Posters of a homophobic nature were recently identified and removed from locations across the borough.

The descriptions of these posters are similar to those that have been found in 2010 in the borough, and elsewhere in South West London and Nottingham.

The posters have been reported to the Metropolitan Police, and the matter is being treated as a homophobic hate crime. All lines of enquiry are being pursued by police both within Tower Hamlets and London wide to identify and prosecute those responsible.

Following these incidents the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, alongside members of the Interfaith Forum and Rainbow Hamlets, have come together to condemn these messages of hate.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman, Chair of Tower Hamlets Partnership said:

“Tower Hamlets has a proud history of challenging prejudice and promoting equality.  There is no place for hate in Tower Hamlets and we take a zero-tolerance approach to homophobia.  Across all religions, partner organisations and community groups there is unanimity in the belief that by working together we can build a strong and cohesive community.  There are many shared values that we can unite behind and all attempts by those at the fringes to sow the seeds of division and hatred will be rebuffed.

I have personally met with the co-chairs of Rainbow Hamlets (Tower Hamlets Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Forum) and am committed to working with them and the wider community to promote equality.”

Reverend Alan Green, Chair of the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum said:

“People of faith in Tower Hamlets are proud to be part of this diverse and vibrant borough, in which mutual respect and tolerance are vital to social harmony. We oppose all who seek to undermine these values – homophobic hate has no place in Tower Hamlets. Whatever their backgrounds of the people they do not speak in the name of Islam, Christianity or the other religions represented here.”

Dilwar Khan, Director of the London Muslim Centre said:

“We stand together with our fellow citizens against all forms of hatred, including homophobia. We are committed to building strong and cohesive communities in Tower Hamlets, and our strength is that we will not let incidents of hate divide us.”

The Chairs of Rainbow Hamlets LGBT Community Forum said:

“We condemn such activity and call on all communities to join forces against such extreme views. We also condemn those who use these incidents to create a moral panic and stoke up racist or Islamaphobic sentiment. At present the people responsible cannot be accurately determined, but it is clear that whoever is responsible, they do not represent any of the local communities and their sole purpose is to spread fear and mistrust. This we are determined to prevent them from doing.

We welcome the repudiation of these tactics from the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, London Muslim Centre and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets. We intend to work with partners to organise an event in May to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, and look forward to inviting the Mayor, the Borough Commander and all communities of the borough to participate.”

If any further homophobic posters are identified by the public, they are encouraged to report them to the Metropolitan police on 0033 123 1212. If possible, please take a photograph of the poster ensuring that you record the time and location. If the poster can be removed in one piece please do so, placing it in a box with the sticky side up and if possible take to your local police station. All these measures will help police investigations.

To date there have been 10 reports of crimes in Tower Hamlets that have been identified as homophobic or transphobic this year. This compares with 74 in 2010. We actively encourage people to report all incidents of hate crime as this enables us to pursue enforcement action and bring perpetrators to justice.

February 24, 2011

http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/news/council_news/february/tower_hamlets_community_leader.aspx

UAF officers have joined MPs, musicians, artists, campaigners, academics, trade unionists and others to condemn prime minister David Cameron’s recent declaration that multiculturalism had “failed” and his attacks on Britain’s Muslims community:

We believe David Cameron’s statement that multiculturalism has failed was a dangerous declaration of intent. David Cameron’s speech was reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s infamous 1978 statement that Britain was “being swamped by alien cultures”. He has branded Britain’s Muslims as the new “enemy within” in the same way as Thatcher attacked the miners and trade unions.

David Cameron is attempting to drive a wedge between different communities by linking Britain’s multicultural society with terrorism and national security. David Cameron’s speech was made on the same day as the English Defence League brought its bigotry and violence to the streets of Luton.

Mr Cameron’s aim is simple as it is crude – to deflect the anger against his government’s cuts from the bankers and onto the Muslim community. The prime minister is aping attacks by other European leaders like France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, who passed legislation banning the veil, and Angela Merkel, who has also made statements denouncing multiculturalism in Germany.

We believe that our multicultural society and the respect and solidarity it is built on is a cause for pride, and reject any moves by this government to undermine and destroy it.

We must not allow this coalition government to turn the tide back to the days when it was acceptable, through ignorance and fear, for people with a different religion, culture or skin colour to be scapegoated and treated as inferior or outsiders.

>> Click here to add your name to this statement

Initial signatories

Martin Smith Love Music Hate Racism, Peter Hain MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ken Livingstone politician, Salma Yaqoob councillor and leader of Respect, Bob Crow RMT general secretary, Billy Hayes CWU general secretary, Mark Serwotka PCS general secretary, Zita Holbourne TUC race relations committee, Dr Rob Berkeley director, Runnymede Trust, Ziauddin Sardar writer, Farooq Murad secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Professor Tariq Modood director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol, Mohammed Sawalha president of British Muslim Iniative, Dr Chris Shannahan, Benjamin Zephaniah poet, Lauren Booth broadcaster and journalist, Michael Rosen author, China Miéville author, Dr Avaes Mohammad poet, playwright, performer, analytical chemist, Sabrina Mahfouz, poet and playwright, N-Dubz band – Tulisa Contostavlos, Dappy (Dino Contostavlos) and Richard “Fazer” Rawson, Drew McConnell musician, Babyshambles, Lowkey musician, Itch musician, The King Blues, Daniel Stephens (Dan Le Sac) musician, David Peter Meads (Scroobius Pip) musician, Blaine Harrison singer, Mystery Jets, Kid British band – Adio Merchant and Simeon McLean, Jeff Mirza comic and actor, Sabby Dhalu joint secretary Unite Against Fascism and secretary One Society Many Cultures, Lindsey German convenor, Stop the War Coalition, Hassan Mahamdallie activist, Weyman Bennett joint secretary Unite Against Fascism, Gary McFarlane NUJ London magazine branch and Expose the BNP, Kanja Ibrahim Sesay NUS black students’ officer and NUS antiracism antifascism convenor, Frances Rifkin Equity, Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer, co-director, European Muslim Research Centre, Bruce Kent Pax Christi and vice-chair One Society Many Cultures, Shemiza Rashid director, Creative Muslim Network, Laura Miles vice-chair UCU equality committee, Gargi Bhattachryya UCU NEC, Sean Vernell UCU NEC, Sue Bond PCS vice-president, Rev. Ray Gaston interfaith enabler, Birmingham Methodist Church (personal capacity), Madani Younis artistic director, Freedom Studios, Bradford, and the Artists of Freedom Studios, Mohammed Ali Aerosolarabic, Rabbi Lee Wax, chair, IKETH (Inter-religious Conference for European Women Theologians, Musleh Faradhi Islamic Forum Europe, Danny Dorling author and professor, Sheffield University, David Armstrong UCU NEC, Jean Crocker UCU NEC, Futureheads band – Barry Hyde David “Jaff” Craig, Peter Brewsi, Ross Millard, Logic musician, Tubelord band – Joseph Prendergast, David Catmur, Tom Coulson-Smith and James Elliot Field, Dinosaur Pile-up band – Matt Bigland, Harry Johns and Mike Sheils, Luqman Ali, Kinsi Abdulleh, Sarah Pickthall, Ayaan Aden, Tristan McConnell, Alan Whitaker, president UCU, Keith Malinson UCU NEC, Malcolm Povey UCU NEC, Angie McConnell chair, UCU equality committee, Maeve Landman vice-chair UCU equality committee, Marion Hersh UCU NEC, Mark Campbell UCU NEC, Gavin Reid, chair UCU education committee, John Murphy UCU NEC, Richard McEwan UCU NEC

www.uaf.org.uk

One Society Many Cultures is deeply shocked by the recent comments by a senior member of Birmingham City Council suggesting fellow Cllr Salma Yaqoob would ‘applaud’ suicide bombers and wishes to introduce Sharia law ‘with hands cut off and stonings’.
These comments are not only a slander on Salma Yaqoob, who has a long and admirable record of opposing extremism from any source while eloquently arguing her own views as a British Muslim woman, but they are the type of comments normally associated with the far right. Such comments whip up community hatred, fear and prejudice as well as encouraging the targeting of Salma herself by right wing extremists.

These comments add to an already rising atmosphere of Islamophobia, encouraged by PM David Cameron’s weekend calls to end funding for even moderate Muslim groups that do not subscribe to his version of ‘muscular liberalism’. This gratuitously offensive attack on Salma feeds all those forces that seek to delegitimise Islam in its entirety and imply that all Muslims are potential terrorists. This isolates and demonises the Muslim communities, undermines community cohesion and creates an environment where extremism is more likely to flourish.
Robust political debate is essential. But such inflammatory slurs have no place in our political dialogue, they simply whip up Islamophobia and racism and create the circumstances where these can lead to violence, intimidation and fear.

5^th February 2011

For immediate release

Nothing could be more ill-judged and likely to stir up community tensions than the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to choose to launch a frontal assault on multiculturalism on the day when the violently anti-Muslim English Defence League are holding the ‘homecoming’ demonstration in Luton.

The English Defence League (EDL) which has targeted Mosques and Muslim communities, claiming Britain is in danger of ‘Islamification’ as a justification for generalised hatred and violence towards these communities, is gathering for its planned largest demonstration to date, seeking to divide a united, multicultural city and intimidating its Muslim population. Last December its supporters were caught on camera at its demonstration in Preston chanting ‘Burn down the Mosque’. The Luton Islamic Centre was firebombed following a previous EDL demonstration.

Mr Cameron will claim that “when a white person holds objectionable views – racism, for example – we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views…come from someone who isn’t white, we’ve been … fearful, to stand up to them.” However this condemnation does not appear to extend to the EDL, which has been given extensive media coverage in the run up to today’s demonstration. Coverage which has presented them as a legitimate group that did not report on the violence associated with their demonstrations, or the criminal convictions of many of its members.

Cameron’s unhelpful intervention contrasts sharply with the recent statements from the Conservative Party Chair, Baroness Warsi, who spoke of the pervasiveness of Islamophobia both in society and in the media.

Sabby Dhalu, Secretary of One Society Many Cultures said:

“The Prime Minister is making a grave error in attacking the Muslim community and diverse Britain at this time. The reality is that multicultural Britain is not up for debate. It exists and brings a wealth of social, economic and cultural benefits to Britain helping to make it internationally competitive. However, senior politicians can impact on community relations, positively or negatively. Unfounded scaremongering about the Muslim community contributes to the climate of hostility which the EDL feed off. Vilifying Muslim communities on the day when they are being targeted by the EDL in Luton could not be more grotesque. We have been calling on the Government to ban this demonstration. Failing to do so, and instead attacking those victimised by the EDL, will only bring serious harm to community relations and weaken the fight against terrorism that Mr. Cameron’s speech is about today.”

Luton MP Kelvin Hopkins, anti-racist activists and faith representatives are calling for a ban on the demonstration planned by the English Defence League (EDL) for Luton this weekend, which is being promoted as their ‘homecoming’.

Evidence from previous EDL events is clear; wherever the EDL mobilises, Mosques and other place of worship have been attacked, with Muslim people and police officers being assaulted.

The EDL were caught on camera at a demonstration in Preston chanting ‘Burn down the Mosque’.

Kelvin Hopkins MP said:

“I have written to the Home Secretary, and asked her to ban this march. Our diverse communities in Luton have always lived peacefully side by side. A march by the EDL will damage community relations in the town when much work has been done to build and sustain them. Freedom of speech is important but when outsiders are determined to come into Luton and incite racial hatred they should not be permitted to do so.”

Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said:

“The Muslim Council of Britain deplores the attempt by the EDL and its spokespeople to stoke up fear and hatred in the heartland of our peaceful communities. The EDL’s latest, cynical and hypocritical attempt to pass itself off as the champion of an inclusive multicultural and interfaith Britishness embracing of Sikh, Jewish and Christian communities imperilled by Islam and Muslims would be risible if it were not so tragic in its consequences. The EDL no more represents the interests of minority faith communities than it does the working classes of this country, White, Black or Asian. The EDL’s racism is blatant; so must be our common front in the denunciation of the EDL’s racist targeting of Muslims. The EDL’s ‘marches’ not only wreak havoc in towns and neighbourhoods across the country, they threaten to rent asunder the very fabric of our common society.”

Len McCluskey, Unite General Secretary said:

“The EDL and its poisonous rhetoric has no place in our communities or workplaces. We condemn the EDL and everything it stands for. At a time of economic uncertainty, unemployment and deep public spending cuts we must do everything possible to stop racism gaining ground. No matter what your race, religion or background is, in the end everyone suffers when communities and workplaces become divided.”

Bruce Kent, Vice Chair of Pax Christi said:

“To allow the EDL to parade in Luton is deliberately provocative and should not be allowed. If you wanted to cause civil disorder, this is the way to go about it.”

Dr. Edie Friedman, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality said:

“We are alarmed about the EDL demonstration in Luton. JCORE isn’t afraid of honest debate about challenges for our multicultural society, but demonising one group with lies and laughable stereotypes is profoundly destructive. All of us in anti-racism organisations must redouble our efforts to promote the vision of an inclusive, plural society.”

Sabby Dhalu, Secretary of One Society Many Cultures said:

“We cannot turn our eyes away from the Islamophobic nature of the EDL. If a movement had been set up to target Churches or Synagogues in the way the EDL targets Muslims, Mosques and Islam, there would rightly be a national outcry. The lessons of history are that fascists target those most vulnerable in society in order to grow. The growth of the EDL from a one-off demonstration in Luton to regular mobilisations around the country shows the emboldening of this fascist group which has attacked people and police alike. The local authorities and the government must act to ensure the safety of the people of Luton by banning this demonstration.”