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British Peer Lord Ahmed Suspended after 'Offering £10m Bounty on Barack Obama and George Bush'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A controversial British peer has been suspended from the Labour Party amid reports that he offered a £10 million bounty for the capture of President Barack Obama and his predecessor President George W Bush.

Lord Ahmed, 53, who in 1998 became the first Muslim life peer, was reported to have made the comments at a conference in Haripur in Pakistan.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "We have suspended Lord Ahmed pending investigation. If these comments are accurate we utterly condemn these remarks which are totally unacceptable."

According to Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper Lord Ahmed offered the bounty in response to a US action a week ago.

The US issued a $10 million reward for the capture of Pakistani militant leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, who it suspects of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died as terrorists stormed hotels and a train station.

The British peer reportedly said: "'If the US can announce a reward of $10 million for the (capture) of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of £10 million (for the capture of) President Obama and his predecessor, George Bush." Lord Ahmed reportedly said he would arrange the bounty at any cost, even if he had to sell his own personal assets including his house. »

Lord Ahmed Freed
THE GUARDIAN: Lord Ahmed was involved in an accident that left a man dead on the M1 near Rotherham

Lord Ahmed was freed from prison today. Photo courtesy of The Guardian
The Labour peer Lord Ahmed has been freed by the court of appeal today from a 12-week jail sentence for dangerous driving.
Ahmed, 51, was sentenced for sending and receiving texts on the M1 near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, shortly before he was involved in a fatal crash in darkness on Christmas day in 2007.

Martyn Gombar, a 28-year-old Slovakian, was killed after Ahmed's Jaguar hit his Audi car, which had stopped in the fast lane. Subsequent tests revealed that Gombar, a father of two, had been drinking before his vehicle clipped the central reservation of the motorway and spun around. Gombar was attempting to retrieve his mobile phone from the car at the time of the collision.

Records showed that Ahmed, whose wife and mother were also in the car, had sent and received five text messages with a journalist while driving at over 60mph.

He was jailed by Sheffield crown court last month after admitting driving dangerously, and was banned from driving for 12 months.

Although the judge in the trial, Justice Wilkie, described Ahmed's texting as "prolonged, deliberate, repeated and highly dangerous," he said the text messaging had finished before the accident took place and was not connected with the crash.

Allowing Lord Ahmed's appeal today, Lady Justice Hallett said it was important to state that Ahmed's offence was one of dangerous driving, not of causing death by dangerous driving. >>> Jo Adetunji and agencies | Thursday, March 12, 2009

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Muslim Peers Visit Gillian Gibbons
Photos of Baroness Warsi amd Lord Ahmed courtesy of the BBC
Whilst I appreciate the efforts made by these peers to bring about the release of Gillian Gibbons, I would like to ask the following question: What on earth could these two young peers have done to deserve the titles ‘baron’ and ‘baroness’? Mrs Thatcher had to work all her life to become ‘Baroness Thatcher’, and even spend years in No. 10, cleaning up Britain. How do these youngsters compare? Or is this political correctness talking again? I should lke to add that it seems infinitely easier these days to get a title if one is an immigrant than if one is a member of the indigenous population of centuries’ standing! Further, does being a ‘lord’, ‘lady’, ‘baron’ or ‘baroness’ mean anything anymore?

BBC: Two British Muslim peers have met the UK teacher jailed for 15 days in Sudan for insulting Islam by allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Labour's Lord Ahmed and Tory Baroness Warsi reported that Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was comfortable and safe in a secret location in Khartoum.

Lord Ahmed said they had met Sudanese ministers and advisers and hope to meet the president in the next 24 hours.
Mrs Gibbons's defence team is confident she will be pardoned by the president. UK peers visit teddy row teacher >>>

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Peers attempt to free teacher

Mark Alexander

Lord Ahmed im Gespräch

Photo of Lord Ahmed courtesy of Google Images

NZZ ONLINE: In Grossbritannien leben gut 1,8 Millionen Muslime, das sind drei Prozent der Bevölkerung. Im Zusammenhang mit den im Juni misslungenen Autobomben- Attentaten in London und Glasgow und den grossen Terroranschlägen von 2005 ist eine breite Debatte über die Integration der Muslime – und deren teilweise Radikalisierung – im Gange. Das Gespräch mit Lord Ahmed führten in London Reinhard Meier und Ulrich Meister.

Lord Ahmed, Sie sind als erster muslimischer Politiker ins britische Oberhaus ernannt worden. Ist das für Sie ein Zeichen des Fortschritts für die Integration der muslimischen Bevölkerung in die britische Gesellschaft?

Lord Ahmed: Es ist sicher eine Ehre für mich, als Mitglied auf Lebenszeit ins Oberhaus ernannt worden zu sein. Es zeigt die Grosszügigkeit der britischen Gesellschaft, Menschen aus anderen Kulturen und Religionen sowie verschiedenen sozialen Klassen zu integrieren. Als die Labour-Partei an die Macht kam, konnten auch Bürger aus der Arbeiterklasse ins Oberhaus einziehen, ich als einer der Jüngsten. Die Ernennung zeigte aber auch, was Muslime für Grossbritannien geleistet haben, unter anderem als Soldaten im Zweiten Weltkrieg und später in den fünfziger Jahren als Arbeiter in der Stahlindustrie. «Imame verstehen die britische Gesellschaft nicht»: Lord Ahmed im Gespräch (mehr)

Mark Alexander