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A British city's opinions on the burkha

As Sarkozy talks up a ban on the Burkha, the discussion heats up here.

In the Express: A British city's opinions on the burkha. looks at opinions in Leeds.   Also:  Ban the Burkha here in Britain.

and the latest in a  series of rants in the Mail:  Why I, as a British Muslim woman, want the burkha banned from our streets

The Muslim Council of Britain has responded to these issues here by saying they are whipping up Zenophobia. They are clearly on the Obama bandwagon:

.... the MCB echoes the US President Barack Obama's caution that 'it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practising religion as they see fit - for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.'

And yet the Times suggests its politicking by Sarkozy. Britain could never debate the burka like France | Agnès Poirier - Times Online.

I agree entirely with President Obama. Its back to freedom of choice and freedom of speech again, which we value so highly until we find it personally offensive, challenging, whatever. And then we become as intolerant as the next person.

Update:   Islamophobia Watch has a response to the campaign that is emerging in the Mail and Express: How to Ban the Veil

Answer: find some co-operative Muslims who will agree with you, and promote their views as representative of the community. That way you neatly deflect accusations of racism.

There are many voices to hear in this discussion. But as I wrote in the previous post ( Expenses leak -- "for the public good". mmm?? ) on a  different issue, "... do we really trust the press as the guardians of our morality?  I know I don't."  Or perhaps we should rephrase it here, "Do we really want the press to be the arbiters of justice and freedom in our society?" My answer remains the same.

Expenses leak -- "for the public good". mmm??

A few questions occur to me here.

BBC NEWS | Politics | MP expenses leak 'not for money'.

A middleman who helped pass on details of MPs' expenses to the Daily Telegraph has said it was done for the public good and not to make money.

Yes, it was right the situation be confronted.

But I wonder if the loss of confidence in MP's, and thus of those in public office, and ultimately of authority, is of as much ultimately more worrying that the fiddling the books. The timing of the leak, before an election, allowed the minority parties a strong voice. It could have been worse, but the gains by UKIP was significant and they have a definite agenda.

So what was the political agenda of the leak? 

And do we really trust the press as the guardians of our morality?  I know I don't.
 

Ethical Guidelines for Christian and Muslim Witness in Britain

The guidelines have been released and are here:

Ethical Guidelines for Christian and Muslim Witness in Britain

I wrote about this last night.   Ethical Witness - Muslims and Christians get to the heart of things.

The document begins:

As members of the Christian Muslim Forum we are deeply committed to our own faiths
(Christianity and Islam) and wish to bear faithful witness to them. As Christians and Muslims
we are committed to working together for the common good. We recognise that both
communities actively invite others to share their faith and acknowledge that all faiths have
the same right to share their faith with others.

What follows is just good common sense in being good neighbours, and yet fully Christian and with no compromise. Read more

Ethical Witness - Muslims and Christians get to the heart of things.

Richard Sudworth at Distinctly Welcoming just posted this very encouraging news:  Stop Press - Muslims and Christians agree that evangelism and conversion are ok.

The full details are out tomorrow, but the agreement was worked on by the Muslim Christian Forum: Ethical Witness. There is more here:

Youth Specialist on the Forum, Dr Andrew Smith, will be one of the key speakers at the launch. He has been working for the evangelical organisation Scripture Union in inner city Birmingham for the past 14 years and has been active in promoting his own faith whilst at the same time seeking to listen to and understand his Muslim neighbours.

“Speaking with local Muslims and sharing my faith has been fascinating, stimulating, even fun, but at times it has become competitive, aggressive and has left a nasty taste in my mouth. I was left feeling frustrated and defensive and with no wish to do it again! Talking to others I realised that this was a common experience, so the idea of a set of principles that would help both faiths avoid this, seemed to me an obvious way forward”

Speaking alongside Dr Smith will be Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Interfaith spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. He recognises that this is a controversial and sensitive area.

“Islam and Christianity are two world religions that are missionary- and therefore are ever vying with each other for converts. But we should be able to speak of our faith honestly and with conviction, without demeaning or ridiculing others. There is no place for coercion or manipulation and when a person does convert from either faith that decision should be respected. It is our hope that these ethical guidelines will be adopted by many Christian and Muslim organisations.”

This has to be exceptionally good news. Lets wait for what is said later.

Al-Muhajiroun, their aliases, Luton and London

Al-Muhajiroun were not out in Bury Park yesterday. 

On the surface thats good news. It means that on two of the last four Fridays they have been absent from the pitch they have occupied regularly for several years. Could something be changing? And if so for the better or is this more of a challenge?

Until recently one knew exactly where you would you would find "al-Muhajiroun" (or whatever alias they were using) in Luton several days of the week. On a Tuesday it was outside the Sixth Form College, Friday's after Jumma prayer they were at a table midway along Dunstable Road in Bury Park, and on Saturday in the town centre by Don MIllers bakery on George Street. On occasions when Muslims gathered to do things with people of other faiths they were reliably around as well - the annual Faith walk organised by my colleagues in the Council of Faiths , the Holocaust memorial event each January, etc.  And then of course there was their infamous appearance on March 10th this year at the Homecoming Parade of the Royal Anglian Regiment. Its all conveniently summarised here in the recent Sunday Times article - Fear and Hatred on the Streets of Luton - page 2of 4. (There a little bit of me that resents quoting a journalist who has just hijacked "our" inglorious history for his own spurious story - but its a convenient summary and easier than turning up a string of dead links.)

Nowadays its not so simple. Things have become a bit harder for these extremists as some of the local Muslim population have begun to make it clear that they are not happy to be continually tarred with that brush. Fridays in Bury Park are now contested since a large group led from the Islamic Centre have taken it upon themselves to challenge their activity in the town: the Mail reported this,  Extremists behind anti-war protest driven off the streets by moderate Muslims and then the Independent,  Luton fights back against right-wing extremists. Al-Muhajoroun have not ventured into the town centre for a while, and Tuesday's at the college are apparently less regular.

The Islamic Centre are on the case. Last Saturday they organised a meeting, "Luton Against Extremism"  to hear from councillors and others. including myself.  (There is a copy of the Publicity here - scroll down to just before half way down the page)  The way forward is unclear, at least to me. First it needs to be clear that are dealing with two very different forms of extremism here, and what will effectively deal with one is unlikely to be of help in dealing with the other.  It is true that in dealing with one it helps to disarm the other. And I am convinced that by seeking to strengthen our relationship as peace-loving people, we deny the extremes their greatest coup, that is polarising us.

Anyway, what of al-Muhajiroun? We have been hearing in the media that they are seeking to take advantage of all the publicity they have had recently and re-launch themselves under the old name:
Al Muhajiroun's return presents test for terror laws.  It seems that the group's leader at the time Omar Bakri dissolved it before it could be banned and while its succssors were banned no one thought that they would return to the name again so it was never banned. The groups leader in the UK, Anjem Choudary  said to the Independent:

"It is a challenge to both the Government and the media to make them understand that Al Muhajiroun was never illegal in the first place. We have been demonised but there is no proof that any of our members have done anything illegal or military."

The re-launch was scheduled in a debate on Wednesday with Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion and Anjem Choudary of al-Muhajiroun at the Conway Hall, famous as a centre of secularism. The meeting, planned somewhat covertly, broke up in chaos over the refusal of the hall owners and Murray to allow segregation of the men and women. The story is here in the Independent:  Islamist group has to abandon relaunch debate.

The debate is described on Islam for the UK site:  THE GREAT DEBATE :: SHARI'AH LAW VS BRITISH LAW  which is clearly pro-Choudary.

Douglas Murray states his own position and why he believes  Why we must debate the extremists on U:TV.  He writes:

You can't get much more egregiously wrong and wicked than the views expressed by al-Muhajiroun. But they are currently operating in what I hope will be a very brief legal air-pocket. As with the BNP, while they are legal and are being given a platform by independent organisations, they cannot go unchallenged. ...

... Some people will say that al-Muhajiroun should not be given the oxygen of publicity. Yesterday showed why bringing them out in the open and challenging their ideas is necessary. It reminds the government, the press and British citizens of the true nature of these fundamentalist thugs who are not just going to disappear. Not since Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) have we seen intimidation like this on the streets of London. Like the BUF, they will resort to violence the moment their fascist views are challenged. Every piece of publicity al-Muhajiroun gain is additional ammunition to encourage the government to shut down a group whose members have regularly exceeded our incitement laws and even involved themselves in acts of terror.

The Freethinker ('The voice of atheism since 1881') reports: ‘We’re here to bring Brits the beauty of Islam,’ says frothing fanatic.  There is no question what they think:

DERANGED  koranimal Anjem Choudary and a bunch of his rug-butting goons were given the bum’s rush at the Conway Hall in London last night after their abortive attempt to publicly relaunch the wacky Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun.

The view of Murray and The Centre for Social Cohesion wa intensified after the debate was called off: Al Muhajiroun hijack Sharia Law debate. 

Islamophobia Watch believes it was a fruitless effort and Murray was a fooled. Douglas Murray and Anjem Choudary – two self-publicists help each other out.

We haven't heard from Al-Muhajiroun yet. They didn't come of all that looking too great, but ... was that what kept them away from Luton a couple of days later? Were they licking their wounds?  Were they not wanting to confront the Islamic Centre?  Are they thinking again. I personally doubt it.

The question is how you engage with a group like this? I have ideas. I have some theory. I have a few parallel experiences. Put together give me some hope. More on that another time.

NB:  Of interest is the paper put together by the Luton Islamic Centre, "A critical study of the multiple identities and disguises of al-Muhajiroun."  116  pages long, it is a gives their perespective on the group. More managelable is Al-Muhaajiroon - The Extremist Cult Exposed at 3 pages.

This is the latest in a series of posts focusing on the issues currently being worked out in Luton. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

Obama on Fatherhood

The man walks on water once again; vulnerability, humanity, grace and wisdom.
 
The White House - Press Office - Remarks by the President at Fatherhood Town Hall.

And when fathers are absent -- when they abandon their responsibilities to their children -- we know the damage that that does to our families. Some of you know the statistics: Children who grow up without fathers are more likely to drop out of school and wind up in prison. They’re more likely to have substance abuse problems, run away from home, and become teenage parents themselves.

And I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life. I had a heroic mom and wonderful grandparents who helped raise me and my sister, and it's because of them that I'm able to stand here today. But despite all their extraordinary love and attention, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel my father's absence. That's something that leaves a hole in a child’s heart that a government can't fill. ...


.... I've made mistakes as a parent, and I'm sure I will make plenty more. There have been days when the demands of work have taken me from my duties as a father and I’ve missed some moments in my daughters’ lives that I’ll never get back. So I’ve been far from perfect.

But in the end, it’s not about being perfect. It’s not always about succeeding; but it’s about always trying. And that's something everybody can do. It’s about showing up and sticking with it; and going back at it when you mess up; and letting your kids know -- not just with words, but with deeds -- that you love them and that you're always -- they're always your first priority.

Fear and hatred on the streets of Luton??

Yet another story -- in the Sunday Times tomorrow on this occasion --  that seeks to understand what is going on here. I guess it sells newspapers and keeps them in business and a lot of people employed, but the article really just tells the story so far with a few new twists. To be honest though, having watched, commented on and analysed what is going on since March 10th it is yet again a sensationalised version of events.

Fear and hatred on the streets of Luton   "When troops returning from Iraq marched through Luton, all hell broke loose. Muslims protested, white residents rioted and the Sikh mayor was viciously attacked. Can this multicultural community ever find peace — or is this eruption of long-simmering tensions a sign of even worse to come?"

Once again I sometimes barely recognise the town where I myself am spending most of my time working to bring peace and understanding around this very issue. These have been troubling times, but the dramatic language belies the reality. I spent most of the day today in Bury Park; so did my wife. We were not always together. I had no worries. The sun was shining, people were happy and happy to talk. 

We were meeting to work on opposing extremism. Muslims, other faith leaders, town councillors, unionists. It wa sgood - more soon. We have met before for other events. Christians and Muslims call for Peace in Luton   Does anything get said about that. No.

But, of course, the rest of the world knew little of the long, slow-simmering tensions in the town and its struggle for harmony — community cohesion, in the jargon of the age — over many years, during which its mix of race and culture has become increasingly diverse. It’s a story of our times — the struggle for all of us, with our varieties of races and religions, to accept our differences and live peacefully together, and the tricky balance of competing freedoms of expression: the freedom to march, the freedom to protest, the right to be free from religious or racial hatred or harassment. “I’m not a racist, but…” one middle- aged white man in Luton told me, “…if they don’t like it here, why don’t they piss off home?”

The article is true at one level, but certainly not the whole truth. Why don't they talk to the people are working their guts out to change all this, and are actually hopeful?  Why does it seem they are they so set to make the problem worse? 

This is the latest in a series of posts focusing on the issues currently being worked out in Luton. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

What I learnt from my stay with a Muslim family: David Cameron:

This is one of a series of posts focusing on the issues of Islamophobia currently being worked out in Luton and the UK. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

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Entering someone else world, standing in their shoes, seeing life from their perspective -- even for a day - is so valuable. I take my hat off to David Cameron who did that a month ago. (Missed it at the time but its too important to miss altogether.)

Cameron spent two days with a Muslim family in Birmingham and wrote about it on his blog and here: David Cameron: What I learnt from my stay with a Muslim family | Comment is free | The Observer. His intoduction:

The experience has strengthened my conviction about the right way to build a more cohesive Britain.

More from Cameron later, but first other coverage. Its reported on IslamOnLine: Tory Leader in Eye-opener Muslim Weekend

Spending a weekend with a British Muslim family with a Pakistani background has changed many of the misconceptions the UK's Tory leader had developed from "hearing" and "reading" about the sizable Muslim minority. "No Muslim I've ever met is offended by Christmas, or supports its replacement with 'Winterval'," Conservative Party leader David Cameron wrote in The Guardian on Sunday, May 13.

The article continued:

He said the two-day experience debunked the myth that British Muslims are not willing to engage with other communities in services and social activities. "As I found in Birmingham, this is something they naturally want to do, and local institutions - including religious ones - provide the opportunity."   Cameron said he was overwhelmed with the hospitality of the Rehmans who, like most of Britain's nearly 2 million Muslims, are "decent, hard-working and committed to their communities." "It’s been a fascinating couple of days," the opposition leader wrote on his website.

The Mail (good to get that view in!) reported on it here:  Cameron works in Asian corner shop - and then declares 1 in 10 Muslims are in denial over terror  and then here: Cameron at No42: Dave takes a break with Asian family in Birmingham. I will allow the Mail to condemn so much of their own reporting with these two excerpts.

First, they note that Cameron wrote of the "anger among some Muslims with inappropriate language."

Calling for people to stop using the words "Islamist terrorists" he adds: "It's hard to overemphasise the importance of language.

"Every time the BBC or a politician talks about Islamist terrorists they are doing immense harm (and yes I am sure I have done this too, despite trying hard to get this right).

"Think of Northern Ireland - "IRA terrorist" was fine because it marked them out as part of a terrorist group. Catholic terrorists would have been a disaster. Yet that is the equivalent of what we are doing now. When they hear this kind of language. Muslims simply think "they mean us?."

How many times have we encountered Muslim terrorists in the pages of the Mail? And in many other papers for that matter. 

Later they wrote of his thoughts on integration:

He writes: "Integration is a two-way street. Yes we can ask minority ethnic communities to work at integrating with British society as a whole, but we have to recognise that it won't happen unless there's something attractive to integrate into."

Highlighting his experiences during his stay in a Muslim community he added: "Time after time I heard people here talking about the uncivilised behaviour and values that they see all around them.

"As I've said before, we can't just bully people into being more British, we've got to inspire them. And frankly, there are many aspects of our society today which are hardly inspiring - the drinking, the drugtaking, the rudeness and incivility, the lack of consideration for others, anti-social behaviour ... we've got a serious fight on our hands to build a responsible society that is the kind of society people admire and want to be part of."

Returning to the Observer article again for more on the issue of integration. He writes it a bit differently so I will quote his words from there:

And the third step in promoting integration is to ensure there's something worth integrating into. 'To make men love their country,' said Edmund Burke, 'their country ought to be lovable.' Integration has to be about more than immigrant communities, 'their' responsibilities and 'their' duties. It has to be about 'us' too - the quality of life that we offer, our society and our values.

Here the picture is bleak: family breakdown, drugs, crime and incivility are part of the normal experience of modern Britain. Many British Asians see a society that hardly inspires them to integrate. Indeed, they see aspects of modern Britain which are a threat to the values they hold dear - values which we should all hold dear. Asian families and communities are incredibly strong and cohesive, and have a sense of civic responsibility which puts the rest of us to shame.

An argument that is not easily dismissed, and which begs a question:

Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around.

Saying goodbye to Abdullah I was given gifts of T-shirts, shoes and a traditional robe which he said would be perfect for any visit to Pakistan. It's another reminder that integration is a two-way street. If we want to remind ourselves of British values - hospitality, tolerance and generosity to name just three - there are plenty of British Muslims ready to show us what those things really mean.

I might be a bit cautious in seeming to suggest that these are universally gone from the ways of all Brits, or indeed that they mark out all British Muslims.

But, his observations reflect my many conversations and the often heard questions: How much do we have to do before we are accepted?

We need to start listening to Muslims as people rather than ideologies on legs. And while we are about it, to congratulate David Cameron on taking a step beyond the normal.    

Yes, but ...

This is one of a series of posts focusing on the issues of Islamophobia currently being worked out in Luton and the UK. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

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On a day when you are having to come to terms with the election of two members of the BNP to the European Parliament there are limits to how much more of a challenge you want. As Julian Dobson of Living with Rats put it in his post Living with a Cancer:

Waking up to find the BNP now has two seats in the European Parliament is like getting seriously bad news from the doctor. Cancer changes your life. Only a fool pretends it will go away if you carry on as usual. And anyone who has friends or relatives who've suffered it knows that it can be excruciatingly painful, debilitating, and often fatal.

But then I read Richard Bartholomew's post:   Baroness Cox Highlights “Persecution of Christians in the United Kingdom” and also this:   Christians being ‘sidelined’, says head of Asian Christian Fellowship.  A consultation entitled “The Persecution of Christians in the United Kingdom” was held in the Attlee room of the House of Commons on June 3, 2009.

One speaker was Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of Christian Concern for our Nation and the Christian Legal Centre:

“In recent years we have seen our legal culture change from one where there was a clear accommodation, protection and endorsement of Christian principles- sanctity of life, marriage, freedom of speech, conscience and religion to a system based on human rights which ironically is attacking these principles”. She said when the government first started writing Equality Type Legislation against the backdrop of human rights legislation many lawyers who had warned that their well-intentioned efforts could backfire.

Yes, we know there is far too much stupid stuff going on that gives Christians - and other people of faith - a hard time, but lets get it in perspective, especially before we use a "big word" like persecution.  It doesn't help. In fact it just makes it harder to come up with a sane and sensible Christian response to the challenges we face as a nation.

I take seriously the issues raised. But Baroness Cox and her friends would be best advised to take a different approach. I AM A CHRISTIAN. I do not deny it. I work with Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists,alongside people of no faith.  I work with town council officials, police, political parties, and all. I do so as a Christian. My work is guided by Christian principle of relationships, and founded on a Christian view of peacemaking. I live and work in Luton. And I am free to be who I am.  I am convinced it is the way we relate to people, the attitude we take, the way we are that makes the difference.  In a word we are called above all else to be nice people and to bless those around us.

We have to engage with the issues raised by Baroness Cox's conference as well as the BNP's success today. But we need to do so in a positive and engaging way.

Luton: Three Months in the News and an election over. What now?

This is one of a series of posts focusing on the issues of Islamophobia currently being worked out in Luton and the UK. For the full list of posts see Seeking Peace in Luton - and Multicultural UK

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Tomorrow, Tuesday, it is thirteen weeks since an army march through Luton town centre put our town at centrestage in an emerging battle for the soul of this nation.

That sounds dramatic, but it is not offered as an excuse for a right wing rant. In fact it should not be read as a simplistic "either this or that" analysis of the situation and its solution. The reality on the ground is complex and ever changing. But the one quarter of a year since the Royal Anglian's homecoming parade on March 10th has kept this town in the media's and the nation's focus.

And Luton centrestage?  Sure enough, its been in the news a lot, but the BNP didn't get a seat in the east of England region. We await the local polling figures; we are so different to the rest of the region and I suspect it would been a very different case if settled on Luton's vote alone.  But I am not convinced our problems are going away.  The anger of the white community that often results in the racism and islamophobia that have emerged in these months are not going away quickly. And the heat is not going to go down, either metaphorically or literally, with wider governmental chaos and a general election a possibility, and a long hot summer forcast. 

(UPDATE:  Lutons vote that contributed to the regional vote is here. The overall number of votes cast was 42,072 , of which 3038 went to BNP -- 7.2%.  That is moderately encouraging, though many of the challenges come from the towns around that define themselves as "not Luton". )

Nethertheless, the three month anniversary, and the passing of the immediate election season, give an opportunity  to assess where we are and what is likely to emerge. So I have been looking back over my own posts on the subject since March 10th ( listed here:  Seeking Peace in Luton – and multicultural UK ),  the things I didn't get to write about, and the developments of the past week.

The small extremist Muslim demonstration during the army parade of March 10th did something to release an anger in the white Lutonian community that we must listen to. That anger was however clearly whipped up by far right agitators into a counter demonstration (see my post on the day Reporting Luton: strengthening the stereotype? ), a fact that has been ignored by the media, and has been played on by the BNP and the rest of the far right since. There is clearly a far right agenda at work here, that has served the BNP and the wider anti-immigration cause during the election. They made no secret of their desire to exploit the extremist Muslim demo against "our boys" in the army. However it would be wrong to say that most who vented their anger that day or even in the "marches" or "demonstrations" (I actually prefer the word mob or riot) on Easter Monday or May 24th were extreme right, or even in some cases that they were racist. Many of them were football supporters called up by the football firms (Luton MIGs and rivals are said to have declared a truce to stand alongside each other in the common cause). The web sites were full of racist and anti-Muslim hatred, but there were also lots who said they would come but opposed the racism or violence; and the events of May 24th showed the diversity of the crowd who gathered that day. ( This is what happened in Luton yesterday and  Luton: not one march but three!)

The challenge is not going away. Already there is another march / demo / riot planned for August 30th. And now we have a two BNP MEP's. Not here, but from places where exactly the same issues are in play.  A generation angry at feeling marginalised in their own nation, hit hard by the economic challenges, angry at business leaders and politicians for corruption and greed, and deflecting much of the blame on someone else. In this case the Muslims.  I do not agree with their solution and there is a lot more to be said about the nature of the problem, but I am listening to what they are saying.  We cannot allow the BNP MEP's (or councillors) to be the only ones doing that.

There was a good article in the Spectator a week or so ago that looked at the challenges ahead: The rise of British racism may be horribly close . Fraser Nelson wrote:

It is in places with Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities — that is, Muslim areas — that the BNP does well. Its focus there is not how people look, but how some act. The trick is to take the minority of veiled or bearded Muslims as a proxy for Islam as a whole. If a (mainly white) local authority bans Christmas lights, so much the better for the BNP. This is why the mill towns of the North are now proving more fertile ground than the London suburbs — and this is why Griffin has chosen the North West to stand in. A seat in the European parliament could be his passport to the mainstream media: it would be much harder to deny the BNP a slot on regular television broadcasts (such as the BBC’s Question Time) that routinely feature representatives of Ukip.  

He was right. Already we have had Griffin on the BBC this morning, saying he is there to listen to all his constituents who live in this country legally, and saying he could tell those who were legal. What was he implying? And that he was sure the Muslims wouldn't want to speak to him anyway. 

Early on in the campaign the BNP were quick to try to claim to speak for Englishness and Christianity, and that led to the church, and especially the archbishops being active in the campaign against the BNP. Their main candidate with a "Christian label" didn't make it, and it was a joy to see a poster with our two local Bishops urging us to use our vote wisely on the door of the church hall which was our local polling station.  Barth's Notes sums up the Christian election story here: Gone West

Much more to come on the BNP challenge I anticipate, but I find the whole situation very depressing and challenging. The work has only just begun. Within the churches and the wider white community we have got to begin to face the anger that the far right are tapping into and speak to it. And we have to do that in Luton.

As for the situation in the Muslim community, the local mosques, with the Luton Islamic centre at the heart of the campaign, are seeking to deal with the extremists that began the storm here.  Luton fights back against right-wing extremists  was a great article in the Independent with an interview of the secretary of the mosque, Farasat Latif last Wednesday, and  Tensions in Luton concern locals  was a article based on a BBC Radio Five Live show on Friday here . (about 18 minutes into the programme; available only until Thursday)  That involved quite a heated discussion with Anjem Choudary of al-Muhajiroun who have caused so much of the problem.  I also did  an interview on Five Live on Sunday morning here  (about 16.20 minutes in; available until saturday)

What is worrying are the reports that emerged last week that al-Muhajiroun are relaunching.
Let the odious al-Muhajiroun speak with the usual announcement of plans to set up an Islamic state in Britain. They have read the wind and obviously believe that the time is right. They like nothing better than a fight to get attention, and the climate just now is ripe with the BNP raising the stakes.

It is all deeply concerning. Not just for Luton but the nation. More soon.