The ‘anti Islamophobia’ group Tell Mama, are and have been in the past, a highly dishonest and indeed shifty organisation. They have run with and publicised false stories about Islamophobia long after they have been proven to be baseless and they have exploited the mentally vulnerable for political ends. In addition, they have colluded with those who are in favour of press censorship and disgracefully and dishonestly claimed that there was a ‘massive’ rise in Islamophobic attack figures following the Lee Rigby murder, figures which were later proven to be fake. For doing all this and much more that is malign, Tell Mama is richly rewarded by the Government for it’s ‘anti Islamophobia’ work. As of last year this divisive and malignant bunch of charlatans, censors and con artists have been taking at least £181,000 per annum from the British taxpayer. In fact in the last decade, Tell Mama along with other projects run by Tell Mama’s founder one Fiyaz Mughal, has managed to screw over £1,000,000 from the British taxpayer via the Department of Communities and Local Government. This money was spent, not just on Tell Mama but on such wasteful bullshit as a ‘care for Islamic converts’ project and a ‘mosque directory for women’ along with other equally pointless and useless activities.

Since Tell Mama’s founding in approximately 2012 this organisation has gained a reputation for not only being dishonest with such things as ‘hate crime’ figures, but Tell Mama and those associated with them in the past such as Fiyaz Mughal himself, has also managed to gain an enormous amount of influence in policing and governmental circles. This is influence that this group does not deserve to have. There are far more worthy entities who should be talking to and influencing our government than this bunch of shysters. There are also far more worthy causes that the enormous amount of money that has been spunked on Tell Mama could have been spent on.

If wasteful and dishonest and having undue political influence were not bad enough labels for Tell Mama to have earned for themselves, now we need to have overweening arrogance. Tell Mama have haughtily presumed that they can dictate to Parliament who does and who does not, get to speak at meetings of particular Parliamentary interest groups. This is something that even the Monarch may be uneasy about doing let alone a questionable group like Tell Mama.

According to Sky News, Tell Mama whined loudly about the invitation by the All Party British Hindu Group of a Hindu activist,Tapan Ghosh, to a Diwali celebration at the Palace of Westminster. Mr Ghosh has a record for speaking against what he has described as ‘Islamic aggression and expansionism’ . Now there may be people who may agree with Mr Ghosh or who disagree with him, but it is not Tell Mama’s place, despite the oodles of taxpayer’s cash they get, to influence which people Parliamentary special interest groups or affinity groups decide to invite. The only stricture should be about people who deliberately and credibly incite acts of violence and there is nothing in the statements quoted by Greg Heffer a Sky News political reporter that would meet that standard. Yes he departs from the leftist narrative over the ‘Rohingya’ but there are also many other people, but this doesn’t to my mind meet the standard of credibly and and deliberately inciting violence. Mr Ghosh has made some pungent statements about Islam and the need to curtail the birth rate of Muslims, but again this is a mere opinion not something that could incite violence. There are lots of opinions in this world and there are opinions that some people hold may be offensive to some but not to others.

Mr Ghosh may have views that some will agree with and some who will not but should he have been kept out of Parliament when the likes of Corbyn have invited far worse to the Palace of Westminster in the form of convicted IRA personnel. In no way, at least from what Sky have said about Mr Ghosh’s utterances, does he look as bad as a convicted IRA operative and he should be entitled to his opinion about Islam whether one agrees with it or not. The fact that Tell Mama have gone ballistic on what is a really minor issue shows Tell Mama’s whining complaint that they’ve submitted to the Parliamentary authorities, appear to be more about shutting down negative opinion about Islam, something they’ve pursued through various avenues in recent years.

Here’s part of the report from Sky News. As is usual policy for this blog the original text is in italics whereas this blog’s comments are in plain text.

A Government-backed group tackling Islamophobia are demanding a formal investigation after an “anti-Muslim extremist” attended two events in Parliament.

It’s the fact that the mendacious mountebanks of Tell Mama get any money at all from the taxpayer that should anger voters. What should also cause the bile to rise is that Tell Mama seem to no problem making arrogant ‘demands’ of Parliament and pushing their narrative and their description of Ghosh as an ‘anti-Muslim extremist’. This is par for the course with Tell Mama who often smear people as ‘far right’, even when the groups and individuals that they are calling ‘far right’ are patently not and are merely opposed to the ideology of Islam.

TellMAMA, who record incidents of anti-Muslim hate crime, will submit a complaint to House of Commons officials over the appearance of Tapan Ghosh at a meeting and a reception last week.

As has been stated before their definition of ‘anti Muslim’ crime is flexible to say the least. They have a record of spin, dishonesty and of building mountains out of molehills in order to advance their narrative that Muslims are under constant threat of violence in the UK, something that has not been proved. The fact that Tell Mama are submiting an official complaint about something so minor shows this organisation to be primarily concerned with shutting down criticism of Islam. A more reasonable organisation or one without an agenda may have let this issue go especially as according to the MP who organised the event and others who attended Mr Ghosh said nothing untoward during the meeting. This is a ‘nothingburger’ of a complaint attacking a man for holding opinions that Tell Mama dislike and disapprove of.

Although Tell Mama is described in this paragraph as ‘independent’ it must be noted that Tell Mama and some of it’s former and current staff have very good contacts with the Dept of Communities and Local Government, the Crown Prosecution Service and various police forces. Fiyaz Mughal even managed to get himself put on the board of Holocaust Memorial Day Trust an entity that is overseen by the DCLG. Tell Mama and those associated with it, are so entwined with government that ‘independent’ doesn’t exactly look the best word to choose really. As for the comment that Tell Mama receive ‘some’ public funding then I will refer you to the very large amounts of public money that has been thrown at Tell Mama over recent years.

Mr Ghosh describes himself on Twitter as an “uncompromising Hindu activist” who is “determined to fight against Islamic aggression and expansion”.

The article then went to go attempt to smear Mr Ghosh by a process of guilt by association by showing him pictured with former EDL leader and now Rebel TV reporter Tommy Robinson. In the House of Commons by Labour MP Naz Shah popped up and is reported as saying Mr Ghosh’s views were ‘abhorrent’. Well they may have been ‘abhorrent’ to Ms Shah but they may not be for others. Isn’t canvassing a wide range of opinion from a particular interest or affinity group what Parliamentary groups are supposed to do along with providing a voice for them in Parliament? It seems very much to me that Tell Mama wants to shut down the rights of Hindus to speak on within the Palace of Westminster particular on issues that concern the more troublesome aspects of Islam.

Who gave Tell Mama that right to shut down and exclude speakers they don’t like from the Palace of Westminster? The answer is nobody did and they are behaving extremely arrogantly over this throwing their weight around and issuing demands.

The sheer paucity of substance of Tell Mama’s complaint to Parliament is illustrated in the description of what happened from the MP who organised the event, the Conservative MP Bob Blackman. He said that he did not invite Mr Ghosh personally he was brought as a guest by the National Council of Hindu Temples. In addition Mr Ghosh was brought in by the National Council of Hindu Temples to speak about a specific area that Mr Ghosh is perceived by some to have an acknowledged expertise which is rapes and forced conversions in the West Bengal area. There is no suggestion that Mr Ghosh said anything that could be reasonably said to be ‘off’ or troubling and as Mr Blackman MP said ‘there were no abhorrent remarks’ made by Mr Ghosh at the event that was also attended by the Home Secretary Amber Rudd. Mr Blackman also made it clear that he had no influence over guests invited by external entities like the National Council of Hindu Temples ‘and said: ‘I could not stop a guest even if I had wanted to’

In response to Naz Shah’s comments to the house Sky News reported Mr Blackman as saying: ““I hosted, in my capacity as chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for British Hindus, two functions last Wednesday [18 October], at which Tapan Ghosh attended.”

He added Mr Ghosh was invited by the National Council of Hindu Temples to attend the discussion event and “present evidence of physical attacks, rapes and false marriages and false conversions that have taken place in west Bengal and other places”.

“It was only in that capacity as presenting that evidence that that individual was invited to this House,” Mr Blackman said.

“He made no abhorrent remarks at the meeting, and I am quite clear that both myself and the National Council of Hindu Temples do not agree with his views that have previously stated, do not accept them, we do not endorse them in any shape or form.”

Mr Blackman told Sky News he was unaware of Mr Ghosh’s past comments prior to the event and would not have been able to prevent his appearance had he wished to.

Well that’s Tell Mama told isn’t it? The MP had no influence over the guest list and in any instance the allegedly troubling guest was no trouble whatsoever. This is yet more evidence that Tell Mama’s complaint is specious in the extreme. How can MP’s conduct ‘due dilligence’ on the guests invited by third party organisations to speak to MP’s if they can’t influence the guest list?

According to the Sky News report ‘parliamentary sources’ seem to be saying that the MP is correct and Tell Mama are wrong.

Sky said:

A Parliamentary spokesperson told Sky News: “When organising meetings and events members may invite guests of their choice to attend and it is not for the House authorities to influence this.

Exactly! This is correct the House administration cannot interfere in the manner that Tell Mama seem to be wanting the House administration to do.

“It is not compulsory for a member to disclose an invite list to the House in advance of a meeting.

This is completely right and correct. Why should the House admin authorities pick a Member’s guest list?

“The appropriate use of committee and meeting rooms on the Parliamentary Estate and the expected conduct of members is outlined in the Code of Conduct.

“Complaints that members have breached the rules can be made to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who may investigate accordingly. “

To my eyes it doesn’t look as if Bob Blackman has contravened any rules here. He wasn’t responsible for the guest that was invited by the third party and it was also beyond his authority to do so anyway.

The more I read of the Sky account of this complaint the more worthless it looks in itself and also the more politically motivated it is as well. This complaint is yet another bit of Islamic lawfare designed to shut down, shut up and intimidate critics of Islam and something we’ve come to expect from Tell Mama and groups like them. This is not a genuine complaint that could levelled at an MP for personally inviting a bad person. This is an attempt by Tell Mama to intimidate Parliament and the Parliamentary authorities into vetting the opinions of those who visit the house as guests and it is intimidation that must be resisted by Parliament. The very last thing we need in this country is the danger to our democracy posed by shysters like Tell Mama dictating who can say what about Islam within the bounds of the Palace of Westminster.