It’s always a good thing when an Islamic, or any other identity politics group, attempts an act of lawfare and it gets thrown back in their faces. This is what has happened to Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain who has had a complaint kicked out by the press regulator IPSO.

According to a Guido Fawkes report the MCB was ‘humilated’ by IPSO after bringing a complaint alleging inaccuracy in a Daily Telegraph op-ed. A complaint that was completely thrown out by IPSO.

Guido said:

Humiliation for the Muslim Council of Britain, as their media spokesperson has lost an IPSO complaint against the Telegraph. Miqdaad Versi had made a complaint that an op-ed entitled “We’re not drifting into segregation, we’re hurtling perilously towards it”, written by Nick Timothy, breached Clause 1 (accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. The complaint has now been thrown out.

In the article, Timothy referenced a letter to schools from Gavin Williamson, “warning that while pupils are allowed to express political views, anti-Semitic language and threats must not be tolerated”, going on to state:

“In response to the Williamson letter, Miqdaad Versi, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, complained that the Government was being ‘one-sided’. The letter, of course, was not about events in Israel, but the harassment of British Jews. In suggesting there might be two sides to racism, Versi revealed more than he intended about why the Government refuses to engage with the MCB.”

It is gratifying to see Versi’s little whinge being kicked out by IPSO. The article in question was not a news report where matters of accuracy are important, but was an opinion piece where writers are less constrained by strict rules and are allowed to give opinions. Furthermore the Guido piece goes on to explain that the Telegraph went out of their way to keep a sense of balance by publishing a letter from Versi putting his side of the argument. IPSO even went so far as to commend the Telegraph for giving Versi an opportunity to respond.

It’s nice to see that IPSO will stand up to identity politics whingers when such whinges are totally unjustified. A bit of lawfare has been defeated, may there be many more such defeats.