ENGAGE welcomed the party manifestos of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties with their assertion that "security measures must be proportional and consistent with liberal democratic values and the rule of law", and "the best way to combat terrorism is to prosecute terrorists, not give away hard-won British freedoms," respectively.

We welcome this opportunity to contribute to the review of counter-terrorism and security powers and present our responses to the six strands forming the scope of the review.

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Columnist and Chief leader Writer of The Times, Daniel Finkelstein, in the paper today (£) argues that whatever the British people may think of Abu Qatada, the fact of the matter is that the rule of law is not something to be casually suspended just so the Home Secretary, Theresa May, can send him packing off to Jordan.

“It is Abu Qatada who thinks that it doesn’t much matter if someone is tortured or wrongly convicted, because Allah sits in judgement anyway. We – just to remind everyone – are the people who don’t think that”, he writes. Which is odd to say the least. Surely if Abu Qatada didn’t care much about his welfare he wouldn’t be contesting the Home Secretary’s determination to deport him at all costs.

Finkelstein argues, “Deporting Abu Qatada because we dislike him so much that we don’t much care what happens to him is precisely what human rights law is designed to prevent”. On that point, as previously argued by Peter Oborne, he is absolutely right.

ITV News reports on the attendance by members of the English Defence League of a protest outside Radstock Town hall at the weekend after newspaper reports last week claimed that the local council had removed the St George’s flag from flagpoles on civic buildings for fear of ‘offending Muslims’.

Despite the leader of the Council scotching the false reports, ITV News notes that protestors ‘from as far away as Newcastle’ travelled to the town in Somerset to protest the council’s ‘decision’.

The incident, much like false newspaper reports of town councils ‘banning Christmas’ for fear of ‘offending Muslims’, shows the terrible consequences of poor press reporting on popular perceptions of Muslims as well as the the far right’s exploitation of manufactured grievances.

Local paper, West End Extra, reports on the reinforcement of police patrols in the Edgeware Road area of west London after an incident last week resulted in an alleged case of violent assault.

A YouTube video of footage from the sectarian march organized by Anjem Choudary and his acolytes shows a man, thought to be a Shia Muslim, injured from a skirmish with the group.

The Muslim Council of Britain issued a press release denouncing Choudary’s antics and his exploitation of sectarian difference between Sunni and Shia.

The West End Extra notes that the protest did not receive prior clearance from the police who have now sent an advisory note to local residents informing them of the increase in police patrols in the area.