The Daily Express front page today (image shown) declaring that ‘Now Muslims demand: Give us full Shari’a law’, would be laughably stupid if it wasn’t just the sort of pernicious nonsense that fuels the extremists of the English Defence League and the Stop the Islamisation of Europe groups’ vehement anti-Muslim prejudice.

Drawing on al-Muhajiroun’s website, Islam4UK, which carries news of the tiny group’s plans to hold a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in London at the end of this month, the Daily Express irresponsibly and quite deliberately ascribes the views and stunts of this fringe group to Muslims across the UK.

From the images and commentary that followed al-Muhajiroun's shameful antics in Luton back in March, which tell you all you need to know in terms of numbers of Muslims that have any time or patience for this group’s noxious invectives, you would think newspapers would do decent British Muslims a good turn and not give the publicity hungry fringe the attention they so desperately crave. Not so the Daily Express and the Daily Star.

When the fringe group tried a similar stunt in Luton, leafleting Muslims to turn up to protest on the return of the Anglian Regiment in March this year, of the 25,000 strong Muslim community in the town, less than 20 of the group’s acolytes turned up at the protest. Quite how the Daily Express now thinks 5,000 Muslims would turn up to the march in Trafalgar Square organised by the group is incomprehensible to anyone with some basic knowledge of the group’s standing among Muslims. Is the DE seriously duped by the group’s propaganda?

Despite an Islamic Society of Britain spokesperson telling the paper, ’99.999 percent of Muslims despise these people’, the paper feels justified in giving al-Muhajiroun front page prominence. Would such a thing happen with any other ethnic or religious group in Britain?

It’s not enough to decry the Daily Express’s front page as another instance of hollow journalism or harmless twaddle. It is just this sort of sensationalism that is driving a wedge between Muslims and others in local communities around the UK. It is the Muslims living in our towns and cities that have been targeted by the EDL and SIOE that are paying too high a price for the DE’s reckless and irresponsible courting of this fringe group.

Under the current proprietor, Richard Desmond, the Daily Express and Daily Star have given free rein to openly inciting hatred against Muslims. It is disgraceful and would simply not be tolerated if the newspapers were instead inciting hatred of British Jews for example.

With the Press Complaints Commission holding a review into its workings, the practice of giving disproportionate attention to groups and individuals of no reputable standing among British Muslims will rate high on the list of complaints requiring urgent PCC action.

Update: The Daily Telegraph carries the same story claiming 'Islam4UK has launched a campaign to impose sharia law on Britain, starting with a rally in London, according to a report'.

The 'report' is nothing of the sort - merely snippets taken from the Islam4UK website that also appear in the Daily Express article.

Could it be that more journalists read the Islam4UK website than do British Muslims?

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Cam   |2009-10-15 13:27:13 Difference is jews aren't being arrested every month on charges of attempting to blow people up, neither are Hindus, Buddhists ,or Sikhs. I don't see stories about British Hindus blowing up trains in London. How much does a host population tolerate before ....snap? I don't want to find out, off to Canada, I will convert to whatever religion is bloody nice, rather than have to deal with the beardo's. They ruin Britain for Muslims.

Qabeel   |2009-10-15 13:57:39 The fools of Al-Muhajiroun will probably be gloating about the amount of press coverage they're getting. They are so stupid that they can't work out that they make life for Muslims more difficult as a result of their stunts.

Saj  - @Cam   |2009-10-15 21:19:46 Difference Cam is that not everyone is an uneducated idiot like you who would blame an entire community for the actions of a few (unless you have an agenda of course) because if they were uneducated idiots like you then they would be emigrating from the UK since 1605 i.e. when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament & the thousands of terrorist attacks since then by Irish Catholics, Jews, Atheists, Sikhs, Communists, Anarchists, Animal rights etc etc but they won’t be emigrating to Canada because In June 1985, suspected Sikh militants (the other beardo's) bombed an Air India flight originating in Vancouver, killing all 329 people aboard, including 154 Canadians. The bombing was the single, deadliest incident of aviation terrorism until September 11th (not to mention the incidents of taking up of arms by the Mohawk Indians whose country was stolen from them by European settlers) But because idiots like you believe what papers like the Express write you also believe that Al Muhajerun has thousands of supporters when in fact it has about 6 and believe they preach in Mosques across the country when in fact they wouldn’t dare/or be allowed to go anywhere near a mosque to preach. Anyway enjoy your stay in Canada with the Mohawks I’m sure they’d love to see you.

Jenny   |2009-10-16 04:12:40 If these people are only a small minority why don't the rest of the Musim community stop them? They must be taught these things at their mosques they don't come up with these beliefs by themselves. It is up to the rest of the Muslim community to speak to the Imams who are teaching this sharia for England rubbish.

saj   |2009-10-16 12:50:20 @Jenny Most of the mainstream mosques now hold open days for the general public why don’t you contact one and pay a visit and you can ask them as many questions as you want about what they teach and what they don’t teach. The fact is this tiny minority DO come up with these beliefs themselves i.e. Anjum Chodry from Islam4uk is not even a qualified Islamic scholars and he’d be lucky to get a dozen people to join in his march. An imam is a person who leads the 5 daily prayers they don’t teach political Islam in any mosque in the UK! As for the Muslim community stopping them the fact is Anjum Choudry and others like him have been stopped since the mid 1990s that’s why you will never see him in any mosque preaching simply because they are not allowed in any mosque to preach so they hang around the streets and town centres. They are so few in number it’s actually pointless holding a march against them but even so some in the media give them the same prominence as they do for example someone form the Conservative party! Why?? Its a fact that the papers print false stories (see link) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/14/tabloid-fake-celebrity-stories-hoax Therefore If you are genuinely concerned and genuinely want to find out what goes on in a mosque, take my advice and go to a public open day.

GCarty   |2009-10-19 16:34:31 Qabeel, Al-Muhajiroun are not stupid. They want ordinary Britons to become more Islamophobic, so that Muslims will be forced into their arms. This process of radicalization and counter-radicalization is Terrorist Strategy 101. Nazi nailbomber David Copeland said he hoped that "there'd be a backlash from the ethnic minorities, then all the white people would go out and vote BNP." Al-Muhajiroun is playing by the same playbook.

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