The Deputy Mayor of Tower Hamlets Oliur Rahman seems to be in complete denial of the outcome of the corruption trial of his former boss Lutfur Rahman. According to the Daily Mail:
Oliur Rahman, who took over from the deposed leader yesterday, insisted there was deep-rooted racism within the East London borough of Tower Hamlets.
His comment was at odds with a devastating legal ruling that condemned his predecessor for bribery and ballot fraud and found he had repeatedly ‘played the race card’ to silence critics.
The two men – who are not related – are both members of the Tower Hamlets First party. Political opponents said they were playing the same ‘cracked record’ by seeking to blame racism and Islamophobia for their problems.
Oliur Rahman told the BBC: ‘If people say there is no racism in Tower Hamlets, then they are very much mistaken because there is institutional racism.
‘If people want to turn a blind eye to the racism then that’s their decision but they are very much mistaken if they turn round and say there is no racism in Tower Hamlets, and that people are not judged because of their skin colour and their religion.’
On Thursday, electoral judge Richard Mawrey QC found that Lutfur Rahman, 49, and his cronies had rigged the 2014 mayoral ballot by creating an army of ‘ghost voters’, forging postal votes, bribing Muslim voters and using religious intimidation against them and branding opponents as racists.
His comment was at odds with a devastating legal ruling that condemned his predecessor for bribery and ballot fraud and found he had repeatedly ‘played the race card’ to silence critics.
The two men – who are not related – are both members of the Tower Hamlets First party. Political opponents said they were playing the same ‘cracked record’ by seeking to blame racism and Islamophobia for their problems.
Oliur Rahman told the BBC: ‘If people say there is no racism in Tower Hamlets, then they are very much mistaken because there is institutional racism.
‘If people want to turn a blind eye to the racism then that’s their decision but they are very much mistaken if they turn round and say there is no racism in Tower Hamlets, and that people are not judged because of their skin colour and their religion.’
On Thursday, electoral judge Richard Mawrey QC found that Lutfur Rahman, 49, and his cronies had rigged the 2014 mayoral ballot by creating an army of ‘ghost voters’, forging postal votes, bribing Muslim voters and using religious intimidation against them and branding opponents as racists.
The campaigns against all their political opponents involved false accusations of "Islamaphobia" and or "racism". If anyone has caused a problem with these issues in Tower Hamlets it is the communalism of the Tower Hamlets First party that sought to build a religious based party in the borough and incidentally broke the law on "spiritual influence" that exists precisely to prevent the abuse of religion in politics.
Oliur Rahman who was and might still be an activist in the far-left controlled East London Branch of the PCS union was a former Respect Councillor and supporter of George Galloway until the "gorgeous one" managed to fall out with large sections of his "flock".
It's not clear who the "Isalmophobia Brigade" will be putting forward in the re-run election. According to the Times (no link£) reports;
The stage has been set for George Galloway to fight to replace Britain's ousted first Muslim Mayor if the MP fails to keep his seat in parliament.
The last thing Tower Hamlets needs is another ego-maniac running the borough. Hopefully the Muslim community will wake up to the fact that both Tower Hamlet First and Respect use and abuse them for their own political purposes and have done a lot of damage to community relations.
There is a need for the mainstream political parties to ensure that voters are given the widest possible choice to ensure that democracy is restored in the borough.
The Rahmans and the Galloways of this world have done enough damage with their communalism. Time to move on.
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