The Guardian reports on how “The Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar is to leave parliament after receiving death threats from people linked to a gang of racist murderers”
The Guardian also reports:
“The multimillionaire MP used connections in Pakistan to help arrange the extradition of Imran Shahid, Zeeshan Shahid and Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq to the UK, where they were jailed for life for their part in the kidnap, torture and murder of the teenager Kriss Donald in 2004.
The trio, part of a violent Glasgow gang, fled to Pakistan after the crime but were returned after 18 months of negotiations between the Pakistani and British governments, assisted by Mr Sarwar.
“Life is not the same, to be honest with you, since I brought them back. I was subjected to threats,” Mr Sarwar told the newspaper.
“I was told they wanted to punish my family and make a horrible example of my son – they would do to him what they did to Kriss Donald.
“I received threats to my life, to murder my sons, to murder my grandchildren.”
The BBC reports:
“The toll of political office appears to have been a high one. His family have faced a flurry of threats over the years from every hue of far-right group.”
Mmmm. Over the years… every hue… far right…. What makes me think the BBC are trying to deflect from the reality of the situation? The report linked above is a terrible example of BBC journalism actually- badly written, rambling, and evasive, combining some spurious hard news value with the feel of a political obituary.
The writer, Stephen Stewart, announces “Mohammed Sarwar may be bowing out of the murky world of public service…”
Excuse me? The murky world of public service? Maybe in Glasgow. Maybe in Pakistani “welfare activities”, but as a general comment?
One final snarky point, Mr Stephens seems to think that Govan is “dusty”. Ah yes, the dry and dusty NW of Scotland, I remember it well!
The BBC also reports: “The father-of-four, Britain’s first Muslim MP, said he had received death threats over the Kriss Donald murder.
But he denied the threats or his son’s conviction for money laundering had anything to do with his decision to move on.”
This is rather different to the Guardian account, which draws much more substantially on Sarwar’s actual words. Strikes me Aunty’s pulling her usual knitted woolen jumper over the eyes, for whatever reasons.
Although it seems that the threats have come from the Pakistani community the BBC implies they are coming from white far right groups. This is something that they are doing more and more and is clearly racist.
It would probably be churlish of me to point out that Glasgow is not normally described as being in the north-west of Scotland.
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Ralph | Homepage | 26.06.07 – 9:11 pm | #
Hey lets not get too over exercised about this – its just traditional Glasgow gang culture with a Paki overlay.
Just look back to the 60’s and what Jimmy Boyle et. al. were doing and getting away with regarding extortion, grievous assault and murder, not to mention witness intimidation and various other means of avoiding prosecution.
The fact that the offenders attempted to escape to Pakistan is an irrelevancy. As is the putative threats to the MP’s family (and probably other witnesses). (That’s the norm)
This is all part and parcel of Glasgow culture and always has been as far as I can remember.
What happened to Kris Macdonald was a terrible, terrible thing but in my experience of Glasgow its just ‘c’est la vie’ – or – ‘shit happens’.
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“What happened to Kris Macdonald was a terrible, terrible thing but in my experience of Glasgow its just ‘c’est la vie’ – or – ‘shit happens’.”
Hmm, that’s one view of it, I guess. The other view would be that this was a racist murder which , if the victim’s colour wasn’t white and the killers weren’t brown, would have been national news for weeks. The fact that the racist nature of the murder was played down by Al-BBC and most of the MSM is as much part of the story as anything else. It is also more than “shit happens in Glasgow” that a sitting MP has to resign over fears for his life. It is more than “c’est la vie” that Al-BBC then tries to blame “far-right groups” for the MPs resignation rather than the real culprits – Pakistani gangs. Again , all part of Al-BBC’s shadow agenda of covering up or mis-reporting any crimes that may reflect badly on Britain’s ever-growing immigrant population.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Broken crucifixes and shards from a Jesus statue have been swept up, but Gaza’s tiny Christian community says the violent warning sent by Islamic militants cannot be erased.
The ransacking of Gaza’s Catholic convent and an adjacent Rosary Sisters school during Hamas’ sweep to power this month broke more than wood and plaster: it signaled the end of a relatively peaceful, even if sometimes uneasy relationship between Gaza’s 1.4 million Muslims and 3,000 Christians.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/26/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Gaza-Christians.php
It is not only Muslim MP’s who have to fear for their lives.
GAZA CITY (CNN) — The militant group in Gaza claiming to hold BBC correspondent Alan Johnston renewed its threat Tuesday to kill the British journalist who has been held in Gaza since March 12.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/26/bbc.reporter/
Also in Gaza another lives in fear of his life.
Well, this time they’ve really upped the ante. Now it turbs out the BBC has an associate with close connections to higher ups in Hamas. A racist, antisemitic terrorist group.
See here.
The line between the BBC and terror is becoming more blurred as we speak.
I posted an article on this subject at Gates Of Vienna.
For those interested, the address is as follows:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2007/06/big-story-that-isnt.html
On the issue of the reporting of racism in the UK media:
“Ben’s murder – in black and white”
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=7481
Firstly, the BBC are right about Govan: I used to live in Mr Sarwar’s constituency, and it is extremely dusty for some reason. And no, Glasgow is nowhere near the North-West.
But they are way off with the far-right comment. Sarwar has faced concerted opposition since he first became the Labour candidate (which, in Glasgow, is equivalent to becoming an MP) from two groups: first, the predominantly white supporters of the man (I forget his name) who regarded himself as the rightful next in line for Govan’s Labour candidacy and was hugely pissed off that he wasn’t selected; second, the, ah, overzealously traditionalist chauvinist part of the Pakistani community, who hate him because he rescued two Glaswegian girls from Pakistan after they were abducted and forcibly married by their own families. The latter group certainly are far-right, but the BBC don’t usually describe them that way. And I’m pretty sure the Labour Party aren’t far-right.
DennisTheMenace is right, by the way: I know there are immigrant communities in Britain with serious violence problems, but the Pakistani immigrants in Glasgow are not one of them. In Glasgow, you would be sensible to cross the road to avoid a gang of even just two white boys in track suits, but it would never even occur to me to avoid a group of fifteen or twenty Asian kids loitering in the street. I always said that Govanhill would be far nicer if the whites moved out. The Kris Donald murder was highly unusual, whereas violence and murder committed by white Glaswegians is very much the norm.
It’s a shame to lose Sarwar from Parliament. When people say we need more influential moderate Muslims, they mean the likes of him.
Oh, the BBC are also wrong to — yet again — call him “Britain’s first Muslim MP”: they’re out by about a century, I believe. So many news organisations have been corrected so often on this point over the last ten years that you might think some of them would have got the message by now.
The fact an MP has quit because of threats to his life and his family, is very serious indeed.
It will have the effect of scaring any MP who is faced with similar crimes and outrages. I suspect that the Asian gangs and the Foreign Office (who did nothing) both see that as a good thing.
The BBC, and the MSM treats it as some trival matter. I think the implications of this are very serious, what happened in Govan seems to be building up in parts of London.
“white supporters of the man (I forget his name) who regarded himself as the rightful next in line for Govan’s Labour candidacy and was hugely pissed off that he wasn’t selected”
The man was Mike Watson, who was created Lord Watson of Invergowrie as a consolation prize. Later he was elected an MSP, but went to jail after setting fire to curtains after the local politician of the year awards dinner. He was a bit drunk at the time.
No wonder the people of Govan elected a nationalist woman to the Scottish parliament last month.
Ah, yes, that was him. Thank you.