Rita Karlsen, HRS
Miljøvernminister Jim Fitzpatrick sier at gruppen, the Islamic Forum of Europa (IFE), har jobbet for å ødelegge Labours politikk ved å drive fraksjonsvirksomhet.
Ifølge Fitzpatrick tror IFEs på jihad (hellig krig) og sharialover, og jobber for at Storbritannia og Europa skal bli muslimske stater. Gruppen har strategisk plassert sympatisører, for eksempel ved valgkontorer, for å massemobilisere (egne) velgere.
Labour Party har opplevd det samme tidligere, og skulle slik sett kjenne lusa på gangen:
His charge revives the threat of extremists entering the Labour Party for the first time since the collapse of the Trotskyist Militant organisation at the end of the 1980s.
Det heter at IFEs opererer ut fra Øst London, hvor de også har klart å få fatt i betydelige statlig økonomiske midler, ironisk nok, men knapt overraskende, for å nettopp å bekjempe voldelig ekstremisme:
The Islamic Forum of Europe is a low-profile grouping based at the East London Mosque.
Channel 4’s Dispatches programme claims the IFE has won a large measure of control over the London borough of Tower Hamlets and has packed Labour membership rolls in East London with its own supporters.
Leaders of the group are said to oppose democracy and support the introduction of Islamic sharia law, while trying to impose hardline views on local communities.
It is also said to have pocketed £10million from the taxpayer by attracting state grants designed to ‘prevent violent extremism’.
Fitzpatrick skal ha blitt usikker på IFE i fjor da han og hans kone deltok i et bryllup. Bryllupet ble praktisert i kjønnssegregert stil, og det ble forlangt at Fitzpatrick og kona holdt seg på sine definerte områder. Bryllupet som ble avholdt i London Muslim Centre, som er en del av East London Mosque, skal være under påvirkning av IFE.
En av parlamentsmedlemmene for Poplar and Canning Town sier de opptrer som en slags ”adgangsorganisasjon”:
‘They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power.’
Tallene kan tyde på at dette er riktig:
According to Labour Party membership lists obtained by researchers, the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency numbered 551 members in 2006 but 1,159 in 2008, a total more than doubled at a time of decline for Labour and other political parties.
Nine out of ten of the new members were Asian. In one two-week period in 2007, the party gained 175 new members, including 31 on a single day.
Mr Fitzpatrick said: ‘People were signed up to be members, and told to turn up to the meetings where candidates were being selected with a list of those they should be voting for.
‘We had never seen them before, and have never seen them afterwards. And that was corrupting our politics.’
Det heter videre at IFE, som også er en underavdeling av Norges svar på det Islamske Råd, the Muslim Council of Britain, har en sterk innflytelse i bydelen Tower Hamlets, som kontrollerer et ikke ubetydelig budsjett (1.1 milliard pund). Koblinger, ikke minst hva gjelder penger, fremtrer også andre steder:
The council’s Labour leader, Lutfur Rahman, is said to have been helped by the group, and its £125,000-a-year, who is in charge of handing out council grants, is said to have links to the IFE.
Labour’s nasjonal organisasjon har nå satt den lokale avdelingen i Tower Hamlets under administrasjon:
The local Labour party in Tower Hamlets has been put into ‘special measures’ by Labour’s national organisation, and its candidates for council elections are now approved by regional London officials. The party promised yesterday that the fresh allegations would be investigated.
Tower Hamlets council said: ‘There are rigorous rules governing the council’s relationships with outside organisations and robust checks in place over funding of all groups.
Daily Mail med debatt (der debattdeltakerne ikke virker spesielt overrasket)