When I saw this press release from the mendacious grievance mongering taqiyya artists of Tell Mama, the much criticised anti Islamophobia monitors, on the subject of a recent court case, I had to take a step back. I looked at it and thought I have not seen so much dodgy political spin put on a subject since Tony Blair’s infamous ‘45 minutes’ Iraqi weapons of mass destruction claim. Also there are aspects of this press release that deserve much closer examination, or even given a good ‘Fisking’, which one entry in the Urban Dictionary defines as: ‘a word derived from articles written by Robert Fisk that were easily refuted, and refers to a point-by-point debunking of lies and/or idiocies‘.

So, let us go through the Press Release put out by the Tell Mama group on the 31^st March 2017 and see where the group has replaced accuracy and honesty with spin and description of events with selected quotations, inaccuracies and attempted character assassination.

Here’s the Press Release copied below. As is usual practice and policy for this blog the original text from Tell Mama is in italics whereas this blog’s comments are in plain text.

Tell Mama said:

For over 4 years, Timothy Martin Burton, harassed and intimidated the founder of Tell MAMA whilst using extremist far right networks to post up material targeting the faith of the founder. Details of the harassment that our founder suffered can be found HERE.

It’s probably a good idea to start this blog’s comments on this Press Release by stating that the document put out by Tell Mama contains a large amount of speculative and imprecise language. Most notably there is the term ‘far right’ which Tell Mama, and the Crown’s chief prosecution witness Fiyaz Mughal, the above mentioned founder of Tell Mama, use a lot. Those following the case of Burton vs Mughal, and who are aware of the often justified criticism that Tell Mama and indeed Fiyaz Mughal himself have been subjected to, will be aware that Mughal and Tell Mama appear to use the term ‘far right’ to describe anything and anyone that Mughal or Tell Mama do not like or with which they disagree. It’s also fair to point out that the case in question was one that basically revolved around a joke job application to the Tell Mama group and a few subsequent emails mocking Mughal and Islam.

Timothy Martin Burton started off his ‘journey’ into far right extremism through the targeting of the then Director of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal, after he read an article in 2013 where Mughal was quoted within it.

What Tell Mama fail to say at this juncture, is that the article that was allegedly read by Mr Burton was one in which a Daily Telegraph journalist busted Tell Mama for exaggerating the number of ‘Islamophobic’ ‘hate crimes’ that had occurred following the Islamic murder of Fusileer Lee Rigby. This story sparked off a large amount of anger among taxpayers, who were pissed off that their taxes were going to fund an organisation that had all the hallmarks of being run by a bunch of shysters.

What transpired was a 4 year systematic campaign of harassment that led to Burton becoming a focal point for anti-Muslim haters and far right extremists from Australia through to the United States. Supporters of this individual also ended up being Pamela Geller, who was banned by the Home Secretary in 2013 from entering the United Kingdom. Her entry into the UK was regarded as “not being conducive to the public good.”

Here we have some of what could fairly be described as exaggeration coming from Tell Mama. The alleged harassment and what was described by ‘intimidation’ of Mughal, took the form of a few emails and social media posts criticising Islam and Muslims coupled with the joke job application.

Mr Burton was in no way a ‘focal point’ of the criticism of Tell Mama and Fiyaz Mughal, as the reality of the situation is that there are a whole host of blogs, social media writers, political activists (not merely from the far right I need to say) and individuals from different races and religions, who have been criticising Mughal and Tell Mama. These criticisms have been from those angry at how so much public money has been wasted on Mughal and his various projects and organisations and those critical of Mughal’s definition of ‘Islamophobia’ and how the use of that definition prevents legitimate criticism of the ideology of Islam. Some of those who Mughal and Tell Mama have associated with, or are alleged to have associated with, also leave a lot to be desired. They range from academics with potential left-wing and pro-Islam biases, through entities that call for harsh press censorship, right up to those alleged to be Holocaust deniers.

In addition, the Press Release mentions the incident when the counterjihad writer Pamela Geller was banned from the UK, despite the possibility of there being a great number of Britons who may have wanted to be able to hear her speak. However the piece fails to mention that it was Fiyaz Mughal himself who had a hand in the then Home Secretary Theresa May banning Ms Geller, along with fellow counterjihad writer Robert Spencer from entering the UK. Ms Geller said on her website and subsequently quoted by this site that information released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request to Ms Geller’s supporters showed that one of the complainants that were influential in getting Ms Geller and Mr Spencer banned from the UK was Faith Matters, which is another Fiyaz Mughal controlled entity.

Burton went onto develop friendships with other far right conspiracy minded individuals and aided in supporting numerous blogs, statements and race hate material against Mughal, including ones that are currently being investigated.

It appears to be that, at least in the minds of Tell Mama, anyone who dislikes or criticises Islam or in particular doesn’t buy one of the narratives promoted by Tell Mama or Fiyaz Mughal is ‘far right’ or a ‘conspiracy minded individual’. Note in particular the attempt to conflate ‘religion’ with ‘race’ at one point in this paragraph. Mughal appears to be attempting to paint those who have criticised him in print as ‘racists’ rather than people who have a problem with his views, his organisations, his ideology and his actions. I don’t blame Mughal and Tell Mama for doing this after all, saying ‘is it because I is brown?’ is a much easier and more emotionally persuasive statement to make than telling the truth which is saying ‘is it because you don’t like my ideology or my organisation’s false claims about Islamophobia or the £181k it gets from the taxpayer per year?’

As for the comment about things being investigated, then this may be a reference to a case that is currently progressing through its very early stages which like the Burton case has at its roots material with elements of sarcasm and comedic comment, or at the very least was material very obviously produced with comedic intent. This material, despite Tell Mama’s claims of being ‘racist’, did not target any one particular race but focussed on mocking high profile Muslims, converts to Islam, Islamic misogyny, Islamic theology and Islamic terrorists. I do not intend to go into any more detail about this matter, since I do not wish to prejudice an upcoming case. However it suffices to say that Tell Mama’s spin on this, as in much else, bears only a passing relationship with the truth.

His targeting of Mughal was conducted through the Internet and was done underneath the Twitter pseudonym of ‘Catstrangler101’. The initial targeting in 2013 through this anonymous pseudonym meant that identification became a problem leading to the involvement of an external investigation company which identified the Twitter user as one Timothy Martin Burton from the West Midlands.

This blog, Fahrenheit211, had a representative in the court taking copious longhand notes of the Burton case and it must be said at this point that when Mughal was giving evidence (see previous court reports on F211) he appeared shifty and evasive, along with coming across as being angry and arrogant. He was especially shifty and evasive when questioned by defence counsel about the matter of the private investigators and who paid for them. Mughal claimed that he had given a donation to Tell Mama in order for the private eyes to be hired. However as Mughal, or rather the organisations that he works for or controls, get large sums of public money, then there is the likelihood that the donation that Mughal gave to Tell Mama for the purposes of hiring private investigators, ultimately came from taxpayers like you or I.

The interview notes after the arrest of Burton show a man who was exhibiting far right nationalist views and the interviewing notes said:

“He (Burton) stated that he has had long standing views about, as he terms it, the encroachment of Islam on the indigenous British population and how their needs are pursued to the detriment of society. Burton accepted in hindsight that he should not have sent the tweets and he would apologise to the victim.”

That apology was not to come.

Please note the repetition of the term ‘far right’ and ‘nationalist’ which are used without any attempt to define them. If we take the assertions of Mughal and Tell Mama at face value for a moment (something that’s not normally a good idea) then what they are saying is this: They are claiming that the large number of Christians, atheists, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, ex-Muslims and those with black, white, brown or oriental physiognomy, who dislike Islam or its theology or the actions of its followers, are all part of some form of far right nationalist conspiracy. What utter BS! There are lots of people who dislike Islam but that doesn’t make them ‘far right’ or ‘nationalist’. There are also people who hold leftist views who dislike Islam and those who believe in aspects of internationalism who perceive that that the ideology of Islam is a threat to future peace and progress.

Tell Mama make great hay out of the police interview statement given above but fail to show that the majority of the interview, given in 2014 in connection to a case brought by Fiyaz Mughal against Tim Burton, was not like this. The 2014 interview was read out in court as part of the evidence in the 2017 case and it showed Mr Burton to be an eloquent and articulate man who was fully aware of the problematic nature of Islamic theology and teachings and also aware of the history of Islam. This excerpt that Tell Mama have made from the police statement from 2014 is but a tiny and unrepresentative fragment from a statement that those who heard it read out in court estimated to be at least three to four pages long.

As for the apology, then people should only apologise for what they should apologise for and not merely for offending those they see as mendacious grievance mongering taqiyya artists, as many see the Tell Mama organisation as being.

In 2014, Burton was acquitted of material that was sent to the founder of Tell MAMA which involved calling him a ‘Muslim scumbag” and of promoting ‘Taqiyya’ – a concept used by far right extremists to suggest that Muslims lie to take over the State and to promote Sharia and the spread of Islam. Framed as the ‘Taqiyya’ trial by far right extremists and activists of the divisive anti-Muslim group, Liberty GB, Burton became emboldened and far right blogs consistently pumped out this term and tagged on the concept to Mr Mughal, thereby further adding insult against his faith identity. These aggressive, anti-Muslim and hateful messages continued for years through a range of blogs and sites in the UK and internationally.

Let’s deconstruct this paragraph shall we? Yes Mr Burton was acquitted at the 2014 trial in Birmingham and also because of that trial, many more people from a variety of political backgrounds, started to look more closely at Mughal and his various organisations. The acquittal also popularised worldwide the phrase ‘mendacious grievance mongering taqiyya artist’ as a description of both Tell Mama and Mughal himself. Taqiyya contrary to Mughal’s assertions is neither something reserved for the ‘far right’ or for the Shia Islamic minority.

You will also note the use of the term ‘far right’ again, three times in one paragraph alone, which in this case is being used as a mere ‘snarl’ word rather than having any basis in reality. In a spirit of full disclosure the term ‘internationally’ probably refers to among others, this site. At one point during this most recent trial, whilst giving evidence Fiyaz Mughal shouted into the microphone about how the use of the word ‘taqiyya’ was ‘racist’ and smeared the Fahrenheit211 blog as being ‘far right’. Mughal’s evidence given via video link, included an astonishing scene when he leaned aggressively into the camera and snarled into the microphone that: ‘Fahrenheit211 is part of a far right nexus’. When reading the contemporaneous notes from the trial, I half expected Mughal to start imperiously demanding the head of the editor of Fahrenheit211 on a platter, hence the ‘Big Brother Mughal’ header image to this piece.

Throughout Burton’s activities and the targeting of Mughal, there was ample evidence of a Muslim hater who was becoming more emboldened and extreme in his views. His initial anonymous tweets to Mughal in 2013 copied in the far right English Defence League and he also had the following text in his tweets:

“Hey Kuffar? Fed up of Islam? Don’t like your Muslim neighbours? Mosque in your area causing a problem? Call 1-800-DRONE-STRIKE – now.”

A video clip on his Twitter account showed a Qur’an burning ceremony with the following text attached to it – “I love the sound of Muzzies heads exploding in the morning.”

Burton then went onto try and build a career for himself through his affiliations with the anti-Muslim Liberty GB group that we have highlighted before. He even decided to run as the political candidate for Liberty GB in the 2016 General Elections for the Birmingham Ladywood seat, gaining only 200 votes. His campaign was based on how he had ‘stood up’ against Islam and how he had ‘won’ against Mr Mughal, a divisive position that no doubt, went down badly in the eyes of local voters, meaning that Liberty GB lost their deposit. Burton even titled himself the ‘Press Officer’ for Liberty GB where he turned up on the far right ‘Pegida’ radio station where he moaned about Muslims and Islam.

Tell Mama seem to be of the impression that being opposed to the ideology of Islam or speaking up about its numerous negative manifestations is a bad thing. It is not. It’s good to be critical and even mockingly and sarcastically critical of an ideology such as Islam that wants you and I dead or enslaved merely because we are, for example Christian, Jewish, Gay or female. Shakespeare once said that ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet‘, and those opposed to Islam say that a hate filled, violent political, death-cult is still a malodorous hate filled, violent, political death-cult, even when it gives itself the trappings of a religion, as Islam so often does. The great polemicist Pat Condell put it far better than I could in a video entitled ‘It’s good to be anti-Islam’.

Yes, maybe some Muslims, including self declared ‘non practising’ Muslims such as Fiyaz Mughal himself, do feel offended by anti Islam comments, but that should be balanced by the knowledge that many people are opposed to Islam, not because they are suffering from an irrational phobia about Islam, but because they have got fed up with counting the bodies ripped apart in terror attacks carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam. There are also many who have also got angered at the huge number of mentally and physically shattered victims of criminals who are inspired by Islam, such as those girls and young women who have been targeted by the Islamic Rape Gangs that disfigure all too many British parliamentary constituencies.

Burton however, who now felt that he had a purpose to what was an insignificant life in the public domain, relished his new found notoriety, though it was only a matter of time before he crossed a criminal threshold. This was to happen in 2017.

It should be noted that this paragraph mentions the ‘criminal threshold’, but it is a threshold, as this blog and others have pointed out before, that relies on ‘religious harassment’ legislation that is dangerous to both justice and freedom of speech. This is because it relies heavily on the personal and very subjective perception of those who are alleging harassment. The danger to justice of this legislation is that something that one person may define as ‘harassing’ may be stuff that is ‘water off a duck’s back’ for others. The danger to free speech is even more obvious as anything that any individual sees as ‘offensive’ can suddenly be forbidden. That’s not good for any political culture.

The core reason why Mr Burton was convicted was not because he represented any sort of credible threat to Mughal, but because Mughal was able to claim that he was ‘offended’ by Mr Burton’s words. From what was relayed in court by the prosecution about the email conversation that the 2017 indictment is concerned with, the communications were merely sarcastic and mocking towards Mughal. What was sent to Mughal appeared to be the sort of stuff that could only be deemed ‘threatening or offensive’ if the metaphorical ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’ was a very thin skinned one. My own personal opinion on the communications that were the subject of this indictment were that they could only be considered as troublesome by an arrogant individual of excessive ego and a very thin skin, which is how Mughal came over as in court.

Unfortunately, the depleted jury, which was down to ten individuals because of illness, convicted Mr Burton on one count of religious harassment. I must say at this point that in my view there were mistakes made that made the trial less than wholly fair, such as not swearing in a new jury and restarting the trial afresh, when it became depleted to ten jurors. Also I think that disallowing the examination and cross examination of the defence expert witness and the introduction of tweets from 2013/2014, which were nothing to do with this case and which didn’t appear to have been properly disclosed to the defence, contributed to the result.

The preponderance or perceived preponderance of prosecution expert witness statements on the matter of taqiyya, without any counter from an opposing defence expert, in my view played a major role in the loss of this case and sadly handed a rare legal victory to Fiyaz Mughal. Mughal it should be remembered has in the past lost criminal cases, libel cases and cases put before the old Press Complaints commission when he has attempted to silence or intimidate critics. If Mughal thinks that the result of this case will be the end of the growing amount of criticism that Mughal and his organisations come in for, then I’m afraid that both he and Tell Mama are very much mistaken.

We now move on to Tell Mama’s comments on matters that were not directly pertaining to the trial, namely their views on those involved in the Liberty GB political party, which the author of this piece is neither a member of, nor has voted for them. The comments are the normal sort of Tell Mama ‘boilerplate’ where everything that Tell Mama or Fiyaz Mughal dislikes or is opposed to, is considered as ‘far right’ and where they display an astonishing degree of hostility to the idea of free political speech. It should also be noted that throughout this following section Tell Mama use ‘scare quotes’ when it comes to Liberty GB officer titles in an effort to devalue and sneer at the individuals involved. This is a childish ruse by Tell Mama and one that says more about Tell Mama and indeed Fiyaz Mughal himself, who as we see later appears to have part authored this press release, than it does about those that they are criticising.

Liberty GB and the Link to Activities After the Murder of Jo Cox

Paul Weston – ‘Founder’ and ‘Chairman’ of Liberty GB

We have previously highlighted other key officers within Liberty GB, namely Paul Weston, who notoriously said after the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013 that ‘we are losing a racial war, we are losing a cultural war‘. He claimed that you would find ‘no white people in Tower Hamlets’ due to rising demographics of non-whites and Muslims.

In response to accusations of racism, Weston responded “If I want to avoid a civil war happening in my country, I am prepared to accept being called a racist“.

Weston quit Ukip after Lord Pearson stood down as leader. For him, the party would take a soft line towards Islam under Nigel Farage. He wrote in 2012 that “I think Islam will cause even more death and destruction in Europe over the 21st century than Nazism and Communism caused over the 20th century”.

Tell Mama, as appears to be a habit of theirs, has not told the whole truth about Mr Weston. They have selectively quoted words that comment on the overuse and inappropriate use of the word ‘racist’. Tell Mama also seen to be unnecessarily vexed about a statement of verifiable fact about the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which is that it is dominated by Islam and about Mr Weston’s opinion that UKIP had gone ‘soft’ on Islam. This is an opinion that is shared by a number of people who support or supported UKIP. The above paragraphs also fail to mention (surprise surprise) how Mr Weston was once arrested for the heinous crime of reading out in public, wartime leader Winston Churchill’s none too appreciative words on the subject of Islam. On that occasion, thankfully, Mr Weston managed to fight off a prosecution.

Jack Buckby – ‘Press Officer’

Buckby’s toxic comments have previously been highlighted by us within Tell MAMA. Recently, Buckby told NUS campaigner Barbara Ntulmy “I hope you don’t get raped” in reference to Syrian refugees on Channel 4 news.

Rather than being ‘toxic’ as Tell Mama describe the Mr Buckby’s words about alleged refugees, they were unfortunately pretty accurate. This is especially so when set against the backdrop of the considerable number of sex attacks that have been carried out in Europe, by the current crop of alleged refugees from a number of Muslim majority countries, including Syria.

However, his actions before and after the murder of campaigner and Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, have been the most revolting of statements from him.

There are those of us who have examined the parliamentary record of the late Ms Cox and find her abject pandering to Islam reflected in that record equally revolting. An article published on this, the Fahrenheit211 blog, found that a large proportion of Cox’s contributions to Parliament were confined to middle class socialistic concerns, Islamopandering and promoting the ending of the blockade imposed on the genocidal terrorist group Hamas. Cox also had personal contact with Fiyaz Mughal as was revealed in another piece mockingly highlighting Cox’s close affinity with Islamic groups and causes.

Buckby stood in the Batley and Spen by-election after the murder of Jo Cox and months before the by-election tweeted out the following:

“Jo Cox was complicit in the rape of young girls throughout Yorkshire and beyond.”

Well she certainly wasn’t exactly pro-active in dealing with a known problem, a problem known to the local police, that of Islamic Rape Gangs that have been operating in surrounding constituencies and within the Batley and Spen one. The allegations surrounding Islamic Rape Gang activity in Batley and Spen that I’ve encountered or which have been passed to me, state that the police and the local political establishment, of which Cox was a part, did the square root of sod all to deal with this matter.

In his own words: “nationalism is the cause we need to fight. The issue we’ve got is that young people do not associate with the word. So, as long as we keep the ideology it doesn’t really matter what word we use. Obviously, it’s all about spin.” Adding, that the language of ‘culturalism,’ which is ‘already important’ to nationalism, would help get young people involved with groups like the BNP.

I’ve no time for the BNP and no desire to give them any support, in fact I’ve marched against the genuine far right, of which the BNP is a part. However, it should be noted that Mr Buckby is alleged to be a former member of the BNP, not a current one and it’s fair to say that there are many of us have joined political movements when we are younger which we later regret or think better of.

I note that Tell Mama are not nearly as willing to criticise the Labour Party who have had in Milton Keynes a councillor who was once a member of the rabidly neo-Nazi ‘November 9^th Society’. Why are they not autistically screaming ‘far right, far right’ at Milton Keynes Labour Party? A number of us have made ludicrous political allegiances that we look back on and say ‘WTF!’ I‘m not exempt from that classification as many years ago I would have classified myself as a Leftist.

When a student at the University of Liverpool, Mr Buckby tweeted a poster warning against sex with ‘intravenous drug abusers’, ‘bisexuals’ and ‘blacks’.

Not an opinion I would agree with. But, it’s an opinion that Mr Buckby is or should be, entitled to hold and express. As I and others have said on various occasions, the best way to deal with what could be called ‘hate speech’, is not speech restrictions, or putting some speech beyond the pale and calling it ‘toxic’, but instead is even more free speech. Bad ideas need to be challenged and you can’t do that with the sort of controlled speech and controlled opinion environment that groups like Tell Mama seem to want. Speech isn’t free if all you get to hear is the things you want to hear, free speech is having to hear those things that you may not wish to hear, including stuff that a person may find offensive.

A now-deleted tweet from 2014 read: “Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Please take time to remember those who were killed at the hand of fascism & hope Islam can’t do the same.”

Bearing in mind that the ideology of Islam is to many people’s minds today’s incarnation of fascism then I can’t disagree all that much with Mr Buckby’s conflation with Islam and the fascism of the past. Islam and Nazism have similar megalomaniac goals and remarkably similar hatreds for those outside the ‘master race’ or ‘master religion’ group.

Furthermore, the greatest and most credible violent threat to the world’s Jewish communities doesn’t come from the likes of Mr Buckby, or even the very small number of bedroom dwelling jackboot-lickers of the neo-Nazi crowd. The main threat to Jews comes from the monstrous Jew-hatred contained within Islamic theology. For example I’m not at all bothered about wearing a Kippah on my head in a Catholic or Protestant or Sikh or Hindu area, but to wear one on the street I was born on, and which is now heavily Islamised, would invite a kicking or worse.

In recent years, his incendiary rhetoric on Islam and Muslims has not changed. Further, he has made highly offensive and extreme comments about the LGBT and Jewish communities as well, yet Channel 4 gave him a platform to air such views without informing its audience effectively about his extremist ideology.

Who judges whether someone is ‘extreme’ or ‘offensive’ is a big question? I’d rather hear a diversity of voices including those who I may agree or disagree with, whether they be from the Left or the Right on outlets like Channel 4. This would be far more healthy broadcasting environment than the constant collection of Leftist nodding heads that many British mainstream news and current affairs programmes have degenerated into. Maybe Fiyaz Mughal and Tell Mama should sit down and consider why the sort of counter Islam rhetoric that they are deploring has emerged? Could it be because of all the dead bodies, shattered bodies, raped children and young women and other awful phenomena that seem to accompany the ideology of Islam and those who follow it wherever it goes and wherever it rules? I know one thing for certain and that’s the very last person on earth I’d want to be wielding the censor’s blue pencil, would be Fiyaz Mughal or Tell Mama.

Burton Starts Up His Activities Again in 2016

True to form, Burton was back on the scene and started his harassment of the Founder of Tell MAMA in early 2016. He harassed Mr Mughal when Tell MAMA posted a job vacancy for a Caseworker for the national hate crime project.

The truth of that matter is (what is it with Tell Mama and their estrangement from the truth?) that this started out as a joke job application to Tell Mama along with a couple of sarcastic follow up emails. At any time, Mughal or his staff, could have blocked the sender of the emails just as I block Holocaust Deniers, those who hate people because of the colour of their skin, tin foil hatters, vaccine damage obsessives, David Icke fans and others, who I do not wish to have to read.

The question is why didn’t Mughal or Tell Mama do this? Were they trying to entrap Mr Burton into saying something that Mughal could later claim to be ‘harassment’ or ‘offensive’? Some will certainly suspect that this may have been the case. Tell Mama also have a nasty habit of threatening legal action against any critic and have served libel writs against critics, including those who have made comparatively minor criticisms of Tell Mama. They have also threatened the editor of this blog with arrest on various occasions including when this blog criticised Tell Mama over an incident at the Conservative Party conference when one of their staff kicked off with apparently groundless accusations that security staff had been ‘homophobic’ and ‘ageist’.

In a blog he caricatured the face of Mughal, copied in Liberty GB activists and other far right networks

This statement seems to be a slight diversion from the truth. To the best of my knowledge Mr Burton did not originate this image and I first saw it on the website of another group, one completely unrelated by either individuals or core values, to Liberty GB. The image, as the prosecution claimed in court, was taken to be a reference to how Mughal had grown fat on the massive amounts (well over a £1M so far ) of taxpayer funding that have been hosed in the direction Mughal’s various projects.

and suggested a toast to Mr Mughal with a ‘bacon sandwich’.

Now I don’t eat bacon, but I would not be offended by someone toasting me with it, provided they were not in my kitchen. After all it’s not as if they are force feeding me with the stuff is it? Also it’s not bloody Kryptonite! Also as Mughal claimed in court to be a ‘non practising’ Muslim, we need to ask why on earth did he find this ‘offensive’? I know a number of ex-Muslims and non practising Muslims who either eat pig or are ambivalent about it so why on earth was Mughal claiming that being toasted with bacon was attacking his identity as a non-practising Muslim?

He gloated in ‘winning’ his case and all the while e-mailing from an account entitled, ‘Freedom Lovin’ Infidel’ – a reference to so-called self-styled ‘Counter-Jihadists’ who target Muslims by enlarge.

Mr Burton was in my mind correct to celebrate putting on over on this awful grievance monger Fiyaz Mughal. According to some of the accounts I’ve heard of Mughal’s behaviour during the previous Birmingham trial he was as aggressive and as shifty as he was at the Southwark Crown Court case. I also celebrated the trouncing of Mughal at Birmingham, but I did it with beer rather than a bacon sandwich. Oh and by the way Tell Mama, the expression is ‘by and large’ not as you have said ‘enlarge’. Maybe you could use some of the massive amounts of public money that you screw out of the Department of Communities and Local Government to pay for a professional proof reader?

In one e-mail, Burton stated the following:

“I forgot to thank you for passing my communication onto the Middle East transgender organisation. I thinks (sic) that it’s wonderful that you have such an enlightened group that supports persecuted minorities in this way.

It’s such a welcome change from the backward, misogynistic seventh century attitudes that we have come to expect from the followers of your ideology.”

This is merely a sarcastic reference to the infection of political correctness that all too many of our police forces are afflicted with. Also, when compared to other cultures, many of the sort of societies created by Islam are indeed backward, misogynistic, 7^th century hell holes. After all, there there’s more people holidaying in civilised countries that are not afflicted by Islam, than who choose to go to somewhere like Sudan. Personally I’d choose to go on an ‘attempt to lick your own eyeballs’ holiday experience held in a blacked out room in Workington, rather than visit an Islamic country.

Bizarrely, as a key witness Burton’s defence called one Sami Aldeeb to talk about the concept of ‘Taqiyya’. Aldeeb’s tweets include material showing the Qur’an with statements saying,

“This is a declaration of war against you, your family, your friends, your values, and everything that is precious to you.” At the previous trial, Burton’s defence relied on a member of Geert Wilder’s political party.

This statement from Tell Mama lends credence to the idea that they are an organisation that has more than a little difficulty keeping their facts straight, or saying anything with any relation to the facts at all. If Fiyaz Mughal and Tell Mama had been paying attention to the proceedings, as this blog was, rather than merely reading from the prosecution paperwork bundle as they seem to be doing, then they would have known that Sami Aldeeb, the defence expert witness on the matter of the Arabic word ‘Taqiyya’, was not called. Instead the prosecution expert witness, Dr Wilkinson, an academic who is a Muslim convert, was brought in and who merely commented on the defence expert’s report. Please note also the use by Tell Mama of the tactic of guilt by association. This they did with regards to the previous Birmingham trial where they treat Geert Wilders name as it is some sort of disease, that someone should not be associated with, rather than the name of the leader of the second most popular party in the Netherlands.

Conviction

On the 30th of March 2017, after a 4 year campaign, Timothy Martin Burton was found guilty of the religiously aggravated harassment of Fiyaz Mughal. A 4 year campaign that saw him being found not guilty, use language that few understood the impacts of, engage with far right extremism and ultimately lead him into the docks at Southwark Crown Court.

Strange? I thought it was the fact that Fiyaz Mughal went whining to the police about how he had been ‘offended’ by references to bacon or jokes or even criticism of his organisations that led the defendant to the court? Oh and the willingness of a police force and a Crown Prosecution Service in thrall to political correctness and Islamopandering of course, that helped. Tell Mama really do need to find themselves a proof reader as the word is ‘dock’ not ‘docks’. There’s slightly more water in one than the other, or at least there should be.

It was the persistence and tenacity of the founder of Tell MAMA, with the hard work of the Crown Prosecution Service and the MET, which led to the conviction of this far right extremist. The statement from Fiyaz Mughal, can be found below:

“I am relieved that the jury have seen this for the criminal conduct it is. For the last four years I have been subjected to a long running hate campaign at the hands of Mr Burton. I have received unacceptable abuse which has no place in modern day Britain. The outcome of the trial sends a very clear message – racial and religious abuse is completely unacceptable and is punishable by law. It also sends a message to far right activists who break the law in targeting people through religiously aggravated harassment. You will not succeed and you will be held accountable for your actions within the laws of our land.”

Let’s put aside for a moment Mughal’s claims and his narrative and let’s look at what happened in court. Fiyaz Mughal behaved in the eyes of some of those who viewed the proceedings in court like a cowardly poltroon whilst giving evidence. He was claiming to be the sort of character that was easily hurt and damaged and used the choice of giving evidence via video link in order to enhance that impression of fear and hurt, as it was suggested by defence counsel in court.

However, his manner and attitude whilst giving evidence was anything but that of a mild mannered and easily hurt man. What the court got was video of a screaming bully, shouting and snarling his way through giving evidence. Mughal also made long and rambling statements including one about how the use of the word ‘taqiyya’ is ‘racist’ and stated inaccurately that the use of taqiyya is confined to the Shia Muslims. He ranted and raved about the defendant, internet radio stations, the Restore Australia website and on a number of occasions libelled the Fahrenheit211 website as being part of a ‘far right network’. Yet again we saw Mughal claim that everybody and every entity that was opposing Islam or not buying into his and his organisation’s definition of Islamophobia, is part of the ‘far right’. The impression that Mughal gave was that of someone who is a bit of an obsessed ‘tin foil hatter’, seeing far right conspiracies around every corner.

There is also a message for Islamist extremists and those who perpetuate an Islamist narrative of the State being against Muslims or Muslim rights not being protected. This result corrodes your toxic narrative that holds back some Muslims from reporting in and accessing justice and your manipulation of our fellow British Muslim citizens against the State and its structures, is challenged by this ruling. The legal system works for all.

This statement is I’m afraid standard community cohesion bullshit. Also it appears to be related to an ongoing spat between Fiyaz Mughal and the Islamist MEND group who claim that Mughal libelled them to Parliament but Mughal cannot be sued for this alleged libel owing to the doctrine of Parliamentary privilege. If nothing else it certainly serves as an attempt to distance Mughal politically from Islamists, something he tries hard to do.

As for the ‘British legal system working for all’ well it didn’t work for Kevin Crehan did it? He ended up being stuck in a prison full of Muslim criminals, merely for putting a bacon sandwich on a mosque step and died, allegedly of natural causes or suicide, according to speculation, whilst incarcerated. No, the legal system doesn’t seem to be working and there are numerous cases of Muslim criminals getting far less of a sentence than the offence may deserve, whilst those who protest about Islam, or who are among the numerous victims of Islamic crime, are unjustly punished or have their pleas for help ignored.

As regarding Mughal’s claim that the result sent a message to what he called ‘far right activists’ about what he called ‘targeting of people on the grounds of religion’ then I think he’s gravely mistaken and I shall explain why. I don’t think the criticisms of either Mughal or his entities will go away. For example: I’m noticing an uptick in the number of people, possibly as a result of this case, who are asking awkward questions about Fiyaz Mughal, Tell Mama and the spectacular amounts of money that has been thrown in the general direction of Tell Mama and associated groups. Furthermore, this cash from the public purse is money which appears to have been very poorly accounted for. I don’t think this case will do anything to quell people’s anger at either the wasteful and often dishonest and questionable activities of the groups associated with Mughal, or the downright bestial behaviour and attitudes of a significant and dangerous minority of the followers of Islam. Mughal may have won a battle, but in doing so has helped to negatively publicise his organisations in a manner that he may not have chosen for himself. There are those who may not have heard of Tell Mama yesterday but who have done today and this awareness of them has come from Mughal’s own mouth and they are not liking what they hear.

For others suffering from similar abuse, my message is very clear: report any racial and religious abuse you receive to third party hate crime agencies like Tell MAMA and to the police because this behaviour breaks the law. This judgment also sends a very clear message to social media companies, which have been extremely slow to monitor and curb this type of activity, that they have a responsibility to act to ensure their platforms are not used to break the law.”

As expected we have an advert for Tell Mama’s services from Mughal or to translate is an oblique ‘give us your f**ing money you taxpayers’ demand. Also equally expected, we have another call, one of a number that Tell Mama and those associated with them have made, for the censorship of social media.

I found it very remarkable reading the Tell Mama press release at just how much it deviated from the truth, especially as it pertains to the proceedings in court, and how much childish character assassination and guilt by association attempts it contained. There were a number of seemingly groundless smears about individuals and entities being ‘far right’ and the phrase was used so much that it may seem to many that it has been both over and inappropriately used. It appears to me and may well do to others, that this phrase ‘far right’ is trotted out to describe anything that Fiyaz Mughal or the Tell Mama group find difficult, challenging or offensive.

This polemic, posing as a press release and which appears to have been penned in part by Fiyaz Mughal himself, may go down well with Mughal’s own circle but in the wider world is more than likely to prompt disgust that so much money is being wasted on such a bunch of shysters and their Islamophobia hobby horse. As I write this I know from the experience of friends with disabilities and life changing medical conditions, that there are many more deserving causes and more deserving people, for the receipt of £181k per year than is Fiyaz Mughal and his various and questionable organisations. The political pressure needs to be kept up against Fiyaz Mughal and the organisations associated with him, in order for there to be an end to the massive amount of money that is wasted on them.  There also needs to be an end to the alleged undue and unaccountable influence that is wielded by both Fiyaz Mughal and his organisations.