Ofcom delclares Gilligan’s Dispatches has “a case to answer”

Presenting a fabricated claim to an elected councillor, then using his genuine alarm, to feed into the television documentary’s general narrative of a Muslim fundamentalist conspiracy in Tower Hamlets – it can’t happen in Britain, can it? Yet, this is exactly what Andrew Gilligan and the Dispatches programme did. Welcome to Britain – Islamophobia has become mainstream.

A disturbing aspect of that story was the programme producers  falsely claimed that  Cllr Peter Golds made the original allegation (pre-broadcast letter to IFE). Luckily we’re not, yet, in a tinpot dictatorship (read Middle East) and there are still checks on the powerful forces in society - including the media. Continue reading Ofcom delclares Gilligan’s Dispatches has “a case to answer”

Andrew Gilligan’s world starts to unravel

How much humiliation can a man take? I ask because, after the revelation that an apparent IFE front organisation, the Centre for Muslim Affairs, was in fact the project of a Jewish charity, it appears that another IFE-linked ‘extremist’ is not an ‘Islamist’ after all – according to the Telegraph!

Here’s the text of the grovelling apology published on the Telegraph website:

“Following our article about Mr Al Abdin’s speech at an education event for young Muslims (February 28th), we now accept that Mr Al Abdin is not an Islamist and did not attack key moderate Muslims as “examples of deviation . . . → Read More: Andrew Gilligan’s world starts to unravel

Anwar al-Awlaki and the deluded

So yet again Muslims are in the news. Two prominent stories and both connected to Anwar al-Awlaki, the ink toner bomb blot and the conviction of a Muslim student who attempted to murder Stephen Timms MP.

My problem is not that some Muslims are capable of terrorism and violence, indeed they are, but that innocent past associations are automatically suspect. In the case of Islamic Forum of Europe and the East the London Mosque (ELM), they find themselves constantly being smeared for hosting Al-Awlaki in the past. What was, and is, clear to all mainstream Muslims, is that he . . . → Read More: Anwar al-Awlaki and the deluded

Andrew Gilligan’s lie: the definitive proof

Between the Lines Investigation Reporter: Muhammad Amin

Tonight on Between the Lines, how a paranoid narcissist used a respected television programme and mainstream newspaper to vilify a Muslim community organisation and elected mayor using twisted facts and misinformation.

Andrew Gilligan presents himself as a respectable, serious, investigative journalist who wins awards. But tonight, Between the Lines can reveal that Gilligan gave false information to a local Tory leader, which produced the negative comments used in Channel Four’s Dispatches programme, and the subsequent Telegraph articles and blogs. Not content with sexing up his case against IFE, Gillian also used a lie to connect Lutfur Ali with IFE through . . . → Read More: Andrew Gilligan’s lie: the definitive proof

Imams: to import or not to import?

Last week I was called by a CNN journalist in London requesting me to help them in a programme they were making on the moderation programme supposedly introduced in Mosques, prisons and schools by the former [UK] Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. I suggested they call two large mosques in London and ask them if they have any classes or programmes taking place in the Mosques.

Yesterday, they called again informing me that they were not able to get in touch with anyone who would comment or knew the government’s proposal and requested me to do a short interview to be broadcast in the evening news.

Knowing that the media is not always Muslim friendly, and the reputation of CNN on covering these topical subjects, plus the previous programmes and interviews I had done for CNN and others (which did not always go as planned) Continue reading Imams: to import or not to import?