This blog has chronicled numerous Labour MPs helping, promoting and whitewashing extremists.
The problem goes right to the top of the party.
Earlier this month Ed Miliband appeared at an “invitation only” Labour event for Muslims at the London Central Mosque. For party company he had Labour MPs Sadiq Khan and Andy Slaughter, two inveterate helpers of extremists.
So who did Labour invite from the “community”?
One of the guests was Mohammed Ali Harrath, the CEO of Islam Channel, a broadcasting home for hate preachers.
Harrath broadcasts haters because he is one himself. For example, here he is, all smiles, with the heroes of Hamas in Gaza during one of the pro-Hamas convoys organised by Interpal, the biggest UK funder of Hamas. He’s second from left. You will also see Harrath’s sidekick Carl Arrindell, a former Interpal PR man, on the right. Arrindell too was invited to Miliband’s big “community” event.
This picture shows Harrath in an Interpal vest sharing another happy moment with hardline Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, who infamously called for the murder of Jewish children all over the world during the Gaza war of 2008-9.
Would Labour happily invite a fan of far right white murderers to a “community event”?
Who else is cultivated by the top of Labour? Another guest at the “invite only” event was Iqbal Sacranie, the former leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). You will remember his line on Salman Rushdie: “Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah.” Sacranie has also said homosexuality is “unacceptable” and “harmful” to society.
Would Labour gladhand a man who had said following Islam was “unacceptable” and “harmful to society”?
The Islamist student group FOSIS too was invited to the event, despite its record of championing some of the very worst extremists for years on end. In fact it has been shunned by the government precisely because it is plainly part of the extremist problem.
Would Labour legitimise a white student group dedicated to the promotion of hatred?
Another guest was Shazia Arshad, the parliamentary officer of the poisonous Islamist hate publishing operation Middle East Monitor, which is run by former MCB officer Daud Abdullah and Ibrahim Hewitt of Interpal.
Would Labour grace a hate publisher of any other kind with invitation to a “community” event?
Daud Abdullah shouting for Hamas at an Israel hatred demonstration in London
Ibrahim Hewitt (left) with his master in Gaza
It appears Abdul Hakeem Montague was invited to the Labour event as well. He is a trustee of Al Muntada, which runs a mosque in west London. It has hosted hate preachers repeatedly for many years. One of the latest, just a week ago, was Uthman Lateef. He tells British Muslims they must not help the “kaffirs” against their “brothers”. This includes the police and the security services investigating terrorism cases. For more, see this video. In short, Lateef is a threat to the national security of this country.
Would Labour embrace an institution which welcomes people who say those suspected of serious far right violence must be protected at all costs and not betrayed to the police?
The Muntada invite may be the work of Andy Slaughter. He slobbers over Al Muntada (see here for example) and does whatever he can to help it. His fellow front bencher and Labour “faith envoy” Stephen Timms is a keen supporter of Al Muntada too.
According to participants at the Labour event, this is the Labour line: it will engage with the MCB. Moreover, David Cameron’s excellent and balanced Munich speech was “wrong”.
Not that long ago Labour battled with extremists. For example, it was in power when Daud Abdullah signed the vicious pro-Hamas Istanbul declaration. The MCB was cut off as a response.
My oh my how times have changed.
