All Discussions Tagged 'The' - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-28T18:19:48Zhttp://4freedoms.com/group/uk/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=The&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe Insanity of Hate Crime Law in the UKtag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-20:3766518:Topic:1974952018-08-20T20:59:21.094ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><em>Please see the attached PDF for the original police document, which contains the anti-objective gem below.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What is hate crime?</strong></span></p>
<p>In this inspection, we define hate incidents and crimes as:</p>
<blockquote>Any criminal offence or incident which is perceived by the victim, or any<br></br> other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone<br></br> based on a personal…</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 16px;"><em>Please see the attached PDF for the original police document, which contains the anti-objective gem below.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What is hate crime?</strong></span></p>
<p>In this inspection, we define hate incidents and crimes as:</p>
<blockquote>Any criminal offence or incident which is perceived by the victim, or any<br/> other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone<br/> based on a personal characteristic.</blockquote>
<p>This definition was adopted by criminal justice organisations in 2007, to<br/> promote consistency in the absence of a definition set out in law. It puts the<br/> emphasis on the perception of either the victim or another person (for<br/> example a witness to a crime, or the police officer or staff member who is<br/> helping the victim). The victim doesn’t need to give the police any evidence or<br/> justification to support this perception.</p> The Persecution of Jonaya Englishtag:4freedoms.com,2018-08-20:3766518:Topic:1973852018-08-20T19:51:12.224ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LuBt1rZNH1w?rel=0&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LuBt1rZNH1w?rel=0&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> The Police Will Not Protect Youtag:4freedoms.com,2018-07-05:3766518:Topic:1969502018-07-05T15:51:43.571ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>This forum is not <em>directly</em> about the four freedoms particularly, but about events that show that the police and state authorities will no longer defend you or your property. You are on your own. Our secular democracies have gone tribal. For safety, you need to find and join a tribe of people with which you share common interests.</p>
<p>The old system of competing special interest groups (like Catholic v. Protestant or working class v. middle class) has broken down, because…</p>
<p>This forum is not <em>directly</em> about the four freedoms particularly, but about events that show that the police and state authorities will no longer defend you or your property. You are on your own. Our secular democracies have gone tribal. For safety, you need to find and join a tribe of people with which you share common interests.</p>
<p>The old system of competing special interest groups (like Catholic v. Protestant or working class v. middle class) has broken down, because newer, stronger pressure groups have come on the scene (like Islam and SJWs), which are better organised and have available better tools (like social media and a co-operative press). </p>
<p>This is <em>related</em> to the 4 Freedoms though. When special interest groups are able to manipulate the levers of power to the extent that the law is no longer applied equally to all, then many of the basic freedoms are lost. </p> The Islamization of Britain in 2017 - the Gatestone Institutetag:4freedoms.com,2018-01-04:3766518:Topic:1931252018-01-04T07:36:45.804ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div id="print_content"><h1>The Islamization of Britain in 2017</h1>
<h2>"I think we are heading towards disaster."</h2>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Soeren+Kern"><span>Soeren Kern</span></a> January 1, 2018 at 5:00 am…</b></p>
<p class="nocontent no_mobile"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="print_content"><h1>The Islamization of Britain in 2017</h1>
<h2>"I think we are heading towards disaster."</h2>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Soeren+Kern"><span>Soeren Kern</span></a> January 1, 2018 at 5:00 am</b></p>
<p class="nocontent no_mobile"><b><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11648/britain-islamization-2017">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11648/britain-islamization-2017</a></b></p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="print_content_3"><div><ul class="content_preface_bullets">
<li><p>Reports of alleged links between Islamic charities and terrorism or extremism surged to a record high, according to the Charity Commission, a charity watchdog.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Azad Ali, an Islamist who has said that he supports killing British soldiers, was named a director of Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), a controversial Muslim pressure group which advises the British government. Ali said that the jihadist attack at Westminster on March 22, 2017 was not an act of terrorism.</p>
</li>
<li><p>"Politicians tell us they are unafraid, but they are never the victims. How easy to be unafraid when one is protected from the line of fire. The people have no such protections." — Manchester-born singer Morrissey.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The British government refused to say whether telling people about Christianity could be a hate crime. Lord Pearson of Rannoch said that when he raised a question on the issue in the House of Lords, the government failed to state clearly whether Christians can be prosecuted just for stating their beliefs.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody"><p>The Muslim population of Britain surpassed 4.1 million in 2017 to become around 6.3% of the overall population of 64 million, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a recent study on the growth of the Muslim population in Europe. In real terms, Britain has the third-largest Muslim population in the European Union, after France, then Germany.</p>
<p>The rapid growth of Britain's Muslim population can be attributed to immigration, high birth rates and conversions to Islam.</p>
<p>Islam and Islam-related issues, omnipresent in Britain during 2017, can be categorized into several broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the security implications of British jihadists; 2) The continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain; 3) The sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; 4) Muslim integration into British society; and 5) The failures of British multiculturalism.</p>
<p><b>JANUARY 2017</b></p>
<p>January 1. Hundreds of adult asylum seekers lied about their age in order to enter Britain "as teenagers," <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4078702/Those-man-child-migrants-old-29-Hundreds-adult-asylum-seekers-lied-age-order-enter-Britain.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to official data provided under the Freedom of Information Act. Figures obtained by <i>Mail on Sunday</i> show that social workers carried out 2,028 age tests between 2013-2016, during which almost one in four of the claimants — 465 — were found to be over 18. By concealing their real age, migrants hope to improve their chances of being granted asylum.</p>
<p>January 1. Reports of alleged links between Islamic charities and terrorism or extremism surged to a record high, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/31/charities-linked-terrorism-record-high-extremists-pose-deadly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Charity Commission, a charity watchdog. The number of times the Commission shared concerns about links between charities and extremism with police and other agencies nearly tripled, from 234 to 630 in just three years.</p>
<p>January 4. Jamshid Piruz, a 34-year-old Afghan-born Dutch citizen declared guilty of murder in the Netherlands, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4089016/Why-wasn-t-foreign-killer-turned-away-UK-border-Afghan-beheaded-Dutch-woman-allowed-Britain-assaulted-Gatwick-staff-member-two-police-hammer.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pled guilty</a> to attacking two British police officers with a hammer. Piruz entered the UK unchallenged, despite being convicted of decapitating a Chinese woman in Amsterdam. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the murder, but released early. As a Dutch resident, Piruz was allowed to travel freely across the EU. "Britain has got to have tougher border controls," said MP Henry Smith.</p>
<p>January 6. St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow <a href="https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Cathedral-defends-its-right-to-read-the-Qur-an" target="_blank" rel="noopener">featured</a> a reading from the Koran which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Koran reading, aimed at "reaching out to Muslims," was held on Epiphany, a festival which celebrates the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. One of the Queen's chaplains, Gavin Ashenden, <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/koran-passage-denying-jesus-read-scottish-cathedral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referred</a> to the Koran reading as "blasphemy" and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/_TP_/edition/news/queen-s-chaplain-condemns-koran-reading-in-cathedral-5x2g3czx9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the decision showcased the limits of interfaith dialogue. He resigned on January 23 in order to "speak more freely" about the struggle of Christianity in British culture.</p>
<p>January 7. Tanveer Ahmed, a 32-year-old jihadist serving a 27-year prison sentence for the murder in Glasgow of Asad Shah, an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sectarian-killer-tanveer-ahmed-calls-enemies-islam-be-eliminated-new-prison-recording-1601320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a recording from Scotland's Barlinnie prison in which he called for the "elimination" of the enemies of Islam.</p>
<p>January 8. MI5 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4099248/MI5-launch-hunt-Syrian-scientist-posing-refugee-plotting-chemical-attack-British-seaside-town.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> a manhunt for a Syrian scientist posing as a refugee and plotting a chemical attack on a British seaside town.</p>
<p>January 9. Inspectors from Ofsted, the schools regulator, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4101968/Islamic-school-pupils-t-PM-boys-independent-slammed-Ofsted-inspectors-CCTV-cameras-TOILETS-said-students-unprepared-life-UK.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concluded</a> that Darul Hadis Latifiah, an all-boys school in East London, was not preparing pupils "for life in modern Britain." Many of the students at the school could not name the British prime minister. Inspectors also found books which "promoted inappropriate views" on how females should behave, and found a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the bathroom.</p>
<p>January 15. Twelve of Britain's most dangerous Islamic terrorists were to be placed in containment units in three prisons at a cost of about £1 million ($1.34 million) a year, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/isolation-cells-for-12-jihadists-cost-1m-a-year-jf07mz99n" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to <i>The Sunday Times</i>. The aim is to prevent them from radicalizing other inmates.</p>
<p>January 17. Cambridge Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/755426/cambridge-university-professor-languages-migrants-polish-punjabi-urdu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> on Britons to learn languages such as Polish, Punjabi and Urdu to make immigrant families feel more at home. She said that English speakers should think of immigration as a "two-way street" and be able to communicate in another language to aid integration and social cohesion.</p>
<p>January 18. Manchester United <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38661302" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> a counter-terrorism manager to protect against jihadist attacks. It was believed to be the first Premier League football club to do so.</p>
<p>January 20. Gloucester Cathedral <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-38677329" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited</a> Imam Hassan of the local Masjid-e-Noor mosque to perform the traditional Muslim invocation to worship at the launch of a multicultural Faith Exhibition. A video of the call to prayer was posted on the cathedral's Facebook page. One commenter wrote: "My ancestors built this cathedral and to allow a practicing Muslim to pray to another god is insanely naive. What did you think it would do? Encourage them to convert?"</p>
<p>January 22. Hani al-Sibai, a 55-year-old Islamic extremist, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4146194/Hate-preacher-gets-123-000-legal-aid-stay-UK.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">granted</a> £123,000 ($165,000) in public money to help him fight deportation, even though he is alleged to be a "key influencer" of the Ansar al-Sharia movement, a terror group which murdered 30 British tourists at a Tunisian beach resort. Al-Sibai, whose three-story housing association home in West London is worth £1 million, is also said to have radicalized Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as "Jihadi John."</p>
<p>January 24. St. Clare's School, a Roman Catholic School in Handsworth, <a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/row-breaks-out-after-four-12493960" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> itself at the center of a social media storm after telling the parents of a four-year-old Muslim girl that she could not wear the hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf, in class. The school has a strict uniform policy and asked the girl's parents to respect it. The girl's father refused and asked Birmingham City Council's Labour cabinet member Waseem Zaffar to intervene. Zaffar said: "I'm insisting this matter is addressed asap with a change of policy."</p>
<p>January 25. Abandi Kassim, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Leicester, was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-38745910" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fined</a> for breaching equality laws when he refused to carry a guide dog because he claimed it was against his religion. Kassim turned away Charles Bloch, 22, who is legally blind, and his dog in Leicester in July 2016. He pled guilty to refusing to convey a guide dog, an offense under the Equality Act 2010, and was fined £340 ($450) plus £200 costs and a £50 victim surcharge.</p>
<p>January 26. The City of Edinburgh <a href="http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/01/vote-for-a-city-free-of-islamophobia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited</a> citizens to vote for projects designed to create a city "free from Islamophobia." Some £40,000 ($54,000) were made available for projects "to help local people deliver innovative projects which reduce prejudice and foster positive relationships between diverse communities."</p>
<p>January 28. Changing of the Guard ceremonies at Windsor Castle were <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4167434/Queen-s-guard-tradition-axed-fear-terror-attack.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cancelled</a> amid fears of jihadist attacks. Police said jihadis could target soldiers and the thousands of tourists who gather to watch the time-honored military tradition.</p>
<p><b>FEBRUARY 2017</b></p>
<p>February 1. Prime Minister Theresa May <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4180888/Women-feel-free-wear-hijab-says-PM.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the House of Commons that women should feel free to wear the hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf. Several European countries have imposed bans on parts of Muslim religious dress. "What a woman wears is a woman's choice," May said.</p>
<p></p>
<table border="0" align="center" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr><td><img src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/2355.jpg" border="0"/><p>On February 1 ("world hijab day"), UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that women should feel free to wear the hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf, stating: "What a woman wears is a woman's choice." Pictured above: Theresa May (then Home Secretary) wears a headscarf while attending an interfaith event at Al Madina Mosque in East London, in February 2015. (Image source: Imams Online video screenshot)</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>February 2. Six Muslim men shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they were <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4184966/Child-sex-gang-members-shout-Allahu-Akbar-court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> at Sheffield Crown Court for a total of 81 years for sexually abusing two girls — including one who became pregnant at age 12 — in Rotherham.</p>
<p>February 5. Muslim pupils outnumber Christian children in more than 30 church schools, including one Church of England primary school that has a "100% Muslim population," <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/muslim-pupils-fill-the-pews-at-anglican-schools-gp2jzvslc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to <i>The Sunday Times</i>. St. Thomas in Werneth, Oldham, is reported to have no Christian pupils, while at Staincliffe Church of England Junior School in Batley, West Yorkshire, 98% of pupils "come from a Muslim background." The Church of England estimated that about 20 of its schools had more Muslim pupils than Christians and 15 Roman Catholic schools had majority Muslim pupils.</p>
<p>February 7. Zakaria Bulhan, a 19-year-old Norwegian national of Somali origin, was <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/07/london-knife-attacker-detained-indefinitely-for-killing-american-tourist-6433466/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to indefinite confinement at Broadmoor Hospital after he admitted to killing American tourist Darlene Horton and wounding five others in a rampage in central London on August 3, 2016. Bulhan, from Tooting, South London, pled guilty at the Old Bailey to "manslaughter by diminished responsibility" on the grounds that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks. He had been charged with murder and attempted murder, but the court accepted his plea. During his arrest, Bulhan repeatedly muttered "Allah, Allah, Allah," and police found a Muslim prayer book, "Fortress of the Muslim," in his pants pocket. The court, however, decided that Islam was not a factor in Bulhan's behavior.</p>
<p>February 7. A Chatham House survey of more than 10,000 people from ten European countries <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/what-do-europeans-think-about-muslim-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that an average of 55% agreed that all further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped. Majorities in all but two of the ten states agreed, ranging from 71% in Poland, 65% in Austria, 53% in Germany and 51% in Italy to 47% in the United Kingdom and 41% in Spain.</p>
<p>February 9. A 44-year-old man from Hertfordshire was <a href="http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/hertfordshire-man-arrested-at-gatwick-airport-on-suspicion-of-preparing-a-terrorist-act/story-30126937-detail/story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> at Gatwick Airport on terrorism charges after he disembarked from a flight from Iraq. He was charged under Section 5 of the 2006 Terrorism Act: suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts.</p>
<p>February 12. A National Health Service (NHS) project based on research by Leeds University <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38932954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that Muslims with mental health issues could be helped by re-embracing Islam. Lead researcher Ghazala Mir helped to create a new treatment: Patients are asked if faith was part of their life when they were well. Those who stopped being religious are re-introduced to Islam by means of a <a href="http://medhealth.leeds.ac.uk/info/615/research/327/addressing_depression_in_muslim_communities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">self-help booklet</a>.</p>
<p>February 14. Clayton McKenna, a 22-year-old Briton who converted to Islam while in prison, <a href="http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/crime/muslim-convert-carried-axe-to-meeting-with-father-over-religious-differences-1-8389660" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> at Newcastle Crown Court after he carried an axe through the streets of Boldon Colliery. Apparently, he had planned to confront his Christian father over "religious differences." McKenna allegedly told police that he was on his way to his father's home "to ask him to bow down to me." Judge Penny Moreland told McKenna: "I am concerned that there is no real explanation for your confused thinking that morning, nor for those threats made."</p>
<p>February 15. Faisal Bashir, a 43-year-old father of two from Ilford, was <a href="http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/15093631.Father_forced_to_move_after_renouncing_Islam_calls_for_more_action_on_hate_crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forced</a> to move out of his home after he renounced Islam and stopped attending a mosque. Bashir said he was subject to harassment, but police dismissed his pleas for help as "just a nuisance." The Chairman of the Ilford-based British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), Wilson Chowdhry, said: "Police and councils up and down the country just don't understand the level of animosity people choosing to leave Islam can face."</p>
<p>February 16. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/met-chief-muslim-scholars-need-to-help-in-fight-against-is-a3468226.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urged</a> Muslim scholars to step up efforts to counter the Islamic State. He said he believed that IS fighters were "political criminals" who were carrying out "horrific violence" which had no justification in Islam. In an interview with the <i>Evening Standard</i>, Hogan-Howe <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/met-chief-muslim-scholars-need-to-help-in-fight-against-is-a3468226.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">repeated</a> the politically correct dogma that the Islamic State is not Islamic.</p>
<p>February 18. Britain's first-ever "modest" fashion event was held in London with more than 40 designers displaying garments that comply with Muslim values. Event organizer Romanna Bint-Abubaker, founder of modest fashion website Haute Elan, <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/first-ever-modest-fashion-show-suitable-for-muslims-held-in-london-10773485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Sky News: "The fastest growing global consumer is at the moment the Muslim market. By 2030, one in three people will be a Muslim in the world — that is a huge population."</p>
<p>February 19. Counter-terrorism police <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4239352/Muslim-parents-sent-school-headteacher-death-threats.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> an investigation into claims that Trish O'Donnell, head of Clarksfield Primary School in Oldham, was being forced to work from home after death threats from Muslim parents opposed to her Western values. O'Donnell reportedly was subject to "harassment and intimidation" in the form of "aggressive verbal abuse" and "threats to blow up her car" from parents pushing conservative Muslim ideals. The school is mostly filled with Pakistani pupils who do not speak English as a first language.</p>
<p>February 20. Members of Parliament <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-02-20/debates/34847E5C-8B14-46E6-8251-AE99526CC011/PresidentTrumpStateVisit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debated</a> U.S. President Donald J. Trump's state visit to Britain. Left-wing MPs called for the invitation to be withdrawn to protest Trump's travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries. Conservative Party MPs accused their opponents of hypocrisy and insulting the American people.</p>
<p>February 21. Rezzas Abdulla, a 33-year-old man from South Shields, was <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/770227/Racist-spat-baby-mouth-shouted-abuse-white-mum-hate-crime-south-shields" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to eight months in prison. The sentence was then suspended so that he could receive treatment for mental health problems, for assaulting a woman and her nine-month old baby. Rebecca Telford, 25, and her daughter were strolling in South Shields in January 2016 when Abdulla leaned into the baby carriage and spat into the baby's mouth, and allegedly said, "white people shouldn't breed," before launching into a tirade of racial abuse.</p>
<p>February 22. Jamal al-Harith, a 50-year-old British convert to Islam, blew himself up at an Iraqi army base in Mosul. He had <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39054429" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> £1 million (€1.1 million; $1.2 million) in compensation from the British government after being freed from Guantánamo Bay in 2004. Al-Harith, originally named Ronald Fiddler, was born in Manchester to parents of Jamaican origin and took the name Jamal al-Harith when he converted to Islam. He was also known more recently as Abu-Zakariya al-Britani. Captured in Afghanistan in early 2002, and released from Guantánamo Bay after two years, he later joined IS.</p>
<p>February 23. The BBC <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/bbc-pays-libel-damages-after-suggesting-prominent-muslim-advocated-lynching-of-salman-rushdie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paid</a> "very substantial" libel damages and broadcast a full apology to Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, founder member of the Muslim Council of Britain, who was falsely accused of calling for the lynching of author Salman Rushdie.</p>
<p>February 26. Shahriar Ashrafkhorasani, a 33-year-old Iranian-born convert from Islam set to be ordained as a Church of England priest, <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias-g8mss9w02" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> Oxford University of discrimination and bias after he was told he could not ask a professor questions about Islam. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, a former senior fellow at Wycliffe Hall, said that a "politically correct" atmosphere is "very widespread in the university as a whole." He added: "If people are taking money from these [Muslim] sources, then that can limit the critical approach to the study of Islam and Muslim civilization generally."</p>
<p>February 27. A spokesman for the West Midlands Police <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/27/fgm-should-not-prosecuted-police-force-says-claims-best-course/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on social media that parents caught practicing female genital mutilation (FMG) on their children should not be prosecuted. He revealed that the force is opposed to "prosecuting/jailing" parents for FGM because it would be "unlikely to benefit" children who fall victim to the crime.</p>
<p>February 28. Patrick Kabele, a 32-year-old convert to Islam, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4268576/Muslim-convert-faces-jail-tried-join-ISIS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found guilty</a> of preparing terrorist acts — namely attempting to travel to Syria — contrary to the 2006 Terrorism Act. During his trial, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard how Kabele, from Willesden in North London, tried to join the Islamic State in Syria, where he wanted to buy a "nine-year-old virgin, the younger the better." He added that if he had enough money, he would buy four wives. Kabele, who was born in Uganda and became a British citizen, told police after his arrest that he did not "owe an oath of allegiance" to the United Kingdom.</p>
<p><b>MARCH 2017</b></p>
<p>March 1. A Channel 4 documentary series called "<a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/extremely-british-muslims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Extremely British Muslims</a>" showed the inner workings of a sharia court inside Birmingham's Central Mosque. In the first episode, viewers <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4267956/Rare-look-inside-Muslim-Sharia-Court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">witnessed</a> the case of mother-of-four Fatima, 33, as she sought permission to divorce her drug dealer husband whom she says has abused her throughout their 14-year marriage. According to sharia law, Muslim women must plead their divorce cases in court, while Muslim men need only to say the words "I divorce you" three times to obtain a divorce. Birmingham Central Mosque said it allowed the sharia proceedings to be filmed in an effort to "break down misconceptions about Islam." Some 100 sharia courts in Britain are now dispensing Islamic justice outside the remit of the British legal system.</p>
<p>March 2. English actor Riz Ahmed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/mar/02/riz-ahmed-warns-lack-of-diversity-on-tv-will-drive-young-to-isis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that the lack of Muslim faces on British television was alienating young people, driving them towards extremism and into the arms of the Islamic State. Delivering Channel 4's annual diversity lecture in Parliament, Ahmed said that television had a pivotal role to play in ensuring that Muslims felt heard, and valued, in British society.</p>
<p>March 3. The Amateur Swimming Association <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/03/muslim-women-win-right-wear-full-body-suits-amateur-swimming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changed</a> its swimsuit regulations to allow Muslim women to wear full body outfits, after a request from the Muslim Women's Sport Foundation. The rule was changed to encourage more Muslim women to take part in the sport.</p>
<p>March 4. Ryan Counsell, a 28-yeara-old jihadist from Nottingham who left his wife and two small children to fight with the Abu Sayyaf Islamist group in the Philippines, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/convicted-terrorist-ryan-counsell-isis-attempted-to-leave-uk-join-ayer-sayyaf-brexit-a7611036.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blamed</a> his behavior on the Brexit vote. He told the Woolwich Crown Court that increased tension within the local Muslim community after Brexit sparked his decision to leave. He said that he wanted to escape Britain's political climate and seek an "idyllic life" under sharia law.</p>
<p>March 5. Homegrown terrorism inspired by the Islamic State poses the dominant threat to the national security of the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10016/britain-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a comprehensive new report on violent Islamism in Britain. The 1,000-page report — "Islamist Terrorism: Analysis of Offenses and Attacks in the UK (1998–2015)" — was published by the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London.</p>
<p>March 6. British security services prevented 13 potential terror attacks since June 2013, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39176110" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior counter-terrorism police officer. He also said that there were 500 live counter-terror investigations at any given time, and that investigators have been arresting terror suspects at a rate of close to one a day since 2014. The official threat level for international terrorism in the UK has stood at severe — meaning an attack is "highly likely" — for more than two years.</p>
<p>March 7. The National Health Service (NHS) <a href="http://www.content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB23494" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that there were 2,332 new cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Britain between October and December 2016. That statistic brought the total of new cases in 2016 to nearly 5,500.</p>
<p>March 7. The managers of the cash-strapped Sandwell General Hospital near Birmingham <a href="http://www.expressandstar.com/news/health/2017/03/07/sandwell-hospital-could-get-separate-halal-kitchen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they would consider building a special kitchen for preparing halal meals for Muslim patients and staff. The move followed complaints about the quality of halal meals that the hospital has outsourced from local vendors.</p>
<p>March 10. The BBC <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4303044/Bishop-raises-fears-BBC-farms-Songs-Praise.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it would begin outsourcing production of Songs of Praise, a Sunday worship program that has been produced in-house for 55 years. Critics of the move said they feared that Songs of Praise will lose its Christian focus in favor of Islam. Anglican priest Lynda Rose said a recent Songs of Praise episode featuring a segment about the Muslim faith, including Church of England children visiting a mosque, exemplified the "Islamization of the BBC." More than 6,000 people signed an online petition calling for MPs to investigate the BBC after it appointed Fatima Salaria as the BBC's head of religious programming — the second Muslim in a row to hold the post.</p>
<p>March 11. Britain's foreign aid budget was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4304924/A-sick-new-low-foreign-aid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of funding at least two dozen Palestinian schools, some of which are named after terrorists and murderers, openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models. A <i>Mail on Sunday</i> investigation found pictures of "martyrs" posted on school walls, revolutionary slogans and symbols painted on premises used by youngsters, sports events named after teenage terrorists and children encouraged to act out shooting Israeli soldiers in plays.</p>
<p>March 11. Islamic preachers may be asked to begin delivering their sermons in English under measures being prepared to rid Britain of hate preaching. The <i>Telegraph</i> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/11/imams-told-preach-english-mosques/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the government's counter-extremism taskforce is working on the plans amid concern that preaching in foreign languages enforces divisions between Islam and mainstream British society.</p>
<p>March 12. An Islamic bookstore in Alum Rock, a predominately Muslim suburb of Birmingham that has produced 10% of all of Britain's convicted terrorists, was found to be <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/777968/muslim-parenting-books-extremist-literature-sold-high-street-birmingham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">openly selling</a> books promoting jihad.</p>
<p>March 14. A father who described himself as "Anglo-Saxon" <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/03/14/judge-rules-boy-must-taught-islamic-school-despite-complaints/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> a legal battle to prevent his Muslim ex-wife from sending their 10-year-old son to an Islamic secondary school. The man, who was not named for legal reasons, said he wanted to prevent his son from attending a "school inside a mosque" on the grounds that he would be "marginalized" by his son if he enrolled at the London-based school. The man's lawyer said that the mother and father had "different world views" and that it was client's wish that his son be educated in a "neutral" environment. The man had converted to Islam but renounced his faith following the separation. A High Court judge dismissed the man's appeal, ruling that the man would not be marginalized by his son.</p>
<p>March 17. The former owners of a bookstore in Bradford <a href="http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/NEWS/15163864.Former_book_shop_owners_apologise_for__quot_genuine_human_error_quot__after_Qurans_are_put_in_skip/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a> after copies of the Koran and other Islamic literature were found in a garbage dumpster outside the store. Police were called to the store after a group of Muslim males began abusing the staff. The imbroglio began after the bookstore's 80-year-old owner decided to close down his business, and the new owners gave him a month to move out the stock, which included a number of Korans and other Islamic books.</p>
<p>March 17. Zameer Ghumra, a 37-year-old Leicester pharmacist, was <a href="http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/leicester-pharmacist-accused-of-showing-beheading-video-to-young-children-to-face-trial/story-30211512-detail/story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> after showing a beheading video to two young children. He was charged with distributing terrorist publications under section two of the Terrorism Act 2006.</p>
<p>March 18. The BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39316253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a> after a tweet from the BBC Asian Network account asked, "What is the right punishment for blasphemy?" The tweet provoked criticism that the BBC appeared to be endorsing harsh restrictions on speech. In an apology posted on Twitter, the network said it had intended to debate concerns about blasphemy on social media in Pakistan. "We never intended to imply that blasphemy should be punished," a spokesperson said.</p>
<p>March 19. A British jihadist reportedly <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4328522/Anjem-Choudary-disciple-fled-Syria-join-ISIS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> social welfare payments to move his family to Syria to join the Islamic State. Shahan Choudhury, 30, who was radicalized at Belmarsh Prison while serving an 18-month sentence for stabbing to death a 17-year-old hospital worker over an alleged £15 ($18) drug debt, vanished from his apartment in London and has since used social media to urge other British Muslims to carry out terror attacks in the UK.</p>
<p>March 20. Mohammed Karamat, 45, an imam at a mosque in Coventry who <a href="http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-mosque-imam-magistrates-courts-12769455" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assaulted</a> four children as young as nine, was spared jail time. Magistrates watched footage of Karamat twisting a child's arm, slapping a child, and using a pen to stab a child and pricking a child's hand with the lid of a pen. He was filmed attacking the children during a six-day period. Karamat, who admitted to four counts of assault by beating, was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work.</p>
<p>March 21. Minister for Higher Education, Jo Johnson, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/universities-told-they-must-protect-freedom-of-speech-fzqhx7vqt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> British universities to include a clear commitment to freedom of speech in their governance documents to counter the culture of censorship and so-called safe spaces. Johnson said that universities had a "legal duty" to ensure as far as practicable that freedom of speech is secured for "members, students, employees and visiting speakers." University premises should therefore not be "denied to any individual or body on any grounds connected with their beliefs or views, policy or objective."</p>
<p>March 22. Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car at pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge and, armed with two knives, stormed the parliamentary estate. He killed five people and injured more than 50 before he was shot dead by police. Masood, a convert to Islam, was born in Kent as Adrian Elms. He was unemployed at the time of the attack and had been living on social welfare benefits. Masood, who had previous convictions for assaults, including grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offenses, was reportedly <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/25/westminster-killer-left-jail-muslim-childhood-friend/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radicalized</a> in prison.</p>
<p>March 23. The Islamic State <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-claim-idUSKBN16U1M0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> responsibility for the Westminster attack. "The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition," the group's Amaq news agency said in a statement.</p>
<p>March 23. Prime Minister Theresa May <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-london-attack-islamic-terrorism-wrong-westminster-bridge-prime-minister-commons-a7645626.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that it would be "wrong" to describe the jihadist attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament as "Islamic terrorism." Instead, she said, it should be referred to as "Islamist terrorism" and "a perversion of a great faith."</p>
<p>March 25. Police investigating the Westminster attack <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/25/westminster-attack-khalid-masoon-acted-alone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concluded</a> that Khalid Masood acted entirely alone for reasons that may never be known. "We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this," deputy assistant Metropolitan police commissioner Neil Basu said. Meanwhile, British security services <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/25/westminster-attack-khalid-masoon-acted-alone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> do not like the term "lone wolf" because they feel it glamorizes an attacker. They prefer using "lone actor" instead.</p>
<p>March 25. An estimated 400 home-grown jihadis have returned to the United Kingdom after fighting in Syria, but only 54 of those have been prosecuted, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4349624/Only-54-jihadis-prosecuted-returning-Syria.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a <i>Mail on Sunday</i> investigation, which also discovered that some returned jihadis are roaming free on the streets of Britain.</p>
<p>March 28. Kevin Lane, a convicted murderer who spent 20 years in British prisons, including HMP Woodhill and HMP Frankland, <a href="http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/15183808.Former_prisoner_who_shot_man_in_Rickmansworth_says_Islamists_tried_to_radicalise_him_in_jail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the BBC that he saw many inmates pressured to convert to Islam and carry out attacks on other prisoners. "One man boiled fat and poured it over someone's head because of an insult to Islam," he said. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The allegations put forward by the former prisoner are historic."</p>
<p>March 31. A new biography of Prince Charles <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4369730/The-day-Prince-Charles-tried-halt-war.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the heir to the British throne tried to halt the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to "honor" Ramadan. He made the plea in an "urgent call" to William Farish, the American ambassador to London, four weeks into the huge military operation launched after the 9/11 terror attacks. Farish recalled: "Prince Charles asked me if it would be possible to stop the invasion to honor Ramadan, and if I could convey that request to President Bush." The ambassador replied that it would be difficult to halt a military invasion already in full swing, but the prince allegedly protested: "But Americans can do anything!" Farish asked: "Sir, are you really serious?" Prince Charles replied: "Yes I am."</p>
<p><b>APRIL 2017</b></p>
<p>April 1. The British Home office <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/01/abu-hamzas-son-stripped-british-passport-waging-jihad-syria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stripped</a> Sufiyan Mustafa, 22, of his UK passport after he traveled to Syria to fight with jihadists. Mustafa is the youngest son of the cleric Abu Hamza, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States after being convicted of terrorism charges. Mustafa complained that he is now stateless and stranded in Syria.</p>
<p>April 1. Frankland Prison in County Durham became the first of its kind to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/extremists-to-be-held-separately-in-prison-98g6tthwf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open</a> "a prison within a prison" to isolate Islamic extremists. Convicted terrorists are to be moved to a "jihadist prison block" to reduce the risk of other inmates being radicalized.</p>
<p>April 5. A BBC investigation <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39480846" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that online services in Britain are charging divorced Muslim women thousands of pounds to take part in "halala" Islamic marriages. Halala involves the woman marrying a stranger, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce, after which she is able to remarry her first husband. Some Muslims believe that halala is the only way a couple who have been divorced, and wish to reconcile, can remarry. The BBC reported that women who seek halala services are at risk of being financially exploited, blackmailed and even sexually abused. One man, advertising halala services on Facebook, told an undercover BBC reporter posing as a divorced Muslim woman that she would need to pay £2,500 ($3,250) and have sex with him in order for the marriage to be "complete" — at which point he would divorce her. The man also said he had several other men working with him, one who he claims refused to issue a woman a divorce after a halala service was complete.</p>
<p>April 5. The Salafi Independent School, an Islamic private school in Small Heath, was found to have <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/04/05/fears-another-trojan-horse-scandal-reignited-islamic-school/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">placed</a> an advertisement for a male-only science teacher. Although the advertisement, which breached the Equalities Act, was retracted, the headmaster claimed that the role must be occupied by a male teacher because of "religious observance reasons." The decision prompted calls for the school to be investigated, amid fears it promotes "gender-based discrimination" and threatens to "undermine British values."</p>
<p>April 6. Ummariyat Mirza, a 21-year-old from Birmingham, was <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/man-charged-with-planning-knife-terror-attack-in-birmingham-10826467" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> with planning to carry out a jihadist attack with a knife. He was also charged with possessing a bomb-making guide, the <i>Anarchist Cookbook,</i> and an extremist document called the <i>Mujahideen Poisons Handbook</i>. Police also charged Zainub Mirza, a 23-year-old from Bordesley Green, Birmingham, with sending Islamic State propaganda videos and executions to others to encourage jihadist attacks.</p>
<p>April 7. The Food Standards Agency <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4391914/Halal-slaughterhouse-investigated-animal-cruelty.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> an investigation into the Malik Food Group, one of Britain's largest halal slaughterhouses, over allegations of animal cruelty after an undercover video showed a slaughterman repeatedly sawing at the necks of sheep with a knife as they passed down a conveyor belt. The animals appeared not to have been killed instantly and some were seen heaving and jumping as they went down the line. More than 100 million animals are killed in the UK every year using the halal method, which forbids stunning animals prior to having their throats cut.</p>
<p>April 10. Walsall Council <a href="https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2017/04/10/walsall-council-rejects-pilot-scheme-on-voter-id-amid-concern-over-muslim-veils/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed out</a> of a pilot project to introduce voter identification measures at elections amid concerns over how staff would handle Muslim women wearing veils. Conservative leader Mike Bird said the idea was "more trouble than it's worth" and may lead to "confrontation" at polling stations. The government is planning to run the pilot schemes at local elections in 2018.</p>
<p>April 10. Azad Ali, an Islamist who has said that he supports killing British soldiers, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4396832/Islamist-head-Muslim-pressure-group.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">named</a> a director of Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), a controversial Muslim pressure group which advises the British government. Ali said that the jihadist attack at Westminster on March 22, 2017 was not an act of terrorism.</p>
<p>April 11. The Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, asked Islamic Relief to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hardline-cleric-is-invited-to-uk-by-islamic-charity-for-fundraising-tour-g638jlcqf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explain</a> why it invited a hardline Muslim preacher to star in a fundraising tour of Britain. Yasir Qadhi, a Saudi-educated American academic, has been recorded telling students that killing homosexuals and stoning adulterers was part of Islam. Qadhi, who featured in an eight-city tour, described Islamic punishments such as cutting off the hands of thieves as "very beneficial to society."</p>
<p>April 13. Twenty-nine people, facing more than 170 charges relating to the sexual exploitation of 18 children, <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/04/13/29-people-in-court-over-170-charges-of-sexual-exploitation-of-18-children-6571793/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> at Huddersfield Magistrates Court. The 27 men and two women were charged with offenses including rape, trafficking, sexual activity with a child, child neglect, child abduction, supplying drugs and making indecent images of children.</p>
<p>April 14. Sainsbury's and Asda, two of Britain's largest supermarket chains, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4413502/Sainsbury-s-Asda-won-t-stock-Christian-Easter-egg.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused</a> to sell Easter eggs that tell the story of Christianity. Both chains, however, sold eggs that are not specifically Christian, including a halal version made by the Belgian firm Guylian. Stephen Green, of the lobby group Christian Voice, said: "You are whitewashing the Christian message out of Christian holidays. It's difficult to find any explicitly Christian products, like Christmas cards, in supermarkets."</p>
<p>April 15. Pupils at the Kilmorie Primary School in Lewisham, London were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/15/children-taken-meet-islamic-preacher-hadpromoted-encouraged/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken</a> on a school trip to the Lewisham Islamic Centre where they met Shakeel Begg, an imam whom the High Court recently described as an "extremist" who "promotes and encourages religious violence." Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave warned that Begg's role as imam put him in a position to "plant the seed of Islamic extremism in a young mind." Begg praised the children for their desire to learn about Islam.</p>
<p>April 22. Mohammed Aslam, an independent candidate for mayor of Greater Manchester, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/04/22/manchester-mayoral-candidate-delivers-video-manifesto-entirely-urdu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caused</a> controversy after he delivered his election manifesto completely in Urdu on the BBC. Janice Atkinson, an independent member of the European Parliament, tweeted: "If you can't/won't speak English you have no right to stand in elections. You cannot represent our people, culture and values. Stand down."</p>
<p>April 22. Nadir Syed, a 24-year-old jihadist serving life in prison for plotting to behead someone in a jihadist attack, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4436104/Jailed-Muslim-extremist-wins-human-rights-case.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won</a> a High Court case which ruled that his human rights were breached after he was placed in solitary confinement. Syed was placed in isolation at the top-security Woodhill Prison after he led other Muslim inmates in chanting "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is Greatest"), banging on cell doors and threatening to decapitate wardens.</p>
<p>April 23. Ahmadi Muslims in Cardiff <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-39641727" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they were facing discrimination from other Muslims in the city. The Ahmadi branch of Islam believes Mohammed was not the final prophet, a view considered blasphemous to other Muslims.</p>
<p>April 24. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), in its new general election manifesto, <a href="http://www.ukip.org/ukip_s_new_integration_policy_platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pledged</a> to ban the burka from being worn in public. The manifesto also proposed to outlaw Sharia law and make it a legal obligation to report female genital mutilation to police.</p>
<p>April 25. Prime Minister Theresa May was <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-may-criticised-by-muslim-mps-for-scheduling-election-during-ramadan-a3524506.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of ignoring Muslim voters after she scheduled the general election in the middle of Ramadan. Muslim politicians from Labour and the Scottish National Party said they feared reduced voter turnout among Muslims on June 8, during Ramadan, which took place between May 16 and June 14.</p>
<p>April 26. Wealthy Pakistani asylum seekers with £250,000 ($325,000) in savings, who claimed asylum in Britain before taking £40,000-a-year in benefits, were each <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4446760/Wealthy-Pakistani-asylum-seekers-jailed-six-months-apart.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to ten months in prison. Syed Zaidi, 41, and his wife Rizwana Kamal, 40, claimed they were being persecuted at home so flew to Britain with their family asking the Home Office for food and shelter. The couple, who have three children, were given free accommodation and other welfare payments worth £150,000 over four years at taxpayers' expense, despite having more than £250,000 saved in seven different bank accounts. They then bought two cars and moved into a Victorian house near Manchester, but were prosecuted after a whistleblower called the Home Office.</p>
<p>April 27. The Church of England <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/parents-withdraw-pupils-from-lessons-about-islam-v8zl25k28" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that British children should be required to learn about Islam. Derek Holloway of the Church of England's education office said that Christian parents who do not want their children to learn about Islam should not be allowed to withdraw their children from religious education lessons. At present, parents can insist that their children take no part in religious education lessons and do not have to provide a reason. Holloway said that parents with "fundamentalist" Christian beliefs, who did not want their children to learn about other world views, risked leaving pupils with little understanding of Islam and without the skills to live in a modern and diverse Britain. Holloway did not say whether Muslim children should be required to learn about Christianity and Judaism.</p>
<p>April 27. Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali, 27, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4451870/Armed-police-seal-Parliament-Square.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> on suspicion of preparing a jihadist attack near the British Parliament. He was detained with a backpack full of knives just five weeks after six people were killed in a jihadist attack in the same area.</p>
<p>April 27. Haroon Syed, 19, from Hounslow, West London, <a href="http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/hounslow-teenager-faces-jail-after-12953397" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pled guilty</a> to plotting a jihadist attack on an Elton John concert in Hyde Park on September 11, 2016. The court heard how Syed tried to obtain weapons online, including explosives and a bomb vest, and surfed the web to find a busy area in London to launch a mass-casualty attack.</p>
<p>April 28. Jade Campbell, a 26-year-old convert to Islam from West London, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4455154/Would-jihadi-bride-caught-Al-Qaeda-bomb-manual.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to 18 months in prison for possessing materials likely to be useful to a person planning or committing an act of terror and making a false statement to obtain a passport. Police searching her mobile phone found a copy of the al-Qaeda article, "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom," which contained step-by-step instructions on how to make a homemade bomb. Another article concerned sending and receiving encrypted messages. Internet searches found on her phone included, "How to join ISIS" and "How to marry someone from ISIS," as well as searches for flights to Istanbul and border crossings between Turkey and Syria.</p>
<p>April 29. Mohamed Amoudi, 21, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4457936/Arrested-teacher-plotting-murder-police-officer.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> on charges of planning a jihadist attack on a crowded tourist area of central London. Born in Yemen, Amoudi has been linked to a controversial human rights group, Cage, which campaigns against what it says is oppressive counter-terrorism policing against Muslims.</p>
<p>April 30. Cardiff Crown Court <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4462694/Pakistani-asylum-seeker-beat-wife-hammer.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> Mohsin Akram, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Pakistan, to 15 months in prison for attacking his wife, Mariam Hussain, with a hammer when she forgot to cook his dinner.</p>
<p><b>MAY 2017</b></p>
<p>May 1. Army cadets in Scotland were <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3447954/army-cadets-told-dont-wear-your-uniforms-in-public-amid-fears-they-could-be-targeted-by-terrorists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> not to wear their uniforms in public because they could be targeted by jihadists.</p>
<p>May 1. Three female teenagers were <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39770195" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in East London on terrorism charges. The arrests related to an anti-terror operation in London on April 27 in which a woman wearing a burqa was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4453700/Heavily-armed-police-shoot-woman-raid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot</a> by police. Police said that an active terror plot had been foiled.</p>
<p>May 2. Samata Ullah, a 34-year-old jihadist from Cardiff, was <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/cufflink-terrorist-samata-ullah-jailed-for-eight-years-10854033" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to eight years in prison for five terror offenses, including membership of the Islamic State. Ullah, a British national of Bangladeshi origin, was a key member of a group calling itself the "Cyber Caliphate Army;" she gave other members of IS advice on how to communicate using encryption techniques.</p>
<p>May 3. Damon Smith, a 20-year-old convert to Islam, was found <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39796094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guilty</a> of making a bomb filled with ball bearings and leaving it on a subway train in London. Jurors at the Old Baily court were told that Smith had downloaded the al-Qaeda article, "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom." The court also heard that Smith had a keen interest in Islam, guns and explosives, and had collected pictures of extremists, including the alleged terrorist behind the 2015 Paris terror attacks. Smith, who suffers from autism, admitted to making the device but claimed he only meant it as a prank.</p>
<p>May 3. The trial <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4470892/Lost-16-year-old-girl-gang-raped-kebab-shop-owner.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began</a> of four Muslim men who gang-raped a 16-year-old girl in Ramsgate, Kent. The girl was attacked when she got lost after a night out and asked for directions at a Kebab shop. Restaurant owner Tamin Rahani, 37, Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, Shershah Muslimyar, 20, and an unnamed teenager are accused of taking turns raping the girl in an apartment above the restaurant.</p>
<p>May 9. Aine Davis, a 33-year-old British convert to Islam, was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39824266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to seven-and-a-half years in prison by a court in Turkey for being a member of the Islamic State. The BBC reported that Davis was one of a four-man IS cell nicknamed "The Beatles" responsible for beheading more than two dozen hostages in Syria. Davis, the only one of the group to face a trial, denied the charges against him.</p>
<p>May 11. A mother and daughter, along with another woman, <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/12/judge-ordered-women-to-lift-veils-in-trial-of-first-all-female-terror-group-6632112/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> at Westminster magistrates' court on charges of plotting a jihadist attack near the British Parliament. Mina Dich, 43, her daughter Rizlaine Boular, 21, and Khawla Barghouthi, 20, are accused of plotting a random knife attack. Dich and Boular appeared in court wearing burkas covering their faces. Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot asked them to lift their veils to reveal their eyes when they were identified in the dock.</p>
<p>May 12. Female drivers in Stockport were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/warning-gang-targeting-lone-female-drivers-traffic-lights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> about a gang of young Muslim males who have been attempting to get into cars stopped at intersections. Several women in the area reported that they had been approached by the men while waiting for traffic lights to change.</p>
<p>May 13. A divorce practice that allows Muslim men instantly to terminate an Islamic marriage simply by repeating the word <i>talaq</i>, meaning divorce, three times to his wife, has been described as "really common" among Muslims in Britain, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/muslims-demand-end-to-instant-divorce-qhw0wrwrp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to <i>The Sunday Times</i>. Women cannot use the method, known as "triple talaq." Under civil law in Britain, Islamic marriages are not acknowledged, leaving women with little power to escape an unhappy or abusive marriage, or to defend their interests in court when a marriage breaks down.</p>
<p>May 14. Mohan Singh, founder of the Sikh Awareness Society, <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/katie-hopkins/political-correctness-let-grooming-gangs-prosper/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Muslim grooming gangs have been allowed to prosper in Britain because the authorities are afraid they will be labelled racist if they speak out.</p>
<p>May 17. The first episode of the BBC's drama on Muslim rape gangs in Rochdale called "Three Girls" was broadcast with widespread approval by the mainstream media. The program did not, however, reveal that the perpetrators were Muslim or that Islamic doctrine sanctions such treatment of non-Muslim women, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/05/17/review-bbc-muslim-rape-gang-drama/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a review published by <i>Breitbart London</i>.</p>
<p>May 17. Muhammad Rabbani, the international director of Cage, a controversial group critical of British anti-terrorism laws, was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/17/cage-directorcharged-terrorism-act-failing-disclose-password/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> with willfully obstructing, or seeking to frustrate, a search under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which gives border officials sweeping search powers. Rabbani was detained at Heathrow Airport under counter terrorism stop-and-search powers; he refused to give police his computer passwords. Rabbani said he intends to fight the charge, which he regards as a test case of privacy versus surveillance.</p>
<p>May 18. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella group with 500 affiliated mosques and Islamic bodies, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/muslims-urged-to-use-their-votes-in-the-general-election-9xr2ngqqw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> a list of key issues affecting Muslims before the election. It also circulated a suggested sermon for imams to deliver during Friday prayers. It read: "Muslims need to be more politically active." An Ipsos MORI poll found that 53% of eligible Muslims did not vote at the 2010 general election.</p>
<p>May 19. Khalid Mohammed Omar Ali, 27, a jihadist arrested with a backpack full of knives on April 27 near the Houses of Parliament, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4522630/Whitehall-terror-suspect-says-Allah-representing-him.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Old Bailey court that he does not need a lawyer because he is represented by Allah.</p>
<p>May 22. Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old British-born jihadist of Libyan descent, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-40008389" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detonated</a> a suicide bomb at an Ariana Grande music concert in Manchester. Twenty-three people, including Abedi, were killed in the attack and more than 100 others were injured. The attack was the deadliest on British soil since the London bombings on July 7, 2005. The American FBI had <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fbi-warned-mi5-january-manchester-attack-bomber-salman-abedi-manchester-arena-a7760756.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> British authorities in January 2017 that Abedi was planning an attack in the UK, but he was evidently not judged to be a threat.</p>
<p>May 23. Prime Minister Theresa May <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-manchester-threat-idUSKBN18J2YN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> after the Manchester bombing that the armed forces would be deployed on British streets to boost security. May said that military personnel would be positioned at key sites to free up police for patrols.</p>
<p>May 23. The Manchester-born singer Morrissey <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/morrissey-attacks-politicians-and-the-queen-over-manchester-terrorism-response" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> British politicians for their reaction to the bombing in his hometown, saying they were too politically correct to admit that the concert bombing was the work of an Islamist extremist. "In modern Britain, everyone seems petrified to officially say what we all say in private," the singer wrote on his Facebook page. "Politicians tell us they are unafraid, but they are never the victims. How easy to be unafraid when one is protected from the line of fire. The people have no such protections."</p>
<p>May 24. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/manchester-mayor-bomber-was-a-terrorist-not-muslim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was "a terrorist, not a Muslim."</p>
<p>May 26. MI5, Britain's domestic security agency, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/huge-scale-of-terror-threat-revealed-uk-home-to-23-000-jihadists-3zvn58mhq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that it had identified 23,000 jihadist extremists living in the country. About 3,000 people from the group are judged to pose an immediate threat. They are under investigation or active monitoring in 500 operations being run by police and intelligence services. The 20,000 others have featured in previous inquiries and are categorized as posing a "residual risk." The number was more than seven times higher than previously known.</p>
<p>May 27. Manchester bomber Salman Abedi used taxpayer-funded student loans and benefits to bankroll his terror plot, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/26/exclusive-manchester-suicide-bomber-used-student-loan-benefits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the <i>Telegraph</i>. Abedi is believed to have received thousands of pounds in state funding in the run-up to the attack, even while he was overseas receiving bomb-making training.</p>
<p>May 28. A 23-year-old Libyan "trainee pilot" was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/28/arrest-made-police-investigating-manchester-atrocity2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, as part of the investigation into the jihadist network behind Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.</p>
<p>May 29. Didsbury Mosque, the mosque attended by Manchester bomber Salman Abedi and his family, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40079948" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> to the BBC that it did not report him to British authorities for being a suspected Islamic extremist. The mosque was also <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3667355/preachers-at-mosque-where-manchester-bomber-prayed-called-for-homosexuals-british-soldiers-and-non-believers-to-be-killed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> to have hosted hate preachers who called for British soldiers to be killed and non-believers to be stoned to death.</p>
<p>May 30. Five senior school leaders accused of involvement in the "Trojan Horse" controversy in Birmingham were allowed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/30/trojan-horse-tribunal-five-birmingham-teachers-islam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">return</a> to the classroom, after the government's case against them was found to involve an "abuse of justice" by government lawyers. The teachers had been accused of allowing undue Islamist influence in running three Birmingham state schools, but an independent disciplinary panel, citing a repeated failure on the part of government lawyers to share crucial evidence, discontinued the proceedings against them.</p>
<p>May 31. A new book, "Talking about Terrorism," <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/810115/school-children-told-respect-killers-teaching-aid-talking-about-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urges</a> schoolchildren as young as seven to "write a letter to a terrorist" to help understand their motives. The book describes the indiscriminate mass murder of innocent members of the public as a "type of war." It tells children of primary school age that terrorists kill people because they believe they are being treated "unfairly and not shown respect."</p>
<p>May 31. The findings of an investigation commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron into the foreign funding and support of jihadi groups may never be published, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/sensitive-uk-terror-funding-inquiry-findings-may-never-be-published-saudi-arabia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the <i>Guardian</i>. The inquiry into revenue streams for extremist groups operating in Britain is thought to focus on Saudi Arabia. The Home Office confirmed that the report would not necessarily be published because the contents are "very sensitive."</p>
<p><b>JUNE 2017</b></p>
<p>June 3. Khuram Shazad Butt, a 27-year-old Pakistani-born British citizen, Rachid Redouane, a 30-year-old who claimed to be Libyan and Moroccan and Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old Moroccan-Italian, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40150689" target="_blank" rel="noopener">murdered</a> eight people and injured 50 others in a jihadist attack on and around the London Bridge. The three assailants were shot dead by police. It was the third major jihadist attack in Britain in as many months.</p>
<p>June 3. Khalid Al-Mathkour, chairman of Kuwait's sharia council, and Essam Al-Fulaij, a Kuwaiti government figure known for his anti-Semitic diatribes, were listed as trustees of a UK-registered charity that is building a mosque in Sheffield, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/03/anti-semite-muslim-brotherhood-supporter-behind-new-uk-mosque/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the <i>Telegraph</i>. They have helped channel almost £500,000 ($650,000) into the project from Kuwait. Another £400,000 ($525,000) has been donated to the charity, the Emaan Trust, by a Qatari organization. The stated aim of the new mosque, which will have a capacity for 500 worshippers, is to "promote and teach Islamic morals and values to new Muslim generations."</p>
<p>June 4. Prime Minister Theresa May, after the London Bridge attack, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/britain-security-may-statement-idUSL8N1J10GH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> there was "far too much tolerance of extremism" in Britain and promised to step up the fight against Islamic terrorism. "Enough is enough," she said. May also asserted that the jihadists held to an ideology that was a perversion of true Islam: "It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam [Correct]. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth [Incorrect]."</p>
<p>June 6. Khuram Shazad Butt, one of the London Bridge attackers, was known to British authorities, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/05/london-terrorist-appeared-channel-4-jihadi-documentary-tried/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the <i>Telegraph</i>. He had appeared in a Channel 4 documentary about British extremists called "The Jihadis Next Door." Butt was also filmed at events attended by questionable Islamic preachers, and had tried to go to Syria to become a jihadist there.</p>
<p>June 7. Three "Asian girls" shouting "Allah will get you" <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4580754/Female-nursery-worker-stabbed-three-women-London.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slashed</a> a woman near a nursery in Hermon Hill, London. The victim, named as Katie, was walking along the street when she was ambushed from behind. Police said they were not treating the attack as a terrorist incident.</p>
<p>June 10. Police <a href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/bacon-hate-crime-muslim-cambridge-13166773" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> patrols at local mosques in Cambridge after strips of bacon were left on four cars parked at the Omar Faruque Mosque. A 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with religiously aggravated criminal damage.</p>
<p>June 13. Mak Chishty, who retired as the most senior Muslim police officer in Britain, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/13/muslims-should-take-facebook-condemn-extremism-retired-police/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it was time for British Muslims to stop "skirting around the issues" and to start denouncing extremism.</p>
<p>June 13. Lugman Aslam, 26, was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/muslim-driver-mounted-pavement-ploughed-10615901" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to five years in prison for plowing his van into five men in Leicester after an argument during Ramadan. Aslam admitted to dangerous driving and attempting to inflict intentional grievous bodily harm.</p>
<p>June 14. Shamim Ahmed, a 24-year-old Bangladeshi from Tower Hamlets, East London, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-4604574/Former-security-guard-Crossrail-jailed-trying-join-IS-Syria.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sentenced</a> to six years in prison for trying to join the Islamic State in Syria. During his trial, Ahmed pointed his finger at Judge John Bevan QC and <a href="http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/jail-charlie-hebdo-threats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> him that he, Ahmed, would continue to "wage jihad": "Give me 20 years, I will come out the enemy."</p>
<p>June 15. New statistics <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40287330" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that during the year up to March 2017, 304 people were arrested for terrorism-related offenses — a 20% increase compared to the previous 12 months. Combined with those people held since March, total arrests in 2017 were expected to top the previous record of 315, set in 2015.</p>
<p>June 19. Darren Osborne, a 47-year-old unemployed father of four, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40323769" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drove</a> a van into a group of worshippers close to the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London. One person was killed and eight others injured in the attack, which police said was premeditated. Osborne was "self-radicalized into his extremist hatred of Muslims," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/21/finsbury-park-mosque-attack-two-victims-in-critical-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the <i>Guardian</i>.</p>
<p>June 20. Armed police were <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-40341913" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deployed</a> to the Neolithic Stonehenge to protect thousands of pagans, who were celebrating the summer solstice, from jihadist attacks. David Spofforth of the Pagan Federation said it was "very sad" that armed police were necessary: "I am not saying I am welcoming this, I sadly accept it. But you just have to look at the events such as at Finsbury Park, a peaceful religious gathering where people suffered so much by the actions of one hate-filled individual."</p>
<p>June 22. A Muslim woman <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslim-woman-black-hijab-terrorist-employment-tribunal-discrimination-suing-bury-manchester-a7803666.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> her former employers after allegedly being ordered to remove her black headscarf because the garment had "terrorist affiliations." The estate agent had been working for Harvey Dean in Bury for almost a year when she says managers took issue with her hijab. The woman said she felt "singled out" as the only Muslim woman in the office and claimed the company discriminated against her on the basis of both religion and gender.</p>
<p>June 23. Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, the schools regulator, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/06/23/ofsted-will-crackdown-extremism-promote-british-values-amanda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to crack down on Islamic extremism in British schools. She said that school children must be equipped with the "knowledge and resilience" required to combat the violent rhetoric "peddled" by hate preachers who "put hatred in their hearts and poison in their minds."</p>
<p>June 24. More than 40 foreign jihadists have used human rights laws to remain in Britain, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/24/exclusive-40-convicted-terrorists-have-used-human-rights-laws/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an unpublished report delayed by the Home Office. The study, a copy of which was leaked to the <i>Telegraph</i>, describes how lawyers, funded by legal aid, have successfully prevented foreign-born terror suspects from being sent back to their home countries.</p>
<p>June 25. Michael Adebolajo, who together with Michael Adebowale murdered British soldier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks in south-east London in May 2013, is now regarded as the most dangerous prisoner in the British penal system, <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/one-lee-rigbys-murderers-now-10684096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to prison sources. A prison officer described him as "violent, unpredictable and a major danger to other prisoners." He has also radicalized dozens of inmates, including non-Muslim prisoners who are said to have converted to Islam and sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.</p>
<p>June 27. Muslims <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4642198/John-Thursby-Community-College-headscarf-row.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> an online petition to oppose a new "veil policy" at John Thursby Community College, in Burnley, Lancashire. The school announced plans for a universal-length headscarf that some Muslims said is too short and not sufficiently modest. Previously, girls were free to choose any length they pleased. Some feel that the move is aimed at deterring girls from wearing headscarves at all.</p>
<p>June 28. A <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4647804/Tahir-Aziz-purchased-Samurai-sword-sex-shop.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trial</a> began in London of four jihadists — Naweed Ali, 29, Tahir Aziz, 38, Khobaib Hussain, 25, and Mohibur Rahman, 32 — for allegedly plotting a knife rampage on British soil. The men, who called themselves "The Musketeers," were accused of sharing "the same radical belief in violent jihad." Prosecutors said the terror plot involved a samurai sword and a meat cleaver with the word "Kafir" (unbeliever) scratched onto the blade. The four men were arrested after weapons, ammunition, and a pipe bomb were found in Ali's car during a counter-terrorism operation in Birmingham.</p>
<p>June 29. Three men were <a href="http://armaghi.com/news/armagh-news/three-men-arrested-after-anti-islamic-material-displayed-in-armagh-and-newry/52255" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in the Armagh and Coalisland areas of Northern Ireland for displaying anti-Muslim posters and stickers. Police said the material — which included the slogan "Rapefugees Not Welcome" — was likely to stir up "racial hatred."</p>
<p>June 30. Tarik Chadlioui, a 43-year-old Moroccan cleric living in Birmingham with his wife and eight children, was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4646058/Police-arrest-ISIS-supporter-Birmingham.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of recruiting jihadists for the Islamic State. Chadlioui, a Salafist, is believed to be the spiritual leader of an Islamic State cell in Spain and is wanted in several European countries. Chadlioui, also known as Tarik ibn Ali, is said to have formed links with jihadist groups that aim to impose Sharia law in Europe.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div> The EU requires that its trading partners accept the institution of slaverytag:4freedoms.com,2016-08-26:3766518:Topic:1828122016-08-26T22:11:30.672ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>I was puzzling over the many statements from the EU regarding the Brexit negotiations, that there can be no free trade agreement without the free movement of people as well. I still find this a simply non-sensical assertion.</p>
<p>Paul rightly pointed out that just because ships stopped at docks with goods does not imply that anyone on that ship can get off, because instead of exchanging goods at UK docks, our ships could meet EU ships in the channel and exchange goods there. It would be…</p>
<p>I was puzzling over the many statements from the EU regarding the Brexit negotiations, that there can be no free trade agreement without the free movement of people as well. I still find this a simply non-sensical assertion.</p>
<p>Paul rightly pointed out that just because ships stopped at docks with goods does not imply that anyone on that ship can get off, because instead of exchanging goods at UK docks, our ships could meet EU ships in the channel and exchange goods there. It would be a lot harder, but its still do-able. And nobody (in their right mind) can assert that any two ships crossing on any ocean should allow free movement of people between those ships.</p>
<p>But what do these phrases mean exactly? Well, the free movement of goods between two countries is really the non-tariff trade of goods. But the EU is saying there is <em>no difference</em> between the free movement of goods, and the free movement of peoples - it is not possible to discriminate between these two actions, they are inseparable.</p>
<p>In other words, the EU is insisting that there is no difference between trading in goods and trading in people, i.e. slavery. The EU is insisting that we should treat people as objects to be traded, just like we treat goods, because the two are inseperable.</p>
<p>The EU is insisting that human trafficking and slavery are legally equivalent to goods trading, and should be treated as such.</p> The State is your Enemytag:4freedoms.com,2016-08-23:3766518:Topic:1822982016-08-23T20:45:35.401ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>Every so often, a piece of news comes up that shows clearly that you cannot depend on the state to protect you, or to defend you if attacked, or even to leave you alone. So obviously we have the example of Tommy Robinson, that the state is trying to destroy, because he is not keeping to their defined narrative.</p>
<p>But there are other news items that show which way the chips lie, where totally innocent people in the UK experience violent, criminal or terrorist incidents, their lives are…</p>
<p>Every so often, a piece of news comes up that shows clearly that you cannot depend on the state to protect you, or to defend you if attacked, or even to leave you alone. So obviously we have the example of Tommy Robinson, that the state is trying to destroy, because he is not keeping to their defined narrative.</p>
<p>But there are other news items that show which way the chips lie, where totally innocent people in the UK experience violent, criminal or terrorist incidents, their lives are ruined, and we see no attempt by the state to take on the causes in any serious way. We start off with this poor doctor - one of the more precious bulwarks of our society - not that it did her any good.<br/> _________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hero-london-77-bombings-doctor-8689918#rlabs=1%20rt">http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hero-london-77-bombings-doctor-8689918#rlabs=1%20rt</a>$category%20p$10<br/> <br/> What is the real story here?<br/> <br/> Hero London 7/7 bombings doctor killed in fire caused by cigarette thrown into plastic bag<br/> 16:05, 23 AUG 2016 UPDATED 16:05, 23 AUG 2016<br/> BY SCOTT CAMPBELL<br/> Claire Sheppey was one of the first to respond to the devastating terror attack 11 years ago which stunned the world<br/> <br/> So after dealing with all the mayhem and mangled bodies caused by that Islamic attack, was she perhaps finding it difficult to find peace in her soul?<br/> <br/> Fumes seeped into Dr Sheppey's bedroom and she died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being rushed to Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.<br/> It was the hospital where she battled to save dozens of terribly-injured and shell-shocked victims after Islamic terrorists killed 52 people in an onslaught on Tube trains and a bus on July 7, 2005.<br/> <br/> Dr Sheppey, who wasn't burned at all, was found slumped in her bedroom by firefighters.<br/> She had 193 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millitres of blood, the hearing was told.<br/> The drink-drive limit is 80mgs of alcohol per 100mls of blood.<br/> <br/> I think Dr. Sheppey was another victim of that Muslim 7/7 attrocity.<br/> <br/> In the same way, many of our ex-servicemen sleeping rough because they can't fit in, or committing suicide because of PTSD, are victims of the governments politically correct way of fighting Islam by going to another country to address the problem, because they can't face the issues over here.</p> The Economist on Brexit: Britain sailing into a stormtag:4freedoms.com,2016-06-28:3766518:Topic:1799522016-06-28T17:06:33.191ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>This topic is not particularly about the 4 freedoms, but having written a comment on this article for a friend, I thought I should share it.</p>
<blockquote><h1 class="fly-title"><span class="font-size-3">Anarchy in the UK</span></h1>
<h3 class="headline">Britain is sailing into a storm with no one at the wheel</h3>
<h3 class="headline">Jun 26th 2016, 19:47 <span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">by BAGEHOT…</span></h3>
<p></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This topic is not particularly about the 4 freedoms, but having written a comment on this article for a friend, I thought I should share it.</p>
<blockquote><h1 class="fly-title"><span class="font-size-3">Anarchy in the UK</span></h1>
<h3 class="headline">Britain is sailing into a storm with no one at the wheel</h3>
<h3 class="headline">Jun 26th 2016, 19:47 <span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">by BAGEHOT</span></h3>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2016/06/anarchy-uk?cid1=cust/ddnew/n/n/n/20160627n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/n/email&etear=dailydispatch">http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2016/06/anarchy-uk?cid1=cust/ddnew/n/n/n/20160627n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/n/email&etear=dailydispatch</a></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">I find the responses so comical. On the one hand you have the mindless, indoctrinated drones saying "who will lead us now? who will protect us? who will tell me what to do? what should I do with all this freedom and choice?". It's like watching the Borg in Star Trek wandering aimlessly around, when their Borg Queen has been destroyed.<br/> <br/> Then you have the totalitarian liberal elites, upset that their plans to take control of society and implement the 'master plan' that only they fully understand, have been thwarted by the hoi polloi, the common people, the 'dumb' masses that ought to know better. Their response is so primitive. They still think there is a 'right answer' to all political questions, whereas in fact, many of them are simply unresolvable. So, all you can do is let the process wander about according to democratic inclination.<br/> <br/> Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tablets of stone, giving us the moral prescriptions for mankind. Well no, it was actually just for judeo-Christian mankind in the end. So I've looked on the surface of the moon and mars, and haven't managed to find any other tablets to give us our over-riding prescriptions. But the Remain camp are convinced of theirs.<br/> <br/> What the Remain camp lack, amongst other things, is humility. Their conceit in the correctness of the EU master plan, is distasteful, especially since only a very brief survey of history shows the fallibility of all master plans.<br/> <br/> Anyway after those introductory remarks, I will consider Shagalot/Bagehot/I've-got-a-fancy-name-so-I-speak-with-authority-a-lot.<br/> <br/> Who is Bagehot? Is he more important than Alanelot? This is not a fallible single humanoid, surely? Perhaps he even brought some more tablets down from Mount Sinai?<br/> <br/> Well actually Walter Bagehot (1826-1827) was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature. One of his most famous quotes is:<br/></span></p>
<blockquote>" <i>The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."<br/></i></blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">Hmmm, swimming against the tide, deviating from the accepted narrative and orthodoxy. That would be leaving the sacred cow of the EU then? So many words and I've only just finished some introductory remarks.<br/></span></p>
<blockquote><p><i>On live television Faisal Islam, the political editor of SkyNews, was recounting a conversation with a pro-Brexit Conservative MP. “I said to him: ‘Where’s the plan? Can we see the Brexit plan now?’ [The MP replied:] ‘There is no plan. The Leave campaign don’t have a post-Brexit plan…Number 10 should have had a plan.’” The camera cut to Anna Botting, the anchor, horror chasing across her face. For a couple of seconds they were both silent, as the point sunk in. “Don’t know what to say to that, actually,” she replied, looking down at the desk. Then she cut to a commercial break.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The children are wetting their panties, yes. But too many obvious points are not made here for me to deal with.</p>
<ul>
<li>There are plans. The Bank of England proudly explained all the contingency measures it had put in place to protect against risk, and there was no major collapse, like before, with Black Monday, when Soros lead (and won) an attack on the pound. There was nothing like that. Nobody remembers.</li>
<li>What about when we won the 2nd world war? Where were the plans? The crippled, exhausted troops returned to destitute Britain and a life of grinding poverty compared to today. There weren't any grand plans at that stage, because that's not how life works. I don't want to say more than that.</li>
<li>I really don't know where to stop with this nonsense. When I got attacked in the media, they had so many people discussing what I said and thought, and fabricating all kinds of junk and imagination - but they never asked me, and rarely quoted my actual words. <br/> <br/> So what they hell is this interviewer doing speaking to these people? The pro-Brexit MP is not even Cameron, the party leader, so how can he speak of the grand strategy? Was he even a minister, privy to closed meetings? But then, its even the wrong group in the party. Cameron is out. <br/> <br/> Why didn't they ask Boris Johnson? He is the putative leader of the tories now, and he will be the person advocating the plans. <i>Even Cameron would not be able to say the plan</i>, it would make him look ridiculous. Nigel Farage could have spoken to give advisory comments, but even those would be subservient to Boris's direction. <br/> <br/> As for Anna Botting, WTF? Why not just go focus on what your Mum's response to this is? She is as relevant as Anna Botting. This is what I mean by cheap indoctrination. There is nothing substantial in that whole section, it is specious, and doctrinal.</li>
</ul>
<p>So "The pound has tumbled"? Currency fluctuations on a daily basis are even more meaningless than the share prices, and it is too early yet to make meaningful observations on those.</p>
<p>Here, on Monday, is a clearer view of share prices following Brexit.</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=FTSE:FSI">http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=FTSE:FSI</a></p>
<ul>
<li>If you pick the 5 day view there appears to be a drop of 200 points from 6200 to 6000</li>
<li>However, if you pick the 10 day view, <i>there is effectively no change</i></li>
<li>On the 1 year view, prices dropped in July 2015, and have stayed lower since then</li>
<li>On the 5 year view, <i>we have again no change</i>, and the price in 2011 was just before a big crash, so the 2011 pricing may have been a bubble about to burst, anyway.</li>
</ul>
<p>My conclusion is that <i>the share prices are not yet a statistically significant indicator of the effects of Brexit</i>, and won't be for some time to come.</p>
</div>
<p>Do I need to explain the currency markets to them? That the market is amoral, and merely seeks to exploit any variation for profit? If the UK decides to execute the Queen, and the next day the market jump up, does that mean it was a good thing? No. Does it even mean it was statistically significant? No, not even that. We need a road sign: "Warning: children at work".</p>
<p>Skipping on.</p>
<blockquote><p><i>At home mounting evidence suggests a spike in racist and xenophobic attacks on immigrants.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">Funny, because <i>on the same page</i> I first read about that I also found this:<br/> <br/> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3664004/Alice-Gross-killer-entered-UK-checks-not-carried-past-crimes.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3664004/Alice-Gross-killer-entered-UK-checks-not-carried-past-crimes.html</a><br/> <br/> <span>Foreigners entering Britain 'were not routinely checked for convictions at the time Alice Gross' Latvian killer came to UK'<br/></span> <br/> So that girl lost her life and the rest of that mother's life is now a sad decline. But that's ok I guess, after all, shit happens, yes? But could we just connect a few dots here? The Latvian wouldn't have been in the country if we didn't have open borders with Europe. He wouldn't have been physically able to live, with housing and benefits etc. But forget about that, what really matters is that some people have said unpleasant things, and sprayed some graffitti - if you want to virtue signal to your fellow liberal scum that is. Nobody will congratulate you for worrying about <br/> damaged people and families like Alice Gross, but if you keep on about foreign victims, you will score far more points.<br/> <br/> I'm not excusing any acts, I am merely asking for a fair comparison.<br/> <br/> And as for the acts, I saw some leaflets on RT.com with swastikas on, very professionally produced and well drawn. I would bet you money that they are a false flag operation, made by some pro-remain leftist group, in order to discredit the leave victory. I can't find the news item now. Maybe it has already been exposed. On 4F there is a forum just for FFOs (False Flag Operations) related to Islam, and it already has over 20 entries. FFOs are not as rare as you think. As for any reporting by Tell Mama, Fiyaz Muhhal has been shown to be a total liar many times, has lost his government funding, yet still the media quote his false statistics like a mindless telephone answering machine.<br/></span></p>
<blockquote><i>Northern Ireland’s peace settlement may hang by a thread.</i></blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">Hello? Was anybody reading the news about Northern Ireland before? I guess not, because its an unimportant little spit of land. But if you were, you'd know that there's been a mounting level of attacks on police and prison officers on their homes and private cars, and disturbing levels of non-cooperation from Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein sometimes seems to be using the terrorist attacks to quietly further its agenda. I <i>already</i> <i>thought</i> the Good Friday agreement had failed, and that Hume should give his Nobel Peace prize back and Tony Blair should shut up.<br/> <br/> And while we are on this, the US has an unsustainable $20T of foreign debt, and several of the EU countries as well. Some kind of new crash is due around now or in the next 3 years. What do you bet its blamed on Brexit?<br/> <br/> I'm going to skip most of the rest, its a waste of my time. Just 2 final comments.<br/></span></p>
<blockquote><i>Number 10, however, seems to have done little planning for this eventuality<br/></i></blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">Yes it does "appear" that way, altho it would be nice if you asked Cameron. Maybe you did and he decided you'd be a waste of his time, just like I have.<br/></span></p>
<blockquote><i>The country is sailing into a storm. And no one is at the wheel.</i></blockquote>
<p><span class="location" style="font-size: 13px;">Ha ha, the infant can't even get his language right. Countries and boats are always sailing into storms. Its what they do. Daily bread and butter. What is not so relaxed is sailing into <i>dangerous</i> or <i>violent</i> storms. That's like the Mandelson (?) claim that it should be made illegal to shout 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre, missing out the crucial "falsely" - where his slip revealed how his mind really works. In the same way, Bagehot reveals his fear and lack of resolve. My God, if he's like this over Brexit, how would he be facing the Nazis after they'd captured all of Europe; or the Soviet Union in a nuclear stand-off?<br/> <br/> Is no-one at the wheel? Obama is currently on his Lame Duck presidency - so is no-one at the wheel of the most powerful nation on earth? Or is that just how politics works? If I may borrow the expression, Cameron is now on a Lame Duck premiership. OK children, Little Johnny can say "OK, I'm in charge today, then you be in charge tomorrow", but adults and democracies have to go thru carefully controlled processes to ensure that power is transferred to the proper parties. <br/> <br/> Instead of crying in his corner, the mighty Bagehot could suggest a generic method by which the process of transition to a new prime minister can be accomplished more rapidly. Nothing to do with this particular kerfuffle, but dealing with a general problem the two main parties have had since day one. Its happened before, and it will happen again. Perhaps the transition process needs a little bit of thought and planning, and maybe some amendments to the party constitution? I'm just saying, that's all. I'm not a mightly political commentator, I'm just a fly on the wall.</span></p> The Shrinking Perimetertag:4freedoms.com,2014-08-31:3766518:Topic:1561732014-08-31T20:51:23.479ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>We're all familiar with the perimeter concept from military movies, its the first thing the convoy does in Black Hawk Down, for example.</p>
<p>The perimeter is the 'hard' outside, and its understood that the inside is always 'soft' i.e. vulnerable. Because the perimeter is smaller than the inside, a smaller force can defend it and protect the whole organism/platoon/nation. The skin is the perimeter of the body. The walls are the perimeter of the castle. The borders are the perimeter of…</p>
<p>We're all familiar with the perimeter concept from military movies, its the first thing the convoy does in Black Hawk Down, for example.</p>
<p>The perimeter is the 'hard' outside, and its understood that the inside is always 'soft' i.e. vulnerable. Because the perimeter is smaller than the inside, a smaller force can defend it and protect the whole organism/platoon/nation. The skin is the perimeter of the body. The walls are the perimeter of the castle. The borders are the perimeter of the nation. This is the theory of protection by perimeter. The external perimeter normally protects by 3 means:</p>
<ol>
<li>a firm border, which it is hard to cross</li>
<li>surveillance of those approaching the perimeter</li>
<li>punishment of those unauthorised who enter the perimeter</li>
</ol>
<p>We used to have a hard border round our nation, the UK, with these 3 protections, but the Leftards, who are so generous with our personal security, not their own, have seriously weakened them. Well, the perimeter has to exist somewhere, or the organism dies, so where has it gone?</p>
<p>The answer is, it has shrunk down. Those of you old enough to remember, will know that at one point you went into a bank or post office, and the cashier sat on the other side of a desk. Then as crime increased, they put up a screen. Then the screen got taller till it reached the ceiling. Then it got fastened top and bottom, made of bullet proof glass, and a little hole made for you to shove your things through. There you have it again, your secure perimeter, with the inside and outside clearly defined.</p>
<p>The same has happened with council staff. In many offices now, there are two completely separate flows of humans, one flow for the staff, with a hard perimeter, and another for the public. As more cuts bite, and people get more angry we can expect to see these kind of perimeter barriers grow.</p>
<p>It is even shrinking down to the person, in public spaces. Because you can no longer trust the people around you, and because you don't feel anything in common with them because they have a completely different culture, people in London, say, are suspicious of any stranger approaching them. Woe betide anyone who asks the way, or the time.</p>
<p>Actually, a properly run country has an external perimeter to keep undesirables out, and also some internal perimeters to keep undesirables in - i.e. prisons - since every country will generate its own undesirables anyway. The leftards have weakened both our external perimeter on the country, and the internal perimeters on our criminal detention facilities. This has generated threats inside the body of the country, which originate both from outside the country, and by leakage from the prisons inside. </p>
<p>You get the idea. In summary, these are the places that the perimeter has shrunk to, now that the government has exposed us by taking away our criminal perimeter and our national perimeter.</p>
<ul>
<li>segregation of public in banks and post offices</li>
<li>segregation of public in council offices</li>
<li>installation of security cameras everywhere (protection 2)</li>
<li>gated communities</li>
<li>restriction of children to being inside the house. Previously, children ran free outside the house. Those days are long gone, especially in <a href="http://4freedoms.com/group/children/forum/topics/muslim-rape-gangs-in-england?commentId=3766518%3AComment%3A156626&groupId=3766518%3AGroup%3A98411" target="_self">Rotherham</a></li>
<li>hostility to the other members of the public</li>
<li>concealed carry (in the US), because we no longer have faith in the authorities to protect us</li>
<li>no trust for politicians, courts & the police, because we're no longer in the same culture</li>
<li>no trust for doctors: we supervise our health ourselves</li>
</ul>
<p>For internet banking, the levels of security protocols required are now so high, that it is probably quicker to go back to posting checks for payment. Perhaps if harsher punishments had been meted out to the original hackers, we would not have progressed to this state (although I realise that this is often an international crime).</p>
<p>But the process has not finished yet. Thanks to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326208/Roshonara-Choudhry-knifed-MP-Stephen-Timms-smiles-gets-life.html" target="_blank">Roshanara Choudhry</a>, you can expect to see your MP retreating behind glass barriers - certainly in Muslim areas (unless he's a Muslim). I think it will even happen to your GP, as frustration with the NHS grows. The doctor, from behind the glass screen, will ask you to show him your body, and for swabs and so on, he can pass a self-test kit. (Injections will have to be done by a completely separate facility, with security present).</p>
<p>You can expect to see homes reverting more to the Pakistani/Afghani style, with a high wall all around. That is the new perimeter.</p>
<p>I was amazed recently to see the pharmacy staff of boots with their full first name and surname shown on their badge. That's a leakage of information that exposes their staff to all kinds of risks. You can expect to see that kind of thing disappear as well. Just as the police are identified by number, so that tracking them down for personal retribution is not so easy, you can expect to see doctors, nurses and shop assistants disappear behind anonymous ID tags, to avoid follow up scenarios.</p>
<p>So these are the predicted changes:</p>
<ul>
<li>MPs and other public figures behind glass screens</li>
<li>more gated communities, and more detached houses with surrounded fencing</li>
<li>segregation of GP's behind glass screens</li>
<li>anonymisation of ID tag for public facing staff</li>
</ul>
<p>And all because the ruling elite want to make us share our lives with burglars, thugs, rapists, child groomers and murderers, in order to display like peacocks, their lack of discrimination. Indeed it does show that, but not quite in the self-flattering sense they intended.</p> The Persecution of Tommy Robinsontag:4freedoms.com,2014-01-19:3766518:Topic:1435962014-01-19T00:36:16.411ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p>I'm not sure of the actual date of this. I think it might be a year old. It doesn't contain all the recent politically-motivated trials against Tommy.<br></br> <br></br> But the fact that Liberty has not taken up his case, the fact the the media simply ignore what is going on with him, just shows how the elite will draw ranks to destroy those who get in the way of their plans. These concerted actions require collusion not just by the police and CPS, but all the mainstream media, all the political…</p>
<p>I'm not sure of the actual date of this. I think it might be a year old. It doesn't contain all the recent politically-motivated trials against Tommy.<br/> <br/> But the fact that Liberty has not taken up his case, the fact the the media simply ignore what is going on with him, just shows how the elite will draw ranks to destroy those who get in the way of their plans. These concerted actions require collusion not just by the police and CPS, but all the mainstream media, all the political parties (EDL is not aligned to any party) and all the human rights organisations. If Tommy was black or Irish or a muslim, then Liberty would be knocking at his door to represent him.</p>
<p>Current link for info and to offer support </p>
<p><a href="https://tommyrobinson.online/latest/">https://tommyrobinson.online/latest/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://tommyrobinson.online/support/">https://tommyrobinson.online/support/</a></p>
<blockquote><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/my-persecution-as-told-by-tommy-robinson/">http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/my-persecution-as-told-by-tommy...</a></p>
<p><strong>Until I joined the EDL, I thought state persecution was something that happened in places like Russia, China or Iran, but it seems that I was wrong</strong>. It’s happening right here in Britain. Here is the truth about one man’s persecution. It was written whilst on remand for another trumped up, overblown charge. In Tommy’s own words, his persecution at the hands of the Police and of the British State.</p>
<p>Where did it start? When did it start?……….</p>
<p>After our first demonstration back in May 2009, in response to the appalling scenes during the royal Anglian homecoming parade, we decided to leaflet our disgust at what the council and police had facilitated.</p>
<p>I organised a protest in Luton town centre, under the banner of the United People of Luton (UPL), calling for people in power to explain why the police and council had facilitated hostile individuals with known links to terrorist organisations to spit and hurl abuse at our soldiers.</p>
<p>The initial demo was very successful with about 500 in attendance. But still the police and council were silent on the matter and instead prosecuted normal citizens who reacted to the abuse from the group of Jihadists. We decided to call another demonstration. But a week before our 2<span>nd</span>demonstration (at the end of May) the police visited 4 addresses in Luton, one being my mother and father’s. I was not at home at the time of the police visits so avoided arrest but 13 others were arrested and questioned on public order offences relating to the initial demo at the start of May. All 13 were given a bail date 3 months away with bail conditions banning them from Luton town centre for 24 hours a day 7 days a week.</p>
<p>Does this sound familiar?</p>
<p>The police seem to be using this tactic quite commonly these days. I was not arrested so when we attended our second demonstration in Luton at the end of May a few of us decided to wear balaclavas.</p>
<p>This was for two reasons:</p>
<p>1. I had a warrant out for my arrest post the first demo.</p>
<p>2. Because some of the 13 who were arrested and banned wanted to attend the demo.</p>
<p>The day after our 2<span>nd</span> UPL demo I called the police to hand myself in. I was then called back by the officer dealing with the incidents and he informed me I no longer had to hand myself in. It was at this point the Home Secretary instigated a ban on marches in Luton for 30 days. The reason for coming to my mum and dad’s house was simply to ban me from the town centre!</p>
<p>There was a 3<span>rd</span> date put out for a UPL demonstration, but that was cancelled. On the date of the planned demo 200 Muslims had gathered in the Bury Park area of Luton and had decided to attack police and hurl bricks and fireworks at them for <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbAdoD9LnQ8&feature=related" target="_blank">no apparent reason</a>.</p>
<p>I was on my own driving through town and noticed a huge riot police presence near the entrance to Bury Park area, when I was pulled over by a police car. I was driving my wife’s family car which was purchased direct from Vauxhall two years before. When I got out of the car I could hear explosions going off and could see missiles being thrown. I asked the officer what was going on and he said “nothing”. I actually started to laugh and said your answer could not have been more ridiculous as it looked like a war zone in front of me. He just turned and said the last thing we need is “your lot” coming down here. By “<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37CQTyVRV4">your lot</a>” I presume he meant the people who were opposed to the violent Islamic extremists who spat at our soldiers, call for death to the west, and were currently creating a war zone in the middle of the town?</p>
<p>At this point I was arrested – apparently for driving a ringed car? My car was impounded and I was held in the cells for 12 hours. Police then raided my mum’s house again, this time to look for number plates supposedly and guess what… my car was fine and I was released without charge. But I had to collect my car which was in a compound 20 miles away from Luton and I was supposed to be going to centre parks with my kids that morning!</p>
<p>I realise now that this was only the beginning of police persecution against me in an attempt to silence me.</p>
<p>What we were starting was only going to increase.</p>
<p>The UPL quickly turned into the EDL, and I soon found there were thousands of people just like me who were sick and tired of our spineless politicians and senior police officers who were too scared to stand up for our culture or our human rights when faced with the threat of militant Islam.</p>
<p>It was February 2010 and I was at Luton airport travelling to Scotland for the first Scottish Defence League demo. When I went to check in I was pulled in and held by special branch. When I got into the room I was told I was being arrested for racially aggravated public order and criminal damage!</p>
<p>As soon as I heard this I immediately though what an absolute stitch up, I was then taken to Luton police station where I asked to make a phone call. It was at this point the arresting officer said I was not allowed a call. I asked why and his response was “we are raiding houses linked to you”. I then said, “criminal damage? What can you possibly be looking for and what house are you raiding?”</p>
<p>The criminal damage charge was for £30 damage to a door in a budget hotel In Sheffield I had stayed at 3 months earlier. The damage was not even for my door, but another entirely different door in the hotel. I thought this just didn’t stack up but soon it would get even more unbelievable.</p>
<p>A huge number of police raided my parents’ house (for the 3<span>rd</span>time since I had started organising demonstrations and I had not even lived with my parents for over 4 years). My parents are in their 50’s and 60’s and they entered the house basically ripping up everything searching through cupboards and wardrobes – for what exactly? Remember that this was supposedly all about a criminal damage charge after all. They then packaged up my dad’s computer and laptop into evidence bags and took them back to the station.</p>
<p>Armed police then went and raided my house leaving my wife and children crying and petrified with the surrounding neighbours thinking they were living next door to Fred West! They then removed all electronic devices, mobile phones and computers and even an EDL t-shirt from my house and placed it into evidence bags and then released me on bail.</p>
<p>Whilst in custody I asked them why it had taken 3 months to arrest me and told them that they had planned these raids to prevent me attending the SDL demo. They said that was not the case and had been trying to locate my whereabouts for a while. Three days prior to this raid I was pulled over in my car by 3 police vans (this actually happens weekly since I started the EDL!). They asked me to get out of my car while they stripped and searched it. They would not provide me with a reason for the stop and search on my car.</p>
<p>I informed the police that the officers who had pulled me over had run my name through their system and if there was a warrant out for my arrest, then why didn’t they arrest me then? What they did was deliberately hold off my arrest for these fabricated charges until I was at the airport in order to stop me traveling to meet with some patriots of the SDL.</p>
<p>My bail date was set for the bank holiday weekend and was timed for the exact same date as the Bradford demo with my bail set in Sheffield. My bail conditions were that I could not meet with 3 or more members of the EDL!</p>
<p>At first I thought was what had the EDL got to do with this arrest? But in fact the EDL had everything to with this arrest. The entire reason for these somewhat ridiculous heavy handed tactics was purely due to my involvement in the EDL.</p>
<p>When I spoke to my solicitor he could not quite believe what had happened and had the bail conditions listed in court within 48 hours. Guess what… they were dropped as the judge said they were totally irrelevant to the case.</p>
<p>Three weeks later guess what… the police dropped all the charges and returned all our possessions. I filed a complaint with the Independents Police Complaints Commission which is still to this day ‘pending’. I demanded to know how they gained a warrant to raid both my parents’ and my house on completely fabricated charges. My solicitor said in his entire career he had never heard of a police raid for supposed criminal damage, let alone one that involved nearly 40 police officers and an armed response team!</p>
<p>The police were clearly fishing for intelligence and wanted to intimidate my family and me.</p>
<p>A couple of months later I was awoken by the sound of the police smashing my door in yet again! This time I was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. The police also arrested my wife in front of our children. We were both taken to separate stations and held for ten hours in custody. Police seized any valuables (even my engagement ring) as they said I had financial irregularities between 2007 and 2009.</p>
<p>They then froze all of my bank accounts including business and left us as a family to live on a £250 a week restriction. In short if I spend more than £250 a week they will send me to prison. I researched this and these tactics are referred to as ‘disruption’ tactics. It has now been over a year and my family are still on the same restrictions, I am still on bail with no charge having been placed and they are financially crippling me. I cannot even have direct debits and this causes serious problems on normal things such as mortgage payments or car insurance.</p>
<p>All of the police actions around this have been to intimidate and target the EDL. The level of police harassment since the very first UPL demonstration has been quite unbelievable.</p>
<p>Last year a school friend of mine was arrested by the police, he was arrested in possession of 3 firearms and £140,000. I had been on a lad’s holiday with him a year before this arrest, and he had a holiday picture on display in his lounge with me in it.</p>
<p>His partner contacted me and what she then went onto tell me was truly unbelievable in spite of all the police harassment I had already received. Whilst this old school friend was on remand in prison the Serious Organised Crime agency (SOCA) had visited him in prison and offered him a deal: he could walk free if he provided a witness statement that the guns found in his possession were actually mine!</p>
<p>This is 100% the gospel truth – evidence of all these arrests with zero resulting in charges can be provided.</p>
<p>More recently I was arrested for an offence relating to a demo outside Luton council when a contingent of Euro MPs came on an anti-EDL crusade, with the aim of calling all citizens who are concerned about their own culture being eroded violent racist islamophobes. This dross is pretty boring now. I was subsequently arrested and charged under section 4 of the Public Order Act. Again I had committed NO crime and surprise surprise… the bail conditions for this fabricated charge was that I do not attend any demonstrations within 10 miles of Luton!</p>
<p>On that very same day Lancashire police charged me with assault and the two forces had clearly cooperated as the bail conditions I was given for this second offence was that I cannot be involved in any EDL demonstration (removing my right to freedom of assembly – can you ever see them doing this to a Muslim extremist? – they would have lawyers queuing up to defend their human rights), I cannot use the internet, email or text message to participate in anything EDL related.</p>
<p>I went to Luton magistrates and pleaded not guilty to section 4. Then 6 weeks later I received a letter saying it was not in the public interest to pursue this case and guess what? The case was dropped. Are you noticing a bit of a pattern?</p>
<p>A short while after this the police raided my house again – I wish they would just knock it would be a whole lot easier and cheaper as it happens so bloody often. I was arrested for another ‘alleged’ assault. I pleaded not guilty and went to Luton magistrate’s court. Guess what? Yes you guessed it thrown out of court for lack of evidence. There are so many instances of this you might think I am exaggerating but these are all factual.</p>
<p>I have now just spent 8 days in prison for breaching the bail conditions from the Lancashire police (a charge which again is fabricated and will not hold up in court) by attending the peaceful protest at Tower Hamlets. This is the 3<span>rd</span> time the police have restricted my democratic rights – have any Muslims had their rights restricted?</p>
<p>Anjem Choudary and his merry men turn up on Armistice Day burning poppies and shouting through the two minutes silence and yet they are still free to turn up at the 9-11 memorial and repeat the same disgusting behaviour, burning American flags and shouting obscenities through the service. Does this sound like a two tier legal system to you?</p>
<p>The government and the police can do what they like to white British citizens even hit them with police batons for attending peaceful demonstrations, but Muslims extremists can march with faces covered at a time when there is a supposed marching ban in London. They can carry sticks, shout disgusting abuse and praise terrorists, wave the black terrorist flag of Jihad in London’s streets and the police are scared stiff to even touch them.</p>
<p>Now let me talk about my two circus-like convictions earlier in the year which the press love to mention at every given opportunity (Football Hooligan). Bearing in mind what I have just explained about the police action towards me, have a think about this case and make your own mind up.</p>
<p>I was arrested outside Luton Town football stadium because apparently there was a warrant out for my arrest for an apparent assault which was laughed out of court as mentioned above. I was taken to the station, questioned about this so called assault, and bailed for 8 weeks. I was at no time questioned about any football violence. I answered bail 8 weeks later and when I did this they then arrested me for supposedly being involved in football violence 8 weeks prior on the night they actually arrested me for something entirely different! If this was the case would you not think I would have been arrested for the supposed football violence on the night it happened as they had me in custody?</p>
<p>What was my crime that night? To have my hands in the air and shout the C word (which I am not particularly proud about) at a group of opposing fans who were goading Luton fans. In my charge sheet the crime which magically changed from a supposed assault in Luton (which I was arrested for) to leading a 100 man fight outside a football ground in the 8 weeks I was on bail.</p>
<p>So I was accused of leading a 100 man punch up – a 100 man punch up would be serious disorder so how many arrests did the police make, both on the night and since this serious violent 100 man brawl? That’s right, 1 arrest – me! Was there any video footage of this huge brawl – No! In a world where everyone has a camera phone you would think a 100 people fighting right outside a football stadium would have found its way onto YouTube – No! Was I going to be able to get the chance to have a jury – No! They charged me with an offence which could only be settled in magistrates.</p>
<p>So there you go – I went to magistrates and was convicted of having my hands in the air and swearing. The police statement also said I was shouting ‘EDL, EDL’ – get real why would I be shouting this at a Luton game? I received a ban from football for 3 years just another little inconvenience the police have managed to place on me, and I am banned from Luton town centre and bury park on a Saturday.</p>
<p>The arresting officer also wrote in his statement that he witnessed me fighting. He somehow did a u turn in court when interrogated by my defence solicitor and said that he did not see me fighting. A police officer lying in his statement in order to get me convicted – whatever next? You can see evidence of this U-turn in <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/25/english-defence-league-founder-brawl?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">an article</a> by a Guardian journalist who sat in on the trial.</p>
<p>Now to the earlier conviction when the EDL counter protested the Muslim Extremists that burned the poppies through the armistice two minutes silence. The police happily facilitated these animals to burn poppies and hurl abuse through the two minutes silence shouting for our fallen heroes to burn in hell and worse. Again we have instances where an ex-soldier burns a Qur’an. Now I am not agreeing with the burning of a Qur’an, but at the end of the day it is just a book. This guy was arrested and is now serving time at her majesty’s pleasure. What happens to the animals that burn poppies on the streets of London? That’s right a £50 fine which he refused to pay even though the scum bag gets £800 a month in benefits from tax payers. Two tier system in full view!</p>
<p>The terrorists were waving the black war flag of Jihad which is the same flag that the Islamic terrorist organisations have above victims like Ken Bigley before they severed their heads. I just cannot understand why the police are so scared that they let these people walk through the streets of London waving terrorist flags. I decided to jump the barrier and pull down one of these flags. When I did this I was man handled by a number of police officers and one office actually smashed my head against the metal railings.</p>
<p>I was arrested for the incident and then at the station to my surprise they were arresting me for assaulting a police officer! When my solicitor asked for the CCTV footage he was told there was none but instead they had the statements from two officers which said I assaulted one of them. The protest happened on exhibition road, right outside an embassy in London with 40 of Britain’s most extreme Muslims, yet there was no CCTV? I personally saw police surveillance officers filming through hand held cameras but the police insisted there was no video footage.</p>
<p>I was actually concerned as I knew that my word against two police officers would not stand up in court and I would get a few years in jail for something I had not done. We contacted some of the film crews who were covering the event and to my relief ITV had filmed the whole incident which clearly shows the only thing I assaulted was a black terrorist flag.</p>
<p>I turned up at court with the video footage which the police conveniently did not have and guess what? Yes you know the case got thrown out of court and the assault charge was dropped. 2 months later Scotland Yard came back and re-arrested me for the same incident but this time for public order (causing alarm and distress to the scum that were burning poppies). It looks like they were determined to get me on something and this time it was a charge which could easily be proven as the police man just had to say when I grabbed the flag I caused him alarm and distress. I was found guilty and give a fine 7 times larger than that of the extremist who burned the poppies. So pulling down a terrorist flag is 7 times worse than burning poppies – go work that one out…</p>
<p>Those two instances where the police have actually lied in statements in order to prosecute me for crimes I did not commit. It makes me wonder if they will get fast tracked in the police force if they nail ‘Tommy Robinson’ and try to put an end to the EDL. Well the EDL is far bigger than any one person.</p>
<p>Well the police persecution will go on and I know it’s nothing to do with the front line officers, many of which have told me off the record they agree with what we are saying and they are following orders from the top, which in the instance of the poppy burning etc frustrates the life out of them.</p>
<p>It’s political policing from the top and, to be honest, it stinks. You could be forgiven for thinking we are in China not Britain and we have a police state. The only thing that has shocked me so far is that no one has planted anything on me such are the lies, persecution and attempts to disrupt and ruin everything in my family life.</p>
<p>At first they tried to intimidate me, then they tried to intimidate my mum and dad, then they arrest my wife, anything in order to break me.</p>
<p>Well you won’t break us, I wrote most of this statement with my head held high in Bedford prison C wing.</p>
<p>Edward Abbey once said, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government” and Sir Winston Churchill said, “I see the damage done by the enemy but I also see the spirit of an unconquerable people.”</p>
<p>The one thing I was thinking when in Bedford on hunger strike for the 8 days was that I miss my wife, I miss my kids and I miss Nandos…</p>
<p>Has it all been worth it? Of course it f*cking has!</p>
</blockquote> The BBC has come to loathe those it serves - Daily Telegraphtag:4freedoms.com,2013-10-08:3766518:Topic:1395602013-10-08T03:46:08.972ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div class="storyHead"><h1><span style="font-size: 1.5em;">A great organisation has grown too Leftie and too big</span></h1>
<div class="artIntro"><div id="storyEmbSlide"><div class="slideshow ssIntro"><div class="nextPrevLayer"><div class="ssImg"><a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02693/1bbc_2693647b.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02693/1bbc_2693647b.jpg?width=620" width="620"></img></a><div class="artImageExtras"><div class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">The BBC has suffered an infestation of soggy…</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="storyHead"><h1><span style="font-size: 1.5em;">A great organisation has grown too Leftie and too big</span></h1>
<div class="artIntro"><div id="storyEmbSlide"><div class="slideshow ssIntro"><div class="nextPrevLayer"><div class="ssImg"><a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02693/1bbc_2693647b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02693/1bbc_2693647b.jpg?width=620" width="620" class="align-right"/></a><div class="artImageExtras"><div class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">The BBC has suffered an infestation of soggy Leftism</span> <span class="credit">Photo: GETTY</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="oneHalf gutter"><div class="story"><div class="cl"></div>
<div class="bylineComments"><div><p class="bylineBody"><span>Bruce Anderson</span></p>
</div>
<p class="publishedDate">5:10PM BST 05 Oct 2013</p>
<p class="comments"><img src="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/template/ver1-0/i/share/comments.gif" alt="Comments"/><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10357915/The-BBC-has-come-to-loathe-those-it-serves.html#disqus_thread">1095 Comments</a></p>
<div class="cl"></div>
</div>
<div id="mainBodyArea"><div class="firstPar"><p>It has been an interesting week. Syria, the Tory conference, Islamic terrorism in Kenya, Yemen and Nigeria, budget-lock in Washington: the world overflowed with news – but not on the BBC. That once-great news organisation seemed determined to turn every bulletin into a seminar on the life and opinions of Ralph Miliband.</p>
</div>
<div class="secondPar"><p>As Lefties would say, there was a sub-text here. The BBC went well beyond objectivity. It was using the Miliband affair to attack its enemies. In so doing, it was also exposing its own cast of mind.</p>
</div>
<div class="thirdPar"><p>When John Birt became director-general of the BBC, he realised that there was a problem with many of his journalists. In recent years, there had been an infestation of soggy Leftism (my paraphrase, not his words). These characters often lived in an intellectual bubble, socialising solely with their colleagues and with others who held the same opinions. They never met anyone who argued that there might be a case for the death penalty, or that Maggie was not a monster any more than Reagan was a slow-witted war-mongering cowboy.</p>
</div>
<div class="fourthPar"><p>As they all held the same views, they also persuaded themselves that theirs were the only permissible ones and that anyone who disagreed was morally inferior. Some Marxists used to talk approvingly of “fused groups”: cells of like-minded comrades who would reinforce each others’ revolutionary rigour. The BBC was in danger of becoming a fused group.</p>
</div>
<div class="fifthPar"><p>John Birt also thought that his employees were underpaid. There, he was able to take corrective action. But the fused-group mentality persisted, especially over Europe and the environment. The BBC is not incapable of neutrality. It would like to have displayed more of it during the Falklands War. But on the EU and climate change, it preferred to act as a political commissar, suppressing all criticism.</p>
</div>
<div class="body"><p>That brings us to press regulation, and the next negotiations over the BBC licence fee. As the Marxists would say, it is no accident that the BBC should have tried to embarrass the Daily Mail just before the regulatory proposals are discussed. Plenty of people in the BBC would like to regulate the press, in the hope that thus tamed, newspapers would be less willing – and less free – to complain about the BBC and the licence fee. Papers have to earn their living in the free market. The BBC earns its living, courtesy of the criminal law. No wonder it seems keen to deploy that law against the free press.</p>
<p>There is a further factor. Marxists in their fused groups, wondering why the populace is not rallying behind the socialist revolution, have come up with the answer: “false consciousness”. If people appear to reject socialism, they are clearly suffering from false consciousness, so their views can be disregarded (cf the BBC with Eurosceptics and climate-change doubters). But one of the major proponents of false consciousness is the capitalist press.</p>
<p>It is impossible to overestimate the extent to which the Left hates the so-called Right-wing press, especially the popular Murdoch papers. Disregard the manufactured indignation about the hacking of Bimbo Bimbette’s phone calls. Lefties believe that but for the Sun, Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock would have won elections.</p>
<p>They also loathe the Daily Mail. Forget raucous football chants. For the Left, the two greatest obscenities are “lower-middle class” and “suburbia”. Hence their detestation of the Mail, which is the laureate of both. When they think of Mail readers, those on the Left imagine that they are all like Harry Potter’s adoptive parents, the neo-fascists of Privet Drive. When the Left sneers at the Mail, it is sneering at millions of decent people who get up in the morning, go to work and generally help to keep the country going – while also paying a large number of licence fees.</p>
<p>On the subject of suburban decencies, as the Cameroons would say, the BBC just doesn’t get it – as was proved by its despicable coverage of last year’s Royal River Pageant. There was a basic problem. It did not seem to occur to those in charge that tens of millions of their fellow countrymen revere the Queen and would expect the BBC to cover such a royal event in the way that would have come naturally to Richard Dimbleby.</p>
<p>In his era, one Home Service announcer, closing down the programme for the night, said “home, service: two of the most beautiful words in the English language. Goodnight.” It is impossible to imagine anyone in the BBC talking like that today. The BBC does not love its country.</p>
<p>So why should it benefit from a licence fee? That could be justified, if the BBC were like Covent Garden or the National Gallery: supplying a cultural service which the market cannot provide. When it comes to culture, however, the modern BBC is in the Hermann Goering camp. As regards current affairs on television, the BBC is living on its past reputation. Today’s output is feeble. The main concern seems to be low-grade popular entertainment, which is not especially popular.</p>
<p>The other month, I was deep in the country, on my own, trying to do some intensive writing. At the end of a day’s work, I was in the market for light entertainment: something like Dad’s Army, Steptoe and Son, Dr Finlay or Upstairs, Downstairs. I searched the BBC schedules in vain, and made do with DVDs of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People (both much better than the books). The BBC used to be a great organisation, at many levels. But it has grown too Leftie and too big, even though it often gives the impression that it only consists of two sections: the directorate of paedophilia and the bureau of pay-offs.</p>
<p>So what about a £50 licence fee, to pay for the Home Service, the World Service, the Third Programme and one television channel, along the lines of BBC2’s original remit? In the interim, before the BBC next attacks the free press, it should look up the passage about motes and beams – assuming that there is a Bible somewhere in Broadcasting House.</p>
<p>As for Ralph Miliband, his reputation can look after itself. Although sons are entitled to express their filial piety, Ed Miliband should be careful. He almost gives the impression that he has been crying himself to sleep every night over the insults to his father. This invites cynicism about his motives, and scrutiny of his father’s beliefs.</p>
<p>We are assured that far from hating this country, Prof Miliband loved it. He had a funny way of showing it. He wanted to abolish all our institutions plus our current economic system, replacing them by Marxian socialism, which has been so successful wherever it was practised. That is an odd way of displaying love. If Ralph Miliband loved this country, Oscar Wilde was right: “Each man kills the thing he loves.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10357915/The-BBC-has-come-to-loathe-those-it-serves.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10357915/The-BBC-has-come-to-loathe-those-it-serves.html</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>