Fiyaz Mughal

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 7, 2013 at 11:16

http://www.fahrenheit211.net/2013/06/02/liar-ii-fiyaz-mughal-and-hi...

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 10, 2013 at 9:55

I thought Fiyaz Mughal was playing a very clever game.  I didn't think he would be brought to book so soon.  Considering that he is the most prominent muslim in the LibDem (as he liked to boast himself), it's a bit of a poke in the eye for him that his own party members are the ones who turned off the tap of government funding for this latest "conflict resolution" group.

Throughout the entire year when Fiyaz Mughal was exagerrating the attacks on muslims, the media simply repeated what he said without question.

Note: Tell Mama was launched just days before the first of the historic muslim child-raping gangs began to be prosecuted (February 2012).  That week the media probably spent more time talking about Tell Mama and muslim victimhood than it did about the charges against the muslim gangs in Rochdale.  I wonder if that was exactly what Fiyaz Mughal hoped to achieve?

When that trial concluded, Mughal's "conflict resolution" group didn't have a word to say about the girls who'd been the victims of these monsters for years. All he was interested in talking about was how muslims are victims.  So much for "inter-faith conflict resolution".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/andrew-gilligan/10108098/Mus...

A controversial project claiming to measure anti-Muslim attacks will not have its government grant renewed after police and civil servants raised concerns about its methods.

The project, called Tell Mama, claimed that there had been a “sustained wave of attacks and intimidation” against British Muslims after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, with 193 “Islamophobic incidents” reported to it, rising to 212 by last weekend.

The group’s founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said he saw “no end to this cycle of violence”, describing it as “unprecedented”. The claims were unquestioningly repeated in the media.

Tell Mama and Mr Mughal did not mention, however, that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to activity that took place only online, mainly offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had not been verified. Not all the online abuse even originated in Britain.

Contrary to the group’s claim of a “cycle of violence” and a “sustained wave of attacks”, only 17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the physical targeting of people and there were no attacks on anyone serious enough to require medical treatment.

There have been a further 12 attacks on Islamic buildings, three of them serious, including a probable arson attack on a Muslim community centre in north London, which burned it to the ground.

Tell Mama supporters launched a furious campaign of protest againstThe Sunday Telegraph after it disclosed the breakdown last week, with round-robin emails to the newspaper accusing it of behaviour “better suited to the days of 1930s Germany”.

However, The Sunday Telegraph has now learned that even before Woolwich, the communities minister, the Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, called Mr Mughal to a meeting and said that Tell Mama’s grant would not be renewed.

The organisation has received a total of £375,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) since last year.

“Mr Mughal was giving data on attacks to DCLG which wasn’t stacking up when it was cross-referenced with other reports by Acpo [the Association of Chief Police Officers],” said one source closely involved in counter-extremism.

“He was questioned by DCLG civil servants and lost his temper. He was subsequently called in by Don Foster and told that he would receive no more money.”

A senior Liberal Democrat source confirmed the sequence of events, saying: “There was a bit of a spat. He was called in and told that Acpo had cast doubt on his figures. He was told that he would be closely monitored for the remaining period of the grant and that there would be no more money.”

A DCLG spokesman confirmed that Tell Mama’s funding would not be renewed and refused to deny that officials had raised concerns about its methods.

Tell Mama claimed in March that anti-Muslim crime was “rising”, even though the group had only been in operation at that stage for a year and had no previous figures to compare with.

Other figures, collected by the police, show that hate crime in mainly Muslim areas has fallen in the past 10 years. The only large force that collects figures on specifically anti-Muslim crime, the Metropolitan Police, reported an 8.5 per cent fall in such crimes between 2009 and 2012.

There was a spike in anti-Muslim incidents after the killing of Drummer Rigby. However, contrary to Tell Mama’s claims that it was “unprecedented”, the Met’s assistant commissioner, Cressida Dick, told MPs last week that it was “slightly less” than after previous terror attacks.

“There has not been such a very big increase in attacks as we might have feared,” she said. Mr Mughal himself has now admitted to the BBC that the number of physical attacks was “small”.

Tell Mama has also been using its budget to threaten members of the public with libel actions for criticising it on Twitter.

In mid-May, before Woolwich, one Jewish activist, Ambrosine Chetrit, received a threatening letter from solicitors after she tweeted that “Tell Mama are sitting on Twitter on the EDL hashtag, threatening anyone and everyone whose comments they do not like about Islam”.

Tell Mama also objected to a tweet in which Ms Chetrit said it was “trying to close down pro-Israel [Twitter] accounts daily”.

Other recipients of legal threats at the same time include Atma Singh, a former race adviser to the then Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who received a legal letter from Tell Mama after tweeting that it “gives a platform to Islamists”.

Tell Mama did not claim that either of these individuals was racist or anti-Muslim. But it said their tweets were false and “defamatory” of Mr Mughal, had “damaged” his reputation, causing him “distress and embarrassment”, and demanded immediate apologies and damages. Up to four other people are believed to have received similar threats.

The letters were written by Farooq Bajwa, a solicitor who has acted for a number of Islamists and Islamist sympathisers, including the Palestinian radical leader Raed Salah and the Respect MP George Galloway.

The letters to Mr Singh and Ms Chetrit were sent to their private home addresses, neither of which are in the public domain. Ms Chetrit’s lawyer, Mark Lewis, who has acted for many phone-hacking victims, has reported Mr Bajwa and Tell Mama to the police after they refused to say how they obtained the information.

“I have been instructed to resist the claim,” said Mr Lewis. “It has no merit. I have not had any response as to how my client’s name and address were obtained.”

Mr Singh said: “I find it absurd that someone can threaten people on this kind of basis and use libel in this political way. This is nothing to do with Islamophobia – they are just trying to shut down debate.”

Ms Chetrit said: “It is very worrying and scary. All the people who have been threatened by Tell Mama are pro-Israeli.”

The DCLG claimed that Tell Mama’s funding was always due to cease in September 2013 and that Mr Foster was “very impressed” by the “progress” the group had made.

However, the funding of Tell Mama was described as “ongoing” in the Government’s “hate crime action plan” last year and only in November Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced that £214,000 of “new” and “further” funding had been granted to Tell Mama.

Mr Mughal said: “The meeting with DCLG officials related to the publication of 2012 anti-Muslim prejudice figures and having an independent review of those figures, which is good practice.

"This was agreed and has always been part of the process. The 'loss of temper’ did not relate to the methodology of data collection.”

Mr Mughal said that no public money had been used to issue the libel threats.

He said: “We will defend the right of all people to express their identities and their support for countries and groups freely.

However, we have the right to defend the integrity of our work when people broadcast [on Twitter] comments that are simply untrue and highly damaging about us.”

He declined to explain how the private addresses had been obtained, but said it was “within the law.”

Permalink Reply by Joe on June 16, 2013 at 11:20

Tell Mama claims that it also records attacks by muslims on other muslims.

Here's a bit of a conundrum for them.  

http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/10468731.Man_alleg...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-22924456

The 2 most violent attacks on muslims since Tell Mama was created.... were both by other muslims!

If Tell Mama had not already been totally discredited, this would have done so.  Now these attacks need to be brought out whenever Fiyaz Mughal rears his ugly head.

Here's another thought: is Tell Mama recording "honour killings" among its attacks on muslims?  I'll bet not.

Does Tell Mama list the shops selling the Koran among their list of hate crimes against muslims?  After all, it urges death to those who leave islam.

Permalink Reply by Alan Lake on June 30, 2013 at 3:44

Nigel Copsey and another piece of his shoddy research.  This man is an embarassment to academia.  

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/half-of-britains-mosques...

It doesn't seem to matter to him that Tell Mama has been totally and publicly discredited.  Copsey is still happy to quote their  fake data and false statistics, as long as it suites his political agenda.

Permalink Reply by Joe on July 5, 2013 at 2:32

Latest collaboration between Fiyaz Mughal's "conflict resolution" organisations and "professor" Copsey.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/04/edl-named-third-muslim-o...

Copsey & Mughal, and the reporter's thesis are all savaged in the comments.  This is an amazing turn around in public attitudes/information since the end of 2010 when Copsey was paid by FM to write a report on EDL.

Permalink Reply by Joe on October 7, 2013 at 8:29

FM given £750k of kuffar money in just 4 years.

http://kafircrusaders.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/tellmama-faith-matte...

Note the money for community cohesion projects.  Yet none of it used to stop muslim grooming gangs from destroying communities.

Permalink Reply by Joe on April 8, 2014 at 15:05

The Press Complaints Commission found in favour of Andrew Gilligan in all points of his report on Tell Mama.

Ten months ago, in the paper, I revealed how Tell Mama, a project purporting to measure anti-Muslim attacks, had exaggerated the scale and nature of attacks against Muslims both before and after the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich. I later revealed that Tell Mama’s public fundinghad not been renewed after government officials raised similar concerns about its methods.

Tell Mama's founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said that there had been a "wave of attacks" against Muslims, with 193 “Islamophobic incidents” reported to it in the first five days (to 27 May), rising to 212 by June 1, the eve of publication of our first article.

"I do not see an end to this cycle of violence”, said Mughal, describing it as “unprecedented”. Tell Mama’s Twitter feed claimed that a Muslim woman had been “knocked unconscious” in Bolton, a claim recycled in the Guardian. "The scale of the backlash is astounding,” Mughal told the BBC. “There has been a massive spike in anti-Muslim prejudice. A sense of endemic fear has gripped Muslim communities.” According to Mughal, the unprecedented spike proved British society’s “underlying Islamophobia.” These claims, and Tell Mama's figures, were unquestioningly repeated across the media.

What Tell Mama and Mughal did not tell us at the time, however, was that 57 per cent of its 212 "incidents" took place only online, mainly offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook. They did not say that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had not been verified. They forgot to mention that not all the online abuse even originated in Britain.

Contrary to the group’s claim of an unending “cycle of violence” and a “wave of attacks”, only 17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the physical targeting of people and there were no attacks on anyone serious enough to require medical treatment. The supposed Bolton attack never happened. There were a further 13 attacks on Islamic buildings, four of them serious.

Far from being “unprecedented,” the spike in attacks was in fact “slightly less” than after 7/7, according to the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick. Far from being unending, the post-Woolwich spike in anti-Muslim incidents fell to pre-Rigby levels within days. If there was a “sense of endemic fear” in Muslim communities, it was partly created by Fiyaz Mughal himself.

Mr Mughal, as you can imagine, wasn’t best pleased when we reported all this. In a typically bullying campaign, he got his supporters to write round-robin emails to the paper accusing us of behaviour “better suited to the days of 1930s Germany,” wound up to attack us various luminaries who should have known better, and submitted what would became a 10-month, 127-page Press Complaints Commission complaint, full of the same misrepresentation and bluster that characterised his earlier media performances. At one point, he asked to withdraw the complaint – only to reactivate it several months later. This is, apparently, allowed.

Last week he was comprehensively defeated on all points. The PCC ruled that our reporting that Mughal exaggerated the prevalence of anti-Muslim attacks, that he had not had his funding renewed, and that DCLG officials had expressed concern about his methods, was “not inaccurate.”

Perhaps it helped that we could point out that the day after our first piece, Mughal himself admitted to the BBC that the number of physical attacks was in fact “quite small;” that within two months, he had quietly dropped his own estimate of the number of “Islamophobic incidents” post-Rigby from 193 in the first five days to “more than 120” in the first week; and that the DCLG, by his own admission, had demanded an “independent review” of his data. Various police officers and DCLG officials, asked by Mughal to support his case against us, conspicuously declined to do so.

Mughal does seem to spend too much of his time picking silly fights – as we also reported, he has been threatening to sue people who criticise him on Twitter. Perhaps it’s time to get back to the day job? Although anti-Muslim hate crime in Britain appears (with the exception of the brief spike after Rigby) to be diminishing, not growing, there remain, as my articles made quite clear, real and significant anti-Muslim hatred in this country, and it’s disgraceful.

The work Tell Mama does could be very valuable. Mughal is saying some good things, and making some good allies. But if it’s not done scrupulously, it fuels the very fear and distance between communities it’s supposed to be tackling.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100266808/tell-mam...

Permalink Reply by Joe on April 13, 2014 at 2:42

un-be-lievable.

It appears from Tim Burton's account of his trial, that Fiyaz Mughal did not even fully understand the meaning of "mendacious".

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/142382/sec_id/142382

It is great that Prof. Hans Jensen got a chance to testify that Taqiyya and deceit are core components of islam.

Permalink Reply by Joe on May 8, 2014 at 14:22

It is with great sadness that I must report that our friend Fiyaz has now had 3 legal failures in a row

1. complaint against Telegraph to Press Complaints Commission
2. criminal case against Tim Burton
3. libel case against Telegraph

It's a very sad day, indeed.

Permalink Reply by Paul Austin Murphy on May 8, 2014 at 15:24

He was quoted in the Birmingham Mail a couple of days ago about his 'epic fail'. He said that "it was a bad day for justice" or some other cliche.

Permalink Reply by Antony on May 9, 2014 at 10:15

Hurrah - a setback for the enemies of free speech ; http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2014/05/frivolous-libel...

Permalink Reply by Joe on January 6, 2015 at 0:20

I found this letter on a website.  I'll post the letter here - the website owner redacted the name of the author, as he was unsure if this letter was meant to be public or not.  The letter is clearly part of some correspondence between Tatchell ("patron" of Tell Mama) and a Leftist critic of Tell Mama.

Here is the letter outlining this person’s concerns about Mr Tatchell’s involvement with the Tell Mama organisation.

“Peter, you asked me to forward concerns regarding TellMamaUK.

An organisation claiming to oppose bigotry, racism and stand up for those affected by prejudice has to be a good thing, right? The answer is no – if it behaves like TellMamaUK on Twitter. On first discovering Tell Mama my instinct was to want to like them. After reading the material and observing how they interact, I concluded that what they are doing is far from helpful. It is divisive, misguided and appears to have a stealth priority of protecting Islam from criticism. Regardless of how loudly Tell Mama protests otherwise, fighting ‘Islamophobia’ has emerged as a clarion call rather than battling anti-Muslim hatred. They’d argue that these things are intertwined. They are not. People in the UK care about fighting bigotry and racism. Rather than help victims of prejudice, Tell Mama has an approach which fails, in my opinion. Every time they cry ‘Islamophobia’, they distance themselves from potential supporters. Some victims might be put off too. Ali A Rizvi (below) sums up the danger of using the neologism ‘Islamophobia’:

“Words like ‘Islamophobia’ exploit anti-Muslim hate crime victims, using their pain to silence all criticism of Islam “.

On Twitter Tell Mama has an uncanny ability to favourite, follow and engage happily with some hate-fuelled sycophants. Complaints made about some of their ‘groupies’ are met with indifference (or disingenuous scoffing that they can’t police the internet). TM manage to police it pretty thoroughly when it suits them. A group claiming to monitor ‘hate crime’ can’t detect hatred or bigotry from ‘friends’? Recently, they appeared to allege libel over the mere questioning of their use of the unhelpful term ‘Islamophobia’. Incredibly, they did this in front patrons. I highlighted this to both you and Mohammed Amin. What action was taken to stop false allegations being made by Tell Mama? This kind of behaviour reflects badly on patrons, especially if they fail to act. It won’t go away by ignoring the problem.

There a disconnect between what some patrons believe and what TM does on something as fundamental as the use of the term ‘Islamophobia’? Tell Mama have played the ‘Islamophobia’ card with a rigid determination. They ignored genuine criticism of this strategy – often blocking those challenging. Private individuals can behave as they please, Groups which have received large amounts of public funds should behave professionally online with a suitably impartial approach.

As you are aware, many don’t trust Tell Mama following press allegations regarding the incorrect reporting of ‘Islamophobia’ statistics:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/andrew-gilligan/10108098/Muslim-hate-monitor-to-lose-backing.html

They have failed to deal with these problems effectively. Damage limitation attempts have made things worse:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100266808/tell-mama-did-exaggerate-anti-muslim-attacks-pcc-rejects-all-fiyaz-mughals-complaints-against-us/

They now have a reputation of being trigger-happy regarding crying libel or losing court cases based on criticism of Fiyaz Mughal:

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/campaigner-fiyaz-mughal-loses-libel-fight-against-daily-telegraph-over-comment-piece-he-said-branded

http://www.fahrenheit211.net/2014/05/16/fiyaz-mughal-throws-the-toys-out-of-the-pram/

Tell Mama makes big claims about the importance of its work but they have relatively few followers. This is at odds with an ‘Islamophobia is at record highs’ rhetoric. Their feedback page also shows very little appreciation. The last thanks from an anonymous respondent dates back to June 2013. Most are several years old.

http://tellmamauk.org/feedback/

Note the embarrassing feedback from Mo Ansar – notorious grievance monger and proven liar. Tell Mama defended Ansar for far too long. TM recently complained about poor support from Muslims, having raised only £104 during a fund drive Online word ‘offences’ appear to take up considerable time. They become involved in petty disputes and attacks. There are too many to detail. Regardless of the perceived merits this does not look good to outsiders reading. The approach to blocking is questionable. My point here is to do with fairness. Tell Mama blocks critics, notably less mainstream Muslims, with ease. Yet it seems to encourage a core of orthodox zealots? Surely you can see how this reads? Does it suggest exactly the type of Muslim Tell Mama is most comfortable with?

They engage with illiberal, Ahmadi-hating sycophants (like carefulsoul786 and assorted zealots – nicknamed ‘The Twitter Muslim Patrol’).

The ‘Muslim Patrol’ weren’t blocked for bashing ‘Quilliamites’ on Tell Mama’s timeline. Tell Mama fanned the flames with its own indignant digs at Quilliam. Are some members of Quilliam not Muslims? Is Muslim to Muslim hatred not an issue?

Reading this and so many other contradictory pieces makes it very difficult to believe that recent moves to work with Quilliam will bear fruit. Tell Mama is a toxic brand.

‘The Twitter Muslim Patrol’ – seen as indulged followers of Tell Mama love to have a go at gay people:

https://twitter.com/soulesssniper/status/408269849992134657

Given your commitment to secularism, I’m astounded that you don’t see the flaws in Tell Mama’s Islamophobia led strategy. Have you read what Fiyaz Mughal has written? Or seen their criticism of The National Secular Society? Any excuse to tag ‘EDL’ into an argument:

http://tellmamauk.org/national-secular-society-the-money-shot/

“… The title starts of with, ‘Muslims must be protected, Islam must not.’ So far so good, except that they simply fail to understand that some, like EDL sympathisers, attack Islam as a way of undermining the rights of believers, i.e. Muslims”

Mughal’s views are alarming, should you care about secularism and free speech:

http://www.sourcewire.com/news/70159/baroness-warsi-is-right-about-aggressive-secularism#.VHynMjGsWSo

Fiyaz Mughal OBE, said: “Our work is coming across an aggressive, well focussed and organised campaign by militant secularists who think that people of faith are somehow irrational or mal-adjusted and this is deeply problematic. The actions of such groups are increasingly pervasive and even militant given that they are not willing to listen or engage in debate on occasions where faith is discussed. They simply dismiss counter-views supporting faith in the public sphere by disengagement or worse still obfuscation.”

‘Militant’ secularists demanding equal human rights for all alarm Mughal?They may even want to sit down and discuss issues with him over a cup of tea – those demonic, free speech loving ‘extremists’! How can you overlook this, Peter? Where is the greater common good? You marched into a church to oppose those wishing to deny equal rights to gay people. Opposing or challenging religion is absolutely nothing to do with hating Muslims, Catholics or Christians. If Tell Mama wanted to help Muslims, why use the Islamophobia tactic? Surely free speech and equal human rights for all Muslims are worthy goals? What about less orthodox Muslims? Ex-Muslims? Why not help so-called apostates speak out by encouraging, not seeking to restrict free speech? They are victims of Islamic prejudice. The UK does not need Religious Police. Online or off. Blasphemy laws are not for us. Tell Mama needs to clear up its doublespeak around this issue.

My criticisms have been harsh. I genuinely believe they are deserved. I hope that you consider my points and what can be done to address issues. Only by working together can discrimination be eroded. Faith matters to individuals. I care about prioritising free speech and human rights not silencing criticism of religion. Britain has human rights that people in Muslim majority countries can only dream of. They have been forged despite religion.

Senders Name Redacted

Letter ends

Accusations of ‘Doublespeak’, silencing critics of Islam, acting like a religious police force, engaging in Islamic sectarianism and much more abound in this letter. It raises yet more concerns about the way Tell Mama is run and what it has become. This is a stinging attack on Tell Mama. Those like Peter Tatchell, who turn a blind eye to Tell Mama’s acceptance of sectarianism and homophobia, damage themselves and their own reputations.

This communication is yet more evidence that Tell Mama is both a troubled and troublesome organisation, which taints all who become involved with it.

http://www.fahrenheit211.net/2014/12/29/peter-tatchell-gets-more-cr...

We at 4F were years ahead of anyone else in subjecting the behaviour of Fiyaz Mughal to criticism.  We had been investigating and exposing him for years before he launched Tell Mama.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page