En islamistgruppe som kaller seg The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) har infiltrert Labour, og kommet i nøkkelposisjoner i en innvandrertett bydel som Tower Hamlets i London, med et budsjett på 10 milliarder kroner. Store beløp sluses til religiøse formål, mens de sekulære blir avspist.

Det er ingen ringere enn miljøvernminister Jim Fitzpatrick, som sier dette til Sunday Telegraph.

The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) — which believes in jihad and sharia law, and wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state — has placed sympathisers in elected office and claims, correctly, to be able to achieve «mass mobilisation» of voters.

Fitzpatrick sier IFE driver fraksjonsvirksomhet: de går inn for å fremme sine saker og sitt syn, helt på tvers av Labours. De oppfører seg akkurat som Militant Tendency, en venstreekstrem organisasjon, som infiltrerte Labour på 80-tallet.

Det blir mye bråk av slik fraksjonsvirksomhet. Islamistene har en fordel: de opererer i et etnisk miljø som adskiller seg fra innfødte briter, og som det er lettere å manipulere.

Tower Hamlets er strøket hvor Ed Hussain ble radikalisert og gikk på skole.

In a six-month investigation by this newspaper and Channel 4’s Dispatches, involving weeks of covert filming by the programme’s reporters:

* IFE activists boasted to the undercover reporters that they had already «consolidated … a lot of influence and power» over Tower Hamlets, a London borough council with a £1 billion budget.
* We have established that the group and its allies were awarded more than £10 million of taxpayers’ money, much of it from government funds designed to «prevent violent extremism».
* IFE leaders were recorded expressing opposition to democracy, support for sharia law or mocking black people. The IFE organised meetings with extremists, including Taliban allies, a man named by the US government as an «unindicted co-conspirator» in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a man under investigation by the FBI for his links to the September 11 attacks.
* Moderate Muslims in London told how the IFE and its allies were enforcing their hardline views on the rest of the local community, curbing behaviour they deemed «un-Islamic». The owner of a dating agency received a threatening email from an IFE activist, warning her to close it.
* George Galloway, a London MP, admitted in recordings obtained by this newspaper that his surprise victory in the 2005 election owed more to the IFE «than it would be wise – for them – for me to say, adding that they played a «decisive role» in his triumph at the polls.

IFE skal ha hjulpet Lutfur Rahman å bli valgt til leder av bydelsrådet. De fikk innsatt en av sine egne i staben med ansvar for bevilgninger til prosjekter.

After Mr Rahman was elected, a man with close links to the group, Lutfur Ali, was appointed assistant chief executive of the council with responsibility for grant funding.

This was despite a chequered employment record, a misleading CV and a negative report from the headhunters appointed to consider the candidates. The council’s white chief executive was subsequently forced from his post.

Since Mr Rahman became leader, more council grants have been paid to a number of organisations which our investigation established are closely linked to the IFE.

Funding for other, secular groups was ended or cut. In the borough’s well-known Brick Lane area, council funds were switched from a largely secular heritage trail to a highly controversial «hijab sculpture», angering many residents who accused the council of «religious triumphalism».

Schools in Tower Hamlets are told by the council should close for the Muslim festival of Eid, even where most of their pupils are not Muslim.

I 2008 vakte byrådet i Tower Hamlets under ledelse av Luftur Rahman oppsikt ved å oppfordre samtlige byrådsmedlemmer – uavhengig av religiøs tro – om å følge islamske fasteregler i arbeidstiden av hensyn til muslimske byrådsmedlemmer.

I november 2009 pådro det Labour-kontrollererte byrådet seg offentlighetens raseri etter at det ble kjent at byrådet overveide å grave opp 350.000 lik på en historisk kirkegård for å anlegge en såkalt «multireligiøs» gravplass.

Islamic radicals ‘infiltrate’ the Labour Party
A Labour minister says his party has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an «Islamic social and political order» in Britain.