THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View: Developments in Tower Hamlets are worrying news for British democracy
Radical Muslims, in their unguarded moments, are unrepentant about what they believe to be their religious duty: the replacement of secular, tolerant and liberal democracy in Britain by a rigid theocracy, in which the country is governed by Islamic law. Those who aspire to that goal are usually, and correctly, dismissed as a tiny minority who are unrepresentative of the moderate majority of British Muslims. But it would be wrong to dismiss the extremists as insignificant. The evidence we publish today [Saturday, February 27, 2010] suggests that at least one such group has infiltrated parts of the Labour Party, and has taken over important aspects of the running of the London borough of Tower Hamlets.
If the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) was open and frank about its aims, voters would be able to make up their own minds about whether they wanted to see its members in any form of government in Britain. It is part of any democratic system worthy of the name that those who abide by the rule of law are entitled to campaign in elections, even if we find their beliefs objectionable. But some members of the IFE demonstrate in private that they have an agenda that they are not willing to share with the electorate. They have also demonstrated that they are unwilling to abide by the procedures which are essential if elections are to be free and fair. As we report today, Jim Fitzpatrick, the MP for Tower Hamlets, believes that the party has been infiltrated by radical Muslims – just as it was infiltrated in the 1980s by the Militant Tendency. The IFE denies any such campaign. But its denials would be more credible if, in public, the IFE was not presented as simply a "social welfare organisation" committed to "community cohesion" and "tolerance" – while in private, it shows itself to be committed to replacing democracy by a theocracy based on Islamic law. >>> Telegraph View | Sunday, February 28, 2010
Related:
Dispatches: Britain’s Islamic Republic >>> Channel 4 | Monday, March 01, 2010
Britain's Islamic Republic >>> Channel 4 | Monday, March 01, 2010
Islamic Radicals 'Infiltrate' the Labour Party >>> Andrew Gilligan | Saturday, February 27, 2010
