“Let’s look at what had Hammaad Munshi is actually said to have done. According to all accounts of the case, Munshi surfed the internet and is said to have downloaded material about the making of napalm and other explosives. He also had ‘al-Qa’ida propaganda videos’ on his PC.

“So what? That’s freedom folks. Just think how many British teenagers have got hold of the Anarchist’s Cookbook over the years and how much easier the internet has made it to seek out and read such material. How many of them went on to become terrorists? And if people want to download videos of US army tanks being blasted apart by Iraqi resistance fighters then that is surely their own business, right? Where have all the ‘free speech’ warriors gone now?”

Inayat Bunglawala examines the conviction of “Britain’s youngest terrorist”.

Comment is Free, 25 August 2008

Hicham Yezza recounts his experiences as an innocent person swept up by the “war on terror”.

Comment is Free, 18 August 2008

Hicham was released without charge after six days in custody, but was immediately rearrested on immigration charges and issued with a removal order to Algeria. See freehicham.co.uk for details on how to support his campaign against deoprtation.

The Stirrer provides an update on Salma Yaqoob’s campaign to ensure transparency and accountablity in Birmingham Council’s implementation of the government’s Preventing Violent Extremism initiative.

Muslim councillors are being frozen out of Birmingham’s efforts to clamp down on Islamist terrorism according to Sparkbrook councillor Salma Yaqoob.

The local authority was awarded £500,000 as part of the government’s “pathfinder” Preventing Extremism project last year – and has now been given an additional £2.4 million under the three year Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) programme. Yaqoob’s beef is that all this cash is being spent by city officials without reference to elected Muslim representatives.

She raised the issue at a recent Council meeting where she said, “many projects have taken place in wards without the consultation and participation of ward members and without accountability to the local communities through the ward structures.” And she asked, “How will the existing structures which bring transparency and accountability … be utilised in any planning for this programme?”

The response to her request for “transparency and accountability” was to be told that she “misunderstands” the Council’s role – which could be explained to her in a private meeting with the Cabinet Minister for Equalities Alan Rudge. “This is public money,” said an outraged Yaqoob. “The way it’s being spent should be discussed in public. It should all be transparent.”

A case in point is a major anti-extremism conference organised by Aston-based management consultants Waterhouse in October (see link here). The event includes an address by reformed radical Ed Hussain, who Yaqoob argues is a divisive figure, more likely to stir up anger than heal wounds. “He is somebody who doesn’t want dialogue, he wants to close down dialogue,” she said. She believes that she and her fellow Muslim councillors would have been unlikely to ask him to attend – but of course, they weren’t asked.

Yaqoob again tried to take up the lack of democratic accountability at a cross-party meeting of Muslim councillors and community officials earlier this week – only for one city official to warn her that what she was doing was “against procedure”. He warned that he would “report her” (!) to Mike Whitby and Alan Rudge, and stormed out of the meeting. Although he eventually returned – 15 minutes later – the official is now the subject of a complaint.

“This is really worrying,” Yaqoob said. “Some officers don’t seem to realise that their job is to act in accordance with what councillors want – not the other way around. “The real issue here is that councillors are the elected representatives of the people and we have the contacts and the knowledge.”

Birmingham City Council have been invited to respond.

The Stirrer, 8 August 2008

Via Socialist Unity

Britain has been told by the United Nations to challenge negative public views towards the Muslim community.

The nine-member human rights committee composed of legal experts, said it was concerned “negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society” continued to be allowed in Britain. It recommended the Government “should take energetic measures to eliminate this phenomenon and ensure that authors of such acts of discrimination on the basis of religion are adequately deterred and sanctioned.”

The committee also expressed concern over the Government’s plan to extend detention of terrorist suspects without trial from 28 to 42 days. Those suspected of terrorism should be promptly charged and taken to court within a reasonable period of time, while their lawyers should have access to the evidence against them.

The committee contains members from Britain, Ireland, Australia, Benin, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Mauritius and Sweden – all are expected to be independent from their governments. Their comments come in response to reports from the UK and Ireland on how to carry out their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Daily Telegraph, 25 July 2008