Fifth columns - Muslim hate monitor to lose backing
MUSLIM HATE MONITOR TO LOSE BACKING
Ministers end funding for body that claimed 'wave
of attacks' against Islam.
By Andrew Gilligan
7:00AM BST 09 Jun 2013
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/nk52trm>
----------------------------------------
A controversial project claiming to measure anti-
Muslim attacks will not have its government grant
renewed after police and civil servants raised
concerns about its methods.
The project, called Tell Mama, claimed that there
had been a "sustained wave of attacks and
intimidation" against British Muslims after the
killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, with 193
"Islamophobic incidents" reported to it, rising to
212 by last weekend.
The group's founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said he saw "no
end to this cycle of violence", describing it as
"unprecedented". The claims were unquestioningly
repeated in the media.
Tell Mama and Mr Mughal did not mention, however,
that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to
activity that took place only online, mainly
offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or
that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had
not been verified. Not all the online abuse even
originated in Britain.
Contrary to the group's claim of a "cycle of
violence" and a "sustained wave of attacks", only
17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the
physical targeting of people and there were no
attacks on anyone serious enough to require
medical treatment.
Related Articles
The truth about the 'wave of attacks on
Muslims' after Woolwich murder
01 Jun 2013
Andrew Gilligan: 'Lone wolves' who run with
the pack
25 May 2013
There have been a further 12 attacks on Islamic
buildings, three of them serious, including a
probable arson attack on a Muslim community centre
in north London, which burned it to the ground.
Tell Mama supporters launched a furious campaign
of protest against The Sunday Telegraph after it
disclosed the breakdown last week, with round-
robin emails to the newspaper accusing it of
behaviour "better suited to the days of 1930s
Germany".
However, The Sunday Telegraph has now learned that
even before Woolwich, the communities minister,
the Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, called Mr
Mughal to a meeting and said that Tell Mama's
grant would not be renewed.
The organisation has received a total of £375,000
from the Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG) since last year.
"Mr Mughal was giving data on attacks to DCLG
which wasn't stacking up when it was cross-
referenced with other reports by Acpo [the
Association of Chief Police Officers]," said one
source closely involved in counter-extremism.
"He was questioned by DCLG civil servants and lost
his temper. He was subsequently called in by Don
Foster and told that he would receive no more
money."
A senior Liberal Democrat source confirmed the
sequence of events, saying: "There was a bit of a
spat. He was called in and told that Acpo had cast
doubt on his figures. He was told that he would be
closely monitored for the remaining period of the
grant and that there would be no more money."
A DCLG spokesman confirmed that Tell Mama's
funding would not be renewed and refused to deny
that officials had raised concerns about its
methods.
Tell Mama claimed in March that anti-Muslim crime
was "rising", even though the group had only been
in operation at that stage for a year and had no
previous figures to compare with.
Other figures, collected by the police, show that
hate crime in mainly Muslim areas has fallen in
the past 10 years. The only large force that
collects figures on specifically anti-Muslim
crime, the Metropolitan Police, reported an 8.5
per cent fall in such crimes between 2009 and
2012.
There was a spike in anti-Muslim incidents after
the killing of Drummer Rigby. However, contrary to
Tell Mama's claims that it was "unprecedented",
the Met's assistant commissioner, Cressida Dick,
told MPs last week that it was "slightly less"
than after previous terror attacks.
"There has not been such a very big increase in
attacks as we might have feared," she said. Mr
Mughal himself has now admitted to the BBC that
the number of physical attacks was "small".
Tell Mama has also been using its budget to
threaten members of the public with libel actions
for criticising it on Twitter.
In mid-May, before Woolwich, one Jewish activist,
Ambrosine Chetrit, received a threatening letter
from solicitors after she tweeted that "Tell Mama
are sitting on Twitter on the EDL hashtag,
threatening anyone and everyone whose comments
they do not like about Islam".
Tell Mama also objected to a tweet in which Ms
Chetrit said it was "trying to close down pro-
Israel [Twitter] accounts daily".
Other recipients of legal threats at the same time
include Atma Singh, a former race adviser to the
then Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who
received a legal letter from Tell Mama after
tweeting that it "gives a platform to Islamists".
Tell Mama did not claim that either of these
individuals was racist or anti-Muslim. But it said
their tweets were false and "defamatory" of Mr
Mughal, had "damaged" his reputation, causing him
"distress and embarrassment", and demanded
immediate apologies and damages. Up to four other
people are believed to have received similar
threats.
The letters were written by Farooq Bajwa, a
solicitor who has acted for a number of Islamists
and Islamist sympathisers, including the
Palestinian radical leader Raed Salah and the
Respect MP George Galloway.
The letters to Mr Singh and Ms Chetrit were sent
to their private home addresses, neither of which
are in the public domain. Ms Chetrit's lawyer,
Mark Lewis, who has acted for many phone-hacking
victims, has reported Mr Bajwa and Tell Mama to
the police after they refused to say how they
obtained the information.
"I have been instructed to resist the claim," said
Mr Lewis. "It has no merit. I have not had any
response as to how my client's name and address
were obtained."
Mr Singh said: "I find it absurd that someone can
threaten people on this kind of basis and use
libel in this political way. This is nothing to do
with Islamophobia – they are just trying to shut
down debate."
Ms Chetrit said: "It is very worrying and scary.
All the people who have been threatened by Tell
Mama are pro-Israeli."
The DCLG claimed that Tell Mama's funding was
always due to cease in September 2013 and that Mr
Foster was "very impressed" by the "progress" the
group had made.
However, the funding of Tell Mama was described as
"ongoing" in the Government's "hate crime action
plan" last year and only in November Nick Clegg,
the Deputy Prime Minister, announced that £214,000
of "new" and "further" funding had been granted to
Tell Mama.
Mr Mughal said: "The meeting with DCLG officials
related to the publication of 2012 anti-Muslim
prejudice figures and having an independent review
of those figures, which is good practice.
"This was agreed and has always been part of the
process. The 'loss of temper' did not relate to
the methodology of data collection."
Mr Mughal said that no public money had been used
to issue the libel threats.
He said: "We will defend the right of all people
to express their identities and their support for
countries and groups freely.
However, we have the right to defend the integrity
of our work when people broadcast [on Twitter]
comments that are simply untrue and highly
damaging about us."
He declined to explain how the private addresses
had been obtained, but said it was "within the
law."
Ministers end funding for body that claimed 'wave
of attacks' against Islam.
By Andrew Gilligan
7:00AM BST 09 Jun 2013
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/nk52trm>
----------------------------------------
A controversial project claiming to measure anti-
Muslim attacks will not have its government grant
renewed after police and civil servants raised
concerns about its methods.
The project, called Tell Mama, claimed that there
had been a "sustained wave of attacks and
intimidation" against British Muslims after the
killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, with 193
"Islamophobic incidents" reported to it, rising to
212 by last weekend.
The group's founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said he saw "no
end to this cycle of violence", describing it as
"unprecedented". The claims were unquestioningly
repeated in the media.
Tell Mama and Mr Mughal did not mention, however,
that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to
activity that took place only online, mainly
offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or
that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had
not been verified. Not all the online abuse even
originated in Britain.
Contrary to the group's claim of a "cycle of
violence" and a "sustained wave of attacks", only
17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the
physical targeting of people and there were no
attacks on anyone serious enough to require
medical treatment.
Related Articles
The truth about the 'wave of attacks on
Muslims' after Woolwich murder
01 Jun 2013
Andrew Gilligan: 'Lone wolves' who run with
the pack
25 May 2013
There have been a further 12 attacks on Islamic
buildings, three of them serious, including a
probable arson attack on a Muslim community centre
in north London, which burned it to the ground.
Tell Mama supporters launched a furious campaign
of protest against The Sunday Telegraph after it
disclosed the breakdown last week, with round-
robin emails to the newspaper accusing it of
behaviour "better suited to the days of 1930s
Germany".
However, The Sunday Telegraph has now learned that
even before Woolwich, the communities minister,
the Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, called Mr
Mughal to a meeting and said that Tell Mama's
grant would not be renewed.
The organisation has received a total of £375,000
from the Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG) since last year.
"Mr Mughal was giving data on attacks to DCLG
which wasn't stacking up when it was cross-
referenced with other reports by Acpo [the
Association of Chief Police Officers]," said one
source closely involved in counter-extremism.
"He was questioned by DCLG civil servants and lost
his temper. He was subsequently called in by Don
Foster and told that he would receive no more
money."
A senior Liberal Democrat source confirmed the
sequence of events, saying: "There was a bit of a
spat. He was called in and told that Acpo had cast
doubt on his figures. He was told that he would be
closely monitored for the remaining period of the
grant and that there would be no more money."
A DCLG spokesman confirmed that Tell Mama's
funding would not be renewed and refused to deny
that officials had raised concerns about its
methods.
Tell Mama claimed in March that anti-Muslim crime
was "rising", even though the group had only been
in operation at that stage for a year and had no
previous figures to compare with.
Other figures, collected by the police, show that
hate crime in mainly Muslim areas has fallen in
the past 10 years. The only large force that
collects figures on specifically anti-Muslim
crime, the Metropolitan Police, reported an 8.5
per cent fall in such crimes between 2009 and
2012.
There was a spike in anti-Muslim incidents after
the killing of Drummer Rigby. However, contrary to
Tell Mama's claims that it was "unprecedented",
the Met's assistant commissioner, Cressida Dick,
told MPs last week that it was "slightly less"
than after previous terror attacks.
"There has not been such a very big increase in
attacks as we might have feared," she said. Mr
Mughal himself has now admitted to the BBC that
the number of physical attacks was "small".
Tell Mama has also been using its budget to
threaten members of the public with libel actions
for criticising it on Twitter.
In mid-May, before Woolwich, one Jewish activist,
Ambrosine Chetrit, received a threatening letter
from solicitors after she tweeted that "Tell Mama
are sitting on Twitter on the EDL hashtag,
threatening anyone and everyone whose comments
they do not like about Islam".
Tell Mama also objected to a tweet in which Ms
Chetrit said it was "trying to close down pro-
Israel [Twitter] accounts daily".
Other recipients of legal threats at the same time
include Atma Singh, a former race adviser to the
then Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who
received a legal letter from Tell Mama after
tweeting that it "gives a platform to Islamists".
Tell Mama did not claim that either of these
individuals was racist or anti-Muslim. But it said
their tweets were false and "defamatory" of Mr
Mughal, had "damaged" his reputation, causing him
"distress and embarrassment", and demanded
immediate apologies and damages. Up to four other
people are believed to have received similar
threats.
The letters were written by Farooq Bajwa, a
solicitor who has acted for a number of Islamists
and Islamist sympathisers, including the
Palestinian radical leader Raed Salah and the
Respect MP George Galloway.
The letters to Mr Singh and Ms Chetrit were sent
to their private home addresses, neither of which
are in the public domain. Ms Chetrit's lawyer,
Mark Lewis, who has acted for many phone-hacking
victims, has reported Mr Bajwa and Tell Mama to
the police after they refused to say how they
obtained the information.
"I have been instructed to resist the claim," said
Mr Lewis. "It has no merit. I have not had any
response as to how my client's name and address
were obtained."
Mr Singh said: "I find it absurd that someone can
threaten people on this kind of basis and use
libel in this political way. This is nothing to do
with Islamophobia – they are just trying to shut
down debate."
Ms Chetrit said: "It is very worrying and scary.
All the people who have been threatened by Tell
Mama are pro-Israeli."
The DCLG claimed that Tell Mama's funding was
always due to cease in September 2013 and that Mr
Foster was "very impressed" by the "progress" the
group had made.
However, the funding of Tell Mama was described as
"ongoing" in the Government's "hate crime action
plan" last year and only in November Nick Clegg,
the Deputy Prime Minister, announced that £214,000
of "new" and "further" funding had been granted to
Tell Mama.
Mr Mughal said: "The meeting with DCLG officials
related to the publication of 2012 anti-Muslim
prejudice figures and having an independent review
of those figures, which is good practice.
"This was agreed and has always been part of the
process. The 'loss of temper' did not relate to
the methodology of data collection."
Mr Mughal said that no public money had been used
to issue the libel threats.
He said: "We will defend the right of all people
to express their identities and their support for
countries and groups freely.
However, we have the right to defend the integrity
of our work when people broadcast [on Twitter]
comments that are simply untrue and highly
damaging about us."
He declined to explain how the private addresses
had been obtained, but said it was "within the
law."
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