NOTE: This should be seen and read as a companion piece to the previous one about how the activities of the Tell Mama group are now under much more and wider public scrutiny and how that is a damned good thing.
I do like to wake up to a good news story and the other day I woke up to the news that Fiyaz Mughal, the former director of the mendacious grievance mongers of the Tell Mama ‘Islamophobia’ group, had turned down a job, offered to him by Michael Gove, to be Britain’s ‘Islamophobia Tsar’. This ended a quite worrying period for those who have long been concerned about the activities of organisations and projects started or managed by Mr Mughal and which have either cost a lot of money for very little societal benefit or which have helped to damage things like freedom of speech.
I’m damned glad that Mr Mughal has turned down the job of presiding over government policies surrounding ‘Islamophobia’. I’m glad because I can’t think of a worse person to undertake that sort of job. Like a now respectable actor who is trying to play down his early years as a porn performer, Mr Mughal would have entered this job with a considerable amount of baggage related to some of the groups that he has been involved with or associated with. This baggage includes growing concern about his group’s stewardship of public money, the accuracy of their reports into ‘Islamophobia’, their relations with police forces and government entities and the negative attitude some of his groups, such as Tell Mama, have towards the whole concept of freedom of speech. Even if Mr Mughal has his heart in the right place and I think that he did with Muslims Against Antisemitism, there are so many criticisms that can be made of Tell Mama that association with it is bound to be extremely burdensome baggage indeed.
Here’s how The Mail on Sunday has reported Mr Mughal’s decision to take a very early bath regarding this new and in my view wholly unnecessary post as ‘Islamophobia’ Tsar.
The Mail on Sunday said:
The man lined up by the Government to tackle Islamophobia has quit the role before he even began after receiving a torrent of abuse, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Fiyaz Mughal was expected to be unveiled tomorrow as the first anti-Muslim hatred tsar, working closely with Ministers.
But in an embarrassing blow for Communities Secretary Michael Gove, who is spearheading a crackdown on extremism, Mr Mughal turned down the job after ‘vile’ attacks from both the far-Right and Islamists, who called him ‘a sell-out’.
The Mail on Sunday article went to to detail the claims made by Mr Mughal of harassment from what he claimed was ‘the far right’ and ‘Islamists’. I’ve little doubt that Mr Mughal does get some robust criticism from those in the Islamic community who see him as a ‘sell out’ and get similar unpleasantness from elsewhere. But Mr Mughal and his groups have had a habit of declaring people and organisations to be ‘far right’ when they are not, they just have criticisms of the ideology of Islam. Those of us who have marched against the real far right in the form of the National Front, the British Movement and the BNP, do not recognise what Tell Mama call far right as being any such thing. Stories about the public expressing concern about Islamic Rape Gangs or Islamic extremism or the often second class status of Islamic women in Muslim communities or Islamic Jew hatred, have all, at some point over the last few years been classed or denounced as ‘far right’ by groups like Tell Mama. I do not consider that an identification of an individual or an organisation as ‘far right’ by Tell Mama or those associated with them would be altogether reliable and is certainly not something I’d take on trust. Of course I deplore and disavow any of threats that have been claimed to have been made as such threats are wrong in all situations and are, I believe, a manifestation of ‘King Mob’, that most dire and capricious of rulers.
I can well believe that Mr Mughal has got a lot of criticism, some probably quite ‘pungent’ when it emerged that he was a favourite for this government’s decision to waste money on an ‘Islamophobia Tsar’. However, there are other press reports that claim that in addition to the criticism that Mr Mughal has got from across the board, money or rather the lack of it being paid into projects Mr Mughal approves of might also be a factor.
The Yahoo News page said:
After stepping down, Mr Mughal said: “This is the state of our country, sadly, that people who try to do what is right for our country – to bring communities together, to tackle extremism – are being hounded out of government.”
He also questioned the government’s approach to Islamophobia, asking “how seriously are you actually taking anti-Muslim hatred?”
The campaigner said he was offered to be a liaison with British Muslim communities two days a month with a “£1,000 payment – I can get that doing other work – with me getting no security protection, no support and being left out there on my own devices”.
He added: “Enough is enough. I stepped away because it is traumatising to me… I’m a working man.
“Actually it is enough that after 20 years I just can’t accept any more abuse. It is traumatising my mental health.”
A £1000 per month for two days work isn’t enough for Mr Mughal it seems. For a lot of people that sort of money added to their pay packet might be life changing but Mr Mughal is treating it like small change. I’m intriuged about Mr Mughal’s comment about needing security in order to talk to Britain’s Islamic communities. I thought that Islam was a ‘religion of peace’? Maybe this comment is an admission that Islam in Britain or significant parts of it are not exactly what the man on the Clapham Omnibus would consider as ‘peaceful’? I’m sorry to hear of Mr Mughal’s mental troubles and I wish him well for all his future endeavours but maybe it is time for him to step away from the kitchen if he doesn’t like the heat of public criticism of his groups, what they have done and his association with them.
My own view is that whilst money and fear of extremists might be a factor in Mr Mughal’s decision to step down, the baggage of his previous organisations could be a factor. Tell Mama made so many enemies not just among the extremes of Left, Right or Islam, but amongst the far greater number of what I would call reasonable people. These are the people who do not want one religion, Islam, exempted from debate, or who support freedom of speech or who wish to voice concern about the relationship between Islam and the wider society.
My view of this situation is ‘Phew!’, I’m mightily pleased that he didn’t take the job of being the Government’s chief ‘Islamophobia’ worrier because some of Mr Mughal’s organisations have been mightily unsupportive of freedom of speech. I believe a great danger has been averted by this decision. But others have been more pungent about Mr Mughal’s decision to decline this job. Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch was, as could be expected, quite scathing of Mr Mughal and expressed his opinion thus:
It is good that Fiyaz Mughal decided not to take this job, because obviously he cannot combat “Islamophobia” if the poor victim cowers and shrinks before it.
Fiyaz Mughal is an unprincipled, dishonest, and manipulative character assassin who has been one of the principal people responsible for demonizing and stigmatizing resistance to jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women in the UK. He was one of the chief voices labeling those who called attention to Muslim rape gang activity as “racist” and “Islamophobic.” In other words, he is one of those people who are most responsible for the destruction of Britain as a free society. Future generations of free people, if there are any, will excoriate him as the evil and destructive individual that he is.
I will not be as florid with my denunciation of the record of Mr Mughal or his organisations as Mr Spencer has been but I will say that Britons have really dodged a large calibre political bullet here. I am very thankful for his decision.
