No More "Sassy" Reporting

Via Harry's Place I see that Dilpazier Aslam, Guardian trainee, Khilafah contributor and one time exponent of suicide-bombing as a form of "sassiness", has been shown the door by the newspaper for his membership in Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an organization internationally famous for its peaceful tendencies and love for its fellow men, especially those of the Jewish persuasion ...

On his 15-page application form he did not mention that he was a member of the Islamist political party, Hizb ut-Tahrir, despite being invited to describe any participation in public affairs or political campaigning.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a legal organisation in this country, though banned in others. It is described in an internal Home Office briefing note as a "radical, but to date non-violent Islamist group."

The note says of the organisation that it is "an independent political party that is active in many countries across the world. HT's activities centre on intellectual reasoning, logic arguments and political lobbying. The party adheres to the Islamic sharia law in all aspects of its work."

The note adds: "It probably has a few hundred members in the UK. Its ultimate aim is the establishment of an Islamic state (Caliphate), according to HT via non-violent means. It holds anti-semitic, anti-western and homophobic views."

Different countries and organisations take varying views of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. It is banned in Russia, Germany and Holland. In this country the National Union of Students has barred Hizb ut-Tahrir from its unions, claiming the group is "responsible for supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred".

[...]

On Monday July 18 Aslam was advised that the Guardian considered that Hizb ut-Tahrir had promoted violence and anti-semitic material on its website and that membership of the organisation was not compatible with being a Guardian trainee.

The following day Aslam told the editor, Alan Rusbridger, that he was not willing to leave Hizb ut-Tahrir and that, while he personally repudiated anti-semitism, he did not consider the website material to be promoting violence or to be anti-semitic.

The matter was subsequently treated under the paper's grievance and disciplinary procedure. Aslam was invited to a meeting with GNL's chief executive, Carolyn McCall, at which he repeated his refusal to leave the organisation or repudiate its material.

Having considered all the circumstances Ms McCall took the view that Aslam could not remain a member of the Guardian's trainee scheme.

al-Grauniad made the right decision, even if it would appear to have been a grudging one, if a comment by a fellow called Gabriel about this inaccessible piece is to be believed. Having said this much, I still think that allowing Mr. Aslam to report on the Shabina Begun case remains a journalistic black mark which the paper will find difficult to live down.

Comments

[eoin]

I am somewhat relieved that this guy turned out to be a radical. If the tenor of his post 7/7 article reflected normal "Yorkshire lad" muslim opinion then we were really in trouble.

[Danny]

I can see that the Guardian is unfazed, they brought in a replacement:

[i]Mr Blair has attacked the idea of the caliphate - the equivalent of criticising the Pope[/i]

The Papacy does not claim to rule over all of Christendom!

[Danny]

That's from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1534715,00.html

[hercules]

Dilpazier fired ? Isn't it time for Mr. Davies to protest against this unfortunate witch-hunt like he did here:

http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2005/07/deafening_silen.html

[hercules]

Complete link here:

http://dailyablution.blogs.com/
the_daily_ablution/2005/07/
deafening_silen.html