Ajmal Masroor & Tower Hamlets Mayoralty

Ajmal Masroor is a Bangladeshi-born British Imam, broadcaster and politician. He is well known for being a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels. In the East End Ajmal Masroor is more famous for being the dark horse that defeated Respect’s Abjal Miah in 2010 and came second to Labour’s Rushanara Ali in the 2010 general elections in Bethnal Green and Bow. He certainly had entertained himself with the idea of standing for general elections again this year but I am not sure why he decided against it.

However, just when we thought he had resigned from standing as an MP and with another general election due in weeks, the politics of Tower Hamlets has provided him with another opportunity to have a stab in holding public office.

Ajmal Masroor is a very vocal human rights activist and comes second to Rizwan Hussein as a celebrity fundraiser. Through his Facebook page he is tickling his supporters with the possibility of him standing as the  Mayor of Tower Hamlets. 

https://www.facebook.com/ajmal.masroor  

Below is a commentary from me on what I think of his comments which had to be carefully worded. He could not and should not claim Lutfur Rahman’s legacy, neither can he refrain from not using the anti-establishment lines to capitalise on the British Bangladeshis sentiment, and rightly so.  

He talked about spiritual injurry which is one of 7 counts of electoral offences the courts found Lutfur Rahman guilty of.

.’’Lutfur has been accused of using religion to unduly influence people to vote for him but is that a spiritual inquiry? What about if I am denied my right to use my spiritual guidance to vote for a person who would help me find spiritual contentment?  Would that not be injurious to my spiritual wellbeing?’’

Here Ajmal Masroor raises a very good question and I admire him for his knowledge. I can assure you many people in the East End and from Lutfur Rahman First’s camp do not come near to the sophistication and intellectual ability this man has. Hold on to your horses, I am not promoting him, just stating a fact.

Regarding corruption Masroor is blatantly honest:

‘’Most people in Tower Hamlets know that most local politicians have been steeped in this grand playing field of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.’’

You will not find any politicians or candidates out there being this bold to admitting our state of affairs. While being honest he almost tries to score a political point in saying that everyone in Tower Hamlets does it:

‘’In this borough tactics such as postal vote fraud, using emotional pressure on voters to vote in certain ways, racism to influence votes, food for votes and vote barons gambling votes for favours and political patronage have been used by many candidates from the local Labour Party, Conservative party, Liberal Democrats and Respect party for ages.’’

He then connects this to a national example, almost generalising the crime and this I disagree with:

‘’Don’t we have this as a common practice when appointing members to the House of Lords?’’ 

This is not a fair comparison as House of Lords appointment procedure is not democratic and the process is fundamentally different than electing executive Mayor. I am sure candidates for the House of Lords need not register false votes and certainly do not have the family culture in in many Bangladeshi families which allows a son to fill up a voting form for his mother, father and uncles. Yes they may try and influence their associates and family connections to win votes but cannot physically vote for them.

Tactics such as postal vote fraud, using emotional pressure on voters to vote in certain ways, racism to influence votes, food for votes and vote barons gambling votes for favours and political patronage - all this need to be dealt with the utmost strict enforcement of law, and people as well as politicians need to be united against such culture to improve democracy. Anybody willing to be the Mayor and is sincere in changing the borough’s politics for good  needs to unequivocally declare this. 

Ajmal Masroor goes on to blaming the so-called ‘knights in shining armour’ who took Lutfur Rahman to court, as silent supporters of such criminality. He’s right and this is absolutely true but I would appreciate Ajmal Masroor taking more of a moral stand by pointing out that out of those 7 guilty counts, several has been proved with enough credible evidence. 

Yes we can argue on aspect of spiritual influence etc, but what about the count deliberately taking a strategy to brand John Biggs as racist and then in court denying, lying and being deliberately ambiguous when the Judge asked both Lutfur Rahman and Alibor Choudhury if they believed John Biggs is racist.



Ajmal Masroor



So what does Ajmal Masroor have to say about the Mayoralty?

“’This position is extremely onerous and requires a very well-grounded and unifying person who could carry the community with him of her. It requires a person who can rise above party politics, ethnic divisions and petty childish squabbles that has dominated the local politics of this borough.’’

I believe he is sincere about what he says here, though Lutfur Rahman used these lines every other moon.

Masroor is rightly disgusted about politicians’ incompetency and exercising of tribal village politics and this is something of strength and credit to him but can also be his weakness. However, he does seem ready and prepared to lose the sasa’s (uncles) and Bhaisaab’s (brothers) who steer the tribal votes in Tower Hamlets.

''Tower Hamlets needs to be handed back to credible and genuine local leadership and hardworking councillor. In my view any local councillor who do not speak good English, do not demonstrate right skill sets and competencies should not be allowed to stand for any local seats’’ – Ajmal Masroor

So is he willing to distance himself from Lutfur Rahman and what does he thinks about his‘crimes’?

‘’If Mayor Lutfur Rahman has done wrong so has the process of removing him been terribly wrong and in life two wrongs can never make things right’’

This is the closest Ajmal comes to saying that Lutfur Rahman has done wrong. So should he or should he not stand? He definitely wants his well-wishers to think deep and hard before answering.

Well, after I have thought hard and deep I would say this to Mr. Ajmal Masroor. If you are in politics to change politics - go for it. But be careful if politics sucks you in and forces you to become a new person who these very people commenting to support you do not know. The people in Tower Hamlets have been taken on enough rough rides and Lutfur Rahman’s ride was a particularly dodgy one as the court concluded. It has no appetite for another ride which had its new driver announced last week at the Water Lily. The community should be willing to have you as their fresh and new driver than the replacement of the previous one by yet another similar one.

Lutfur Rahman the 'Muslim Mayor' and Conclusions

 Disclaimer

I write this blog in personal capacity. It is only my opinion and not that of my employer or any other organisation I work with.

My Interest

It’s a serious time in the politics of the East End. A significant event like this will be noted in history and has changed the political arena in Tower Hamlets forever.

I am interested in this because it is the community I am part of and involves my subject of interest - politics and religion, the overlapping of these is fascinating to study.

To quickly introduce my theoretical obsessions:  John Rawls’s political liberalist assertion of overlapping consensus failing to produce stability. I will explain these theoretical matters in a separate post along with Tariq Ramadan’s concept of a universal Islam and its apparent incompatibility in the context of East London-based Islamic movements.

‘The Muslim Mayor’

This is a problematic term and used by either side of the political spectrums very naively.

Firstly, for the right and centre-right labelling on Lutfur Rahman as a Muslim mayor helps them overlook any other personal, professional and political qualities he may have. A certain audience will visualise him as the ‘Muslim’ Mayor, as though a Muslim cannot or should not be a Mayor and if they do, you must watch out for their crimes.

Secondly, the Muslims themselves become romantic and emotional that a man’s ability to serve the people is irrespective and his religious identity becomes the subject of pride and prejudice so much so that they are blinded to see any of his wrongdoing.

Both of these approaches are unhelpful and unhealthy for a democratic society. The community in Tower Hamlets is deprived of an honest debate and scrutiny of the policies and priorities the so-called Muslim Mayor was devoted to.

Therefore I think it is of immense importance that we don’t jump on the bandwagon and rather read between the debates and search for truth and facts. We should not let our prejudices, community and religious convictions or our passion for or against the national or local establishment overshadow our judgment.  Reading the 200 page judgement gives us a good place to start including the PwC report from earlier this year.

The Judgement

I would like to analyse and highlight the judgement given by Richard Mawrey QC and summarise it for the readers of this blog. Many of my friends and associates from both Lutfur ‘s camp and the Labour’s camp are also keen to know what I think about this extraordinary development.

Those who have patience and are keen to read the whole judgement instead of my blog may find the full judgement in the link below , I warn you again it is a mighty read at 200 pages!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/judgment.pdf

What was the task?

Following the petitioners application, the task of the court was to determine that the candidate Lutfur Rahman has, by himself or his agents (read the definition of ‘agent’ below), are guilty of corruption or illegal electoral practices.

Who is the judge?

Richard Mawrey QC

Let me challenge the naïve perceptions and rumours beginning to surface on the streets Tower Hamlets and in restaurants of British Bangladeshi community that Richard Mawrey QC is of Jewish origin or has Zionist leanings and has been somehow assigned to this task by the ‘establishment’. A bizarre claim against a professional lawyer with 45 years of professional legal experience and this, mostly in cases relating to local government and electoral fraud. Please just Google it and read his biography.  His CV includes leading the election court in Birmingham City Council in 2004 and Slough Borough Council in 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mawrey

What needed to be proved?

A. the Mayoral election of October 2014 for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election,  that Lutfur Rahman committed any corrupt or illegal practices or illegal payments, employment or hiring

B. The illegal practices prevailed so extensively that they may be reasonably supposed to have affected the result of the election. In other words, that Lutfur Rahman won the election due to these illegal practices and payments

Who are Lutfur Rahman’s ‘Agents’?

Canvassers are agents, as are supporters who are equipped with rosettes or T-shirts and sent off to campaign outside polling stations. And, as will be seen, members of the wider community who commit themselves to the re-election campaign and work alongside Mr Rahman and his close associates and may properly assume the status of agents for electoral purposes.

The punishment

The consequences for a candidate of being found guilty by himself or his agents of corrupt or illegal practices are serious. In addition to having the election declared void, under s 160 that person is incapable of:

Being an elected MP, Mayor or Councillor in the UK and paying for all the expenses involved in the whole petition process.

What is Tower Hamlets First (THF)?

The evidence in this case all points in one direction; THF was the personal fiefdom of Mr Rahman. He directed its operations,  selected his candidates, and those candidates campaigned on the basis that their job, if elected, was to give personal support to him

    THF had no other aim, objective or ideology beyond the continuation of Mr Rahman in the office of Mayor of Tower Hamlets.

     The accusation of the petitioners that THF was a one-man band has been fully proved by the evidence, with much of that evidence itself coming from Mr Rahman and his witnesses themselves.

Personation and voting offences

The questions were first how widespread were the offences of personation and other voting offences were and secondly, could it be shown that they had been committed by Mr Rahman or those considered by electoral law to be his agents.

False registration

‘’False registration is often the first step in vote-rigging. Ghost voters are registered which are, as said above, either fictitious names or persons who exist but who do not reside at the address concerned. The latter category comprises those who have no connection at all with the property at which they are registered and those who have a connection with the property but are not resident there in the sense that the law requires.’’

The judge then gave detailed evidence of it involving Mr Rahman’s agents and concluded: 

The false registrations are sufficiently numerous to demonstrate that false registration was not the random action of over-enthusiastic members of the public. The false registrations must have been organised.

  As the beneficiary of the organisation was THF, both Mr Rahman and his candidates in the wards, it would be wholly unrealistic to hold that the organisation of these registrations was other than in the hands of THF supporters, ‘agents’ as termed in electoral law.

Personation

‘’Anyone who votes in the name of another person who is falsely registered commits personation. Anyone who has falsely registered himself and then votes commits an offence under s 61(1) of the 1983 Act.’’

The judge gave detailed evidence and findings concludes that:

 It follows that the court is satisfied that false registration, false voting contrary to s 61(1) and personation by persons who are in law the agents of Mr Rahman has been proved to the requisite standard.’’

With regard to the unlawful completion and use of voting documents by third parties, the court was satisfied that both corrupt and illegal practices had taken place and had been committed by persons who were, in electoral law, the agents of Mr Rahman.”

To make my personal conclusion let us go back to the Judge’s intial method:

‘’HOW WIDESPREAD were the offences?’’

Were the voting offences and personation significant enough that it gave Lutfur Rahman a majority of 3252 votes!! It cannot be proved it was this high therefore inconclusive and this reflects some limitation of the legal procedures. 

In my next post I will highlight findings of the court with regards to the false statements made against Lutfur Rahman’s  rival candidate John Biggs, who was portrayed as ‘racist’ as an deliberate election strategy to mislead voters. 

Exile Part 2: Myth of Return

Home

I would go back to my village in the north eastern corner of Bangladesh, Sunamgonj, which is full of big lakes that light up at night with moonlight and thunders in the day during monsoon season. The thunders strike while the dark grey gloomy skies make constant sounds that seem like a warning from the divine in a heavy deep voice to stay inside the house. We children would not care and come out collecting the mangoes downed by the storm.

If I go back to those days, I would be staying inside the house; looking out and contemplating, against the rhythmic sound of rain drops bursting onto the tin roofs of the house and think of my exile. Or I would probably just be in bed resting under a light blanket (katha) my mother and aunts sewed while gossiping their husband’s faults.

In our Mamar bari (maternal uncle’s house), we boys would dare to sail out to the lake (hawor) in stormy weathers and would jump from the small boat we took without uncle’s permission. All day long we would compete with each other on who could jump first to grab the shaluk (some fruits born in water).

We would annoy the fishermen all day long who were busy catching their prey and eager to get to the social capital, the bazaar,  as soon as they could, to get a good bargain. Often a bargain would come from a rich customer who lived abroad, a customer who had bargained their economic wellbeing in exchange to accepting a permanent exile in London.

I would go back to those nights when we would await with sleepy eyes for delicious dinners cooked by my aunty on a mud stove. The room we used to read and have dinner in, was barely lit with rural-electricity (Polli bidduth). The light was poorer in comparison to the lantern’s light and we would keep them both on. Electricity was a special blessing then and was provided to only a few privileged families due to their political and social connections with the local distributor.

The mud stove that my mother and aunty used to cook on would burn the wood and tree branches collected during the day from the wild. No the wilderness didn’t have any dangerous animals in it- but the stories of snakes and small tigers from the parents helped to calm our excitement with necessary fear before we slept.

There were fishes from the pond in the canal adjacent to the house that became a footpath in the dry season and there were fresh vegetables in the winter, grown in our gardens. These gardens had fences made of bamboo braches to save the fruits from the wondering cattle.

     

Hawor in Sunamganj, Bangladesh

     Outlaws

I still remember the ‘Khuarr’, a man-made jail for the cattles, made of the strongest of the bamboos, to punish the cattle that raided our neighbour’s vegetable gardens. The owner of the cattle had to pay a hasty fine to release their disobedient animal. This was often a cause of conflict between families and tribes in the village.

The jailing of a cow was probably my first experience of societal law and justice, and for some reason as a child I found it cruel and terrifying. My childish heart wished that the cow should have been allowed to eat and go wherever it liked. Punishing it by restricting it into a closed square was probably the first cruellest thing I observed.  This thought of mine was transformed into a silly joke later, when I observed my father slaughtering our favourite cow in the name of God and we enjoyed its meat for dinner.

In recollecting the ‘crimes’by cattle invading human space, I remember our crimes as boys. I would go back to those nights when I joined my brothers to steal coconuts from neighbouring ‘baris’ (houses) and kept on raiding the village to find every fruit they have grown in their houses wild and that we could lay our handson.

This would happen while we could hear the Imam at the mosque or some religious speaker from a distant village speaking at Jalsha (yearly event organised by a mosque or Masjid). For us boys Jalsha night were an excellent excuse to get out of the house.

The hujurs (preachers) were religiously busy shouting and screaming about the temperature of the hellfire, the importance of hating disbelievers and how many huuri’s (virgin women) you would be granted in heaven. The Jalsha  was more commonly organised in the winters following our annual school exam period..

I would like to have gone back to jump in the canal (khaal) again that remained dry most of the year but during monsoon gave us the opportunity to catch big chunks of fish with its thousands of small descendants and would make a fantastic meal. How ruthless we were. 

At night we would go and observe egoistic tribal uncles and brothers resolving issues. They loved trouble for the sake of itand gained enjoyment, ‘community trial’ kick from it, whilst sipping away tea dipped with salty biscuits made available by the one small shop in the village. The most expensive brand of cigarettes sold at this shop was ‘Gold Leaf’ and my uncles and father would smoke it religiously day and night.

      

     A Mother’s Dilemma  

I would go back to my small town Sylhet which was calm in the morning when I walked to my school. This town has now became a disorganised city, full of big buildings at the receiving end of the capitalist wave, proudly hosting KFC and Pizza Hut. I would go back to my friends who would become fathers, quarrelling husbands and to my dear mother who grows old missing my presence beside to her and tragically praying that I never return from exile.  

She does not want to me to return to her land -our land, because it does not guarantee the security of my life, liberty, progress and everyday ‘chaul (rice) and dail (lentils), the Bangladeshi version of bread and butter. 

A cruel reality that to secure my bread and butter, my mother and I slaughter our connection with my native land. I leave my country. Often I am reminded by many friends who were (un)fortunate to remain in their land that I should be appreciative of the fact that I was able to escape. That exile was better than being married to ones land for life, says friends.  

So my mother was my associate in executing this exile, like many other millions of concerned mothers in Bangladesh who urge their sons to leave, feeling compelled that the only security of life and prosperity is to leave this cursed land, go overseas and embrace exile. For some, this exile is just to jump on a never returning ship to Malaysia or to be a servant of brutal torturing rich Middle Eastern Sheikh from the Prophet’s country, Saudi Arabia, or to help building the capitalist UAE empire earning a minimum wage. 

For some, exile happened in the name of ‘education’ and taking advantage of the British immigration system. Exiles in western countries are preferable than the Middle-Eastern ones. Here, the prospects of life are good, the governments are 'liberal' and employers are probably less racist- providing a generous pay.

     Myth of Return

Edward Said lived a life on exile and no wonder he captures it perfectly in his reflection:

‘’ Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”

A question that I often confront nowadays is ‘Will I be able to go back?’. The impossibility frightens me and the possibility frightens me even more - the possibility to confront something that has been lost. Sometimes it is wise to not discover what you could have lost, is it not? In fact nothing is banished if you don’t discover what is there to be banished in the first place.

Bangladeshi Muslims, Sin and the Wolf Hall

I recently watched Wolf Hall, a great historical drama series produced by the BBC on Thomas Cromwell’s (1485- 1540) life. History remembers him as a great English lawyer and statesman who served as the Chief Minister to King Henry the VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.

Can’t wait for the next season, I hope BBC will make another series to depict the life of Thomas Cromwell in full, as this series has so far focused on King Henry the VIII’s troubles with his first wife Catherine of Aragon and his mistress who later became his wife, Anne Boleyn.  The series ends (spoiler warning) with Queen Anne Boleyn being hanged at the Tower of London because of her multiple affairs with King’s associates. At times it also seemed that she was also flirting with Thomas Cromwell and the wise man somehow passed her tests.

Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540)

King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell

I am fascinated by British history, in particular, with the Age of Enlightenment or as some put it as the ‘Age of reason’ (1650s to 1780s). I think it is wise to start looking at the context of this age of reason which certainly was born out of England’s politics in the 15th and 16th century. I believe the events in Henry VIII’s life and Thomas Cromwell’s mastery in government played a role in shaping the mind of the 16^th century thinkers like another Thomas, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who has written extensively on liberty, government and the social contract, a great philosopher of the modern time.

King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell’s life is particularly significant in British history because of the separation of state from the Church and the fall out between the King and the Pope on the matter of King Henry VIII’s divorce from with his first wife Catherine of Aragon who failed to give him a masculine child (to borrow The Godfather’s term).

Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII(1491-1547)

The drama is based on famous English author Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies which chronicle the rise of Thomas Cromwell, the son of a humble blacksmith who became the right-hand man of the King Henry VIII. I think apart from his political skills and great ability to manipulate in power, Thomas Cromwell’s unprivileged background made him a great subject of British history. Otherwise, why is that we don’t hear of the other chief ministers of many kings who came and went in those times.  

Sense of Sin | 16^th Century England and 21^st Century’s Bangladeshi Muslims

One observation I made during the drama is the significance of sin in 16^th century British people’s life and the constant reference of it in many dialogues between the actors. This reminded me of the psyche of many in the Bangladeshi community in Bangladesh and here in East London and the constant reference of sin they make in everyday life. Bangladeshi Muslim society is probably as religious as the people of 16^th century Britain.  The sense of sin plays a big part in our life. Morality is defined and enshrined in our psyche through the idea of sin which we are taught in childhood mostly though lessons from mullahs (religious teacher) and parents who were taught by mullahs.

  

My favourite philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) dedicated a whole chapter to this called ‘Sense of sin’ in one of his best work ‘The Conquest of Happiness’. He argued that ‘Sin is one of the most important of the underlying psychological causes of unhappiness in adult life.’ Another interesting quote his book cites is from the 13^th century philosopher and Oxford scholar Roger Bacon, who says: 'for more sins reign in these days of ours than in any past age, and sin is incompatible with wisdom.’

In our life, I observe the idea of sin is mostly concerned with the contesting the oneness of God (shirk) and the status of the messengers etc. Interestingly however, I observe that a lot of practical moral issues we are burdened with in everyday life are not necessarily prevalent substance in defining sin i.e. lying, discriminating others especially for their economic or employment status or gender, promoting hatred, envy, bullying, physical, verbal and psychological abuse, etc. This is not to say our scriptures didn’t have instructions regarding them. I am just noting the apparent highlight of the sins related to sex amongst the religious community and its obsession with it.

Comparative sin

An example of the sense of sin amongst first generation British Bangladeshi parents is that they sometimes justify forcing their son or daughter to marry cousins from Bangladesh in order to fulfil responsibility to extended family in Bangladesh and provide them with economic security and also strengthen the family bond. Interestingly they are not likely to be concerned of their son or daughter’s choice and will. Uncles and aunties of Bangladeshi community often justify this because they think they are being loyal to the wellbeing of their extended family and clan.

Now there is dilemma they face when their son/daughter have chosen their partner and would like to marry them. Especially when they are concerned about the moral police that exist in society combined of extended family, neighbours and so on. It will be interesting to establish what plays the main role in influencing their decision. Is it the very idea of being immoral or is it the society that imposes the idea of right/wrong?

In some communities, I have observed that the belief that it is ones duty to look after his or her family than to give in to individual choice, allowing your daughter to marry a man she/he chose is to give in to an idea of sin. There are further gender implications in this as it is mostly the daughters that are subjected in this moral dilemma. Moreover, the idea of love and affection between two genders prior to marriage is probably the biggest general sin to exist in our society. In fact I have observed this in Islam that the second most significant idea of sin is hugely concerned with sex after the sin of ‘shirk’ which is to associate partners with God. I wonder why that has become the second key issue in the idea of sin. Wolf Hall demonstrates Christianity’s obsession with the same issue in 16^th century England.

The English Quran

One particular scene in the drama was when at a church the priest was shocked to suddenly hear some attendees rebelliously starting to recite the Bible in English. An English version of the Bible was commissioned by King Henry VIII called the Great Bible and was translated from Greek (New Testament) and Hebrew (Old Testament). I imagine a similar situation and shock if someone in the East London Mosque was to start reciting the Quran in English. I wonder why the exclusivity of people of certain language that earns God’s blessings by default. Will God discriminate his creations based on the languages He has blessed them with or will God hold language as a big criterion in how He will bestow his forgiving on the Day of Judgement?