Embarassing endorsements?

A few weeks ago, Tory Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson was endorsed by the fascist British National Party. His response was swift, short, and sweet:

I utterly and unreservedly condemn the BNP and have no desire whatsoever to receive a single second-preference vote from a BNP supporter

This week, Labour and Liberal Democrats were placed in pretty much the same situation by the Muslim Association of Britain. Candidates should likewise reject with alacrity, the endorsement of this extreme right-wing organisation.
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Policy Exchange, Newsnight and hate literature

The Tory think tank, The Policy Exchange is under fire from Newsnight. At stake, specifically, is the credibility of their recent report, the Hijacking of British Islam.

More generally at stake is the reputation of The Policy Exchange itself.
Osama Saeed summarises the Newsnight allegations as follows:

Tonight’s Newsnight investigation into The Policy Exchange’s recent report on extremism in British mosques found major irregularities with the receipts that the think tank handed them to investigate the issue further:

• Receipts from North London mosque’s bookshop, when the mosque doesn’t have a bookshop. Forensic examination revealed that the receipt’s heading had been printed on an inkjet printer – when usual procedure for such pieces of paper would be mass printing
• Receipts from other mosques printed entirely on inkjet printers
• A receipt for Euston Mosque with the address on it being for the mosque next door to it on North Gower Street (who would have thought that two mosques next door to each other would be an advantage one day!)
• Forensic tests that found handwriting matching on two separate receipts for different mosques
• Forensic tests showing that the writing on one receipt had been done on top of another receipt for an entirely different mosque

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Ken Livingstone’s report on Islamophobia

The long delayed, Livingstone report on Islamophobia and the UK Media was finally been published this week. Between £30,000 and £50,000 of public money has apparently been spent on this report.

Frankly, all you need to know about this report, can be determined by the following facts. One of the authors is Inayat Bunglawala. Two of the other authors are Mohammed Abdul Aziz and Tariq Hameed. All three of them – that is, one third of the team – are Muslim Council of Britain activists. No muslim, unconnected to the MCB, were appointed to the committee.

One of the major themes of the report is that the Muslim Council of Britain has been unfairly criticised by journalists. So, in effect, what has happened is this. Ken Livingstone has given tens of thousands of pounds of public money to fund a report, co-authored with the Muslim Council of Britain’s spokesmen, in which newspapers and television stations are criticised for pointing out that the MCB is a promoter of the politics of the Islamist far right.

Precisely what this has to do with the representation of ordinary muslims in the British media is unclear to me. It seems to have rather more to do with Ken Livingstone doing a favour for one of his allies. Isn’t that a scandal?
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