involvement with the people concerned.

Letter from Nigeria (1)

This was forwarded to me by a friend on 20 January 2010. There are two separate authors of this report.

'We are having problems in Jos. There was a lot of fighting in parts of the town yesterday, and we are under dusk to dawn curfew. The army and mobile police are patrolling the streets and there is still a lot of shooting.'

As you know there were a lot of problems there in the summer - (one of my contacts was on his way up to Kaduna last summer before getting a phone call from his employer to turn back immediately or face certain death at the hands of the rioters). I suspect that it has been sparked by the BBC report on Yar Adua's health which has been widely screened and commented upon here. There is a great deal of unease on both sides about the 'Northern Agenda' and the possibility that the presidency will not rotate as it is supposed to do. The press here is pretty robust about Goodluck Jonathan, the VP, and his apparent vaccilations while the 'man on top of the Abuja omnibus' is getting pretty nervous about the forthcoming elections. The first new posters have been pasted up over the weekend here and their are rumours of a stitch up by the elite. No one seems to be talking about a military coup though - there does not seem to be any soldier with sufficient stature.

Sorry about this but a powercut wiped out the some of the message. It is a fact of life here - although we do have water most of the time.

The problems up in Jos have piled up in recent years. This area is basically a Christian area with fertile land producing for the capital. As the north has gradually become more arid, Muslims have moved south and are now competing for the available land. The weather this year has been awful with the rains that should have finished in September going on well into November with the cooling Harmattan being rather weaker than usual too. This has meant that a lot of the crop has simply washed away or rotted in the fields. Storage facilities and greenhouses have collapsed under the weight of water and prices in the market have been incredibly high - a cauliflower in Abuja was selling at 12 quid a go before Xmas.

The moves to adopt Sharia law ever further south has also had its effect. Christian churches here bear no resemblance to those in Europe but are far more 'Evangelical' and unregulated than elsewhere. Pastors depend on their parishioners for their income - tithes are a part of life here - and are more than able to raise tensions when they feel that their incomes and livlihoods might be at risk. Similarly, militant mosques are also a feature.

So far there has not been a spill over into the capital - despite the BBC's attempt to portray a rather feeble routine demo as a serious attempt to destabilise the country. The fact that the Xmas bomber was a Nigerian has also raised tensions somewhat; Nigerians are patriotic, dislike being put on US 'watch lists' and there is inevitably a level of support for Al Queda at street level - but nothing widespread as to make a westerner feel uncomfortable as yet.

Needless to say, no-one is looking forward to an election. And there is a residual longing in some quarters for a return to military rule. Abachi was not universally unpopular here.

This morning I received this news:

"We awoke to hear heavy gunfire in several areas of Jos, and saw a lot of smoke from burning buildings. The gunfire continued for several hours, and sounds like heavy artillery was being used. It is like being at a warfront.

The government has now announced that the Jos area is under 24 hour curfew, so no one can leave their house. At this point the gunfire has quieted down somewhat, but is still sporadic.

"We are receiving terrible news from the village , called Kuru Jenta, on the way to Jos Airport Evidently the village has been set on fire and the Muslims in the village, including our workers some of whom are Muslims, have been surrounded and fear they are about to be executed. We have tried unsuccessfully to reach army and police authorities in Jos. Please, if any of you in Abuja have access to any authorities who can help stop this situation we would very much appreciate it."

"According to reports, all of the Muslim houses in Kuru were burnt, and most of the Muslims were killed. Only a few are still alive. Although the person I spoke with (one of our farm staff) was naturally upset and a bit confused, he told me that he believed that except for himself, the other Muslim members of staff of the farm were all killed, along with many other inhabitants of the village.He along with his wife and children were injured but managed to escape, and at that point (this evening) he was attempting to walk through the bush to get to the Police Staff College, which he felt was the nearest place of refuge where they could be safe.

At Kuru, there was not a fight between groups, as had been the case in Jos. Muslim inhabitants were rounded up and shot or burnt in their houses. As I said, I have yet to see for myself, but I received the same report from both Muslim and Christian staff and have no reason to doubt its veracity. Only that I am not sure of the details of the exact number killed."