The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which is run by Asghar Bukhari, a man who famously once offered to fundraise for the Holocaust denier, David Irving, has an “exclusive”. It is a very odd “exclusive”, as it is plainly false. What is interesting about it, however, is that MPAC clearly believe it to be true.
Here it is:
EXCLUSIVE: Is the Conservative Party becoming the Political Wing of the EDL?
Inside sources from the Conservative Party have leaked that the EDL and the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) have pressurised the Chairman of the Party, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, into NOT attending this years Global Peace and Unity Event taking place this weekend at London’s ExCel arena.
MPACUK understand that this is not the first time Officials have been lobbied into abstaining from attending Britain’s Biggest Islamic Event, organised by Islam Channel.
Such heavy handed power exercised by the CFI in coordination with the EDL begs the question of where the Conservative Party’s loyalty now lies, and how closely the Zionist lobby are linked with the EDL.
Where does the Conservative Party’s loyalty lie, with the EDL or the Muslim community?
Now, you don’t need me to tell you that pretty much every macher in the Jewish Community has gone on record to oppose the EDL and express solidarity with Muslims, who are the target of EDL bigotry. So, the notion that the Conservative Friends of Israel might ever coordinate anything with the EDL is unthinkable. Similarly, the Conservative Party would hardly listen to a rabble of hoodlums like the EDL.
I’ve not heard it said that the Conservative Friends of Israel had a position on the Global Peace and Unity Event, at all. Groups like CFI tend to keep their powder dry for rather weightier matters than the attendance of a party officer at a conference. However, there were certainly no dearth of people, both within and without the Conservative Party, who took a close interest in the parade of racists, homophobes and supporters of terrorism which the Islam Channel invited to the Excel Centre this weekend. Conservative Home, for example, were pretty clear that no government minister should attend.
But what interests me is this. MPAC believe that they have a scoop. They have no doubt about the provenance of the story, and so – the thickies that they are – they believe it, unquestionably. Indeed, they claim to have “inside sources from the Conservative Party”.
So, who are these “inside sources”? Who, in the Tory Party, would feed gossip and rumour to an extremist organisation like the Muslim Public Affairs Committee.
Moving on, there’s a more plausible account of the story behind Baroness Warsi’s non-attendance at today’s Global Peace and Unity Event in The Observer:
The Conservative party chair, Baroness Warsi, has been banned by David Cameron from attending a major Islamic conference today, igniting a bitter internal row over how the government tackles Islamist extremism.
Warsi, Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister, was told by the prime minister to cancel her appearance at the Global Peace and Unity Event, which is being billed as the largest multicultural gathering in Europe.
The London-based conference is aimed at improving community relations, yet critics have pointed out that a number of speakers who are due to appear have justified suicide attacks and promoted al-Qaida, homophobia and terrorism.
An influential voice among the international Muslim community, Warsi believes that confronting extremists at public events is a more effective way to tackle fundamentalism than a refusal to engage with them. A Whitehall source said: “She had hoped to attend, but there is a conflict of opinion on how extremists should be dealt with and the prime minister, supported by Theresa May [the home secretary], were adamant no Tories should attend.”
Paul Goodman, the former Tory communities minister, said: “The aim of the organisers is to exploit politicians by using their presence to gain muscle, influence and credibility among British Muslims. Politicians shouldn’t play their game.”
Argument over the most effective strategy to challenge extremism has also led to a schism between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the coalition government. While Cameron has prohibited Tories from attending the event at the Excel Centre in Docklands, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has firmly opposed a boycott by politicians, agreeing with Warsi that extremists should be publicly confronted.
Paul Goodman is correct – his is the decisive reason that ministers should not appear at the Global Peace and Unity Event. The strategy of the Islam Channel is to invite as many hate preachers and supporters of terrorism as they can, and put them in the same room as prominent centrist politicians. That allows them to represent themselves to the tens of thousands of attendees at this weekend’s event, and to politicians as well, as powerful and important brokers of power within Muslim society. It also provides respectability and a certain degree of immunity to those hate preachers. When they are facing a ban, or public opprobrium for their conduct, they are able to say: “If I was really this bad, would I have spoken alongside a government minister about peace and unity, at a conference?”. This is how the dangerous fringe becomes mainstream.
However, there is a lot of sense in Clegg and Warsi’s proposal that we take extremists on: out argue them, not simply ignore them. It is important that all politicians play their part, both in opposing the vicious ideology that is exemplified by so many of this weekend’s Global Peace and Unity speakers, and in the whipping up of hatred against Muslims. The two tasks go hand in hand.
Therefore, we all cheered when Baroness Warsi fought both the goons of Al Muhajiroun, and took on that sweating, twitching excuse for a politician, Nick Griffin, on Question Time. However, the context in which these battles take place is crucial. Question Time was “home ground”, or at the very least, “neutral ground”. Nick Griffin’s presence was a product of the BBC’s public function, not an expression of fondness for fascism. By contrast, the Global Peace and Unity Event is the platform of an organisation which deliberately promotes hate preachers, because they are ideologically aligned with them.
Baroness Warsi was, apparently, going to deliver a speech to the Global Peace and Unity Event in which she would have taken on the extremists. I very much hope that, like her colleague Dominic Grieve before her, Baroness Warsi was planning to name and shame some of the star turns at this event. However, it is not too late. Conservative Home should offer the Baroness the opportunity to ask the organisers of the GPU Event precisely why they invited so many racists, homophobes and supporters of terrorism to speak to British Muslims, and to ask them to undertake not to do so again. Such an article would make an important and timely contribution to the debate.
Here, for reference, are our recent posts on those speakers.
