Britain’s first female Muslim Cabinet minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi doled out official posts to people linked to radical groups, including a man involved in an “unpleasant and bullying” campaign to win planning permission for the controversial London ‘megamosque’ proposed by a fundamentalist Islamic sect, a Telegraph report said.
Fiyaz Mughal, a former member of the cross-Government working group on anti-Muslim hatred set up by Lady Warsi and Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister, told The Telegraph that he had resigned in protest at the group’s activities.
He claims the ‘radicals or former radicals and their allies’ who were given the official posts included a man involved in an “unpleasant and bullying” campaign to win planning permission for the controversial London “megamosque” proposed by a fundamentalist Islamic sect.
Some members of the group are also accused of using their seats at the table to urge that Whitehall work with Islamist and extremist-linked bodies, including one described by the Prime Minister as a “political front for the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Others are said to have demanded the lifting of bans on preachers from entering Britain, including controversial televangelist Zakir Naik.
Mughal who is the head of Tell Mama, a British organisation for monitoring anti-Muslim attacks, claims he resigned from the working group in protest of its activities.
The members of the working group whose inclusion had raised concerns include Mudassir Ahmed a former senior activist in the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), which is said to be an extremist and anti-Semitic militant body.
Ahmed and his PR company, Unitas Communications, have recently been affiliated with a body called the Newham People’s Alliance (NPA), which has campaigned for and plans to create Britain’s biggest mosque near the Olympic Park in the east London borough of Newham.
Another member of the group, Iqbal Bhana, is said to have repeatedly praised the work of a body called the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC).
IHRC has defended Abu Hamza, saying he has been “demonised”. It claimed that Hamza’s recent conviction in the United States was an example of the “double standards of the British justice system in relation to Muslims”.
Other members allowed in the working group by Warsi include Iftikhar Awan, a former trustee of Islamic Relief, which is an Muslim Brotherhood linked-charity.
Sarah Joseph, a former spokesman for the Islamism-linked Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) with which the incumbent and former governments have severed ties, was also included as a member of the working group.
The Telegraph report added that all members of the working group are not Islamist or radical sympathisers. There is no suggestion that any member is a supporter of violent extremism.
The group, which directly reports to the prime minister, includes officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Foreign Office and the Crown Prosecution Service.
It has continued to operate even after Warsi’s August 2014 resignation from the government over Britain’s policy on Gaza. (By Web Desk)
