One of the saddest aspects of Tower Hamlets politics is the view among some politicians that voters can be directed to vote along racial lines. It’s patronising, divisive and borderline racist.
Bodrul Islam was the groom at the wedding that Jim Fitzpatrick infamously walked out of last year. He subsequently joined Respect, but failed in his attempt to win a council seat in Bromley-by-Bow last May.
Here’s his Facebook take on the Lutfur Rahman/Helal Abbas saga:
Bodrul Islam The tower hamlets labour party seems to prioritise naked self interest at the expense of democracy. Abbas, that castrated prostitute has no mandate to stand as a mayoral candidate. Part of me wants to laugh at the dismantling of the labour party but the serious part of me sees the grotesque injustice against lutfur. I personally think he should do what ken livingstone did, stand as an independent. With his popularity he will win, as the block bengali vote will be activated like never before.
Sigh.
Trial by Jeory 
Oh dear the saddest part of this is why a distasteful, selective journalist such as yourself enjoys such prominence. Quoting out of context seems to be your speciality, journalism at its unscrupulously worst. First of all my comments were of a personal nature and should not lazily be associated to respect. More importantly you have maliciously quoted out of context. Not surprising ted is it? My comments as in other posts clearly indicate my position that the deliberate disenfranchisement of large sections of the bengali labour party members clearly indicate a covert racist manoevre and the imposition of abbas who historically has been a stooge is a clear attempt to divert the racist agenda. You call me divisive, I call you a delirious islamaphobe who rambles on unsubstantiated conjecture and no empirical evidence. Ted I challenge you to a public debate as to the causes of division. If you are willing to come out of your polemical tower and face rigorous grilling based on empirical realities then man up and bring it on.
Bodrul, in what way was I quoting out of context? I quoted in full your comments on a Facebook site. Proper politicians, of which surely you are one, since you you stood for Respect and polled a respectable 1,100 votes in May, know that there is very infrequently any such thing as a “personal” comment. So I’m not sure what it is you find malicious or out of context; happy to give you the platform here to explain (so long as you do not make any further defamatory comments).
Dear Ted,
I thank you for giving me a platform but I refute the notion that there were defamatory slurs against you. I am just bemused why a prominent journalist like you would join the Gilliagn witch-hunt of Lutfur Rahman, which many analysts including non-muslim academics have opined that it is islamaphobic in character. My lecturer at university Dr Githens-Maizer who heads the centre of european muslim research at exeter university has spoken very authoritatively on this issue. You have accused me of being divisive and borderline racist, which is defamatory in character as all the comments in the facebook status suggests no such thing. But lets be mature about this and debate coherently and rigorously. My comments throughout the posts and the one you copied and pasted asserts an observation that many in the bengali community feel disenfranchised by the lutfur saga, and should lutfur stand as an independent candidate there will be an abundance of sympathy for him by many in the bengali community with regards to the perceived injustice and democratic deficit. This will translate as a block bengali vote not based on any political strategy but an emotive reaction of the residents to the injustice suffered. As to the notion of comments of a personal nature, if you ever get to know me you will realise that I am a fiercely independent person who will never toe any party line if I believe in something. That possibly will never make me a successful politician in this highly machiavellian polity but I have no qualms with that. As an ex-labour party member, one of the reason I renounced my membership is due to the inherent divisive politics pursued by the labour party for political expediency. This causes havoc for community cohesion. If you read my other posts you will see my constant obsession that muslims need to integrate more, use democratic mechanisms to protest, and interact more with the greater commmunity i.e. be proud and active citizens.
Bodrul, I think you need to address your concerns to Andrew Gilligan, not me. I was writing about the IFE-related concerns of many within the Bengali and non-Bengali communities long before the Dispatches documentary. As a Tower Hamlets activist, surely you would know that. So you would know I haven’t “joined” any “witch-hunt”.
I think that what “causes havoc for community cohesion” is politicians whipping up a frenzy and saying that because you are of one colour or of one faith you should vote a certain way. Tower Hamlets has enough economic problems for that kind of thing, don’t you think?
Dear Ted,
I wholeaheartedly agree with you that politics should never be about race. Nor should a race, religion, group be demonised without tangible evidence. The maxim, innocent until proven guilty is something we should all adhere to. Ted as someone who has no affliliation to ife, I see no tangible evidence linking them to islamic fundamentalism . Maybe you can enlighten me?
As I said, you should refer questions on that subject to Andrew; he’s written extensively about that and provided his own evidence.
Ted can I ask you for your own views on ife as you are a journalist-resident based in tower hamlets.
I’ll answer that, Bodrul, if you tell me who will be your first and second preferences on the Oct 21 ballot paper.
Yes ted it will be lutfur and possibly the liberals.
An interesting combination.
In answer to your previous question, for a number of reasons, I won’t be discussing them here.
Ted I hope you are okay with me sharing my analysis here on ife. Ife are a socially conservative group that encourage residents to engage with the procedural and normative aspects of democracy. How do I know this? I have seen rigorous and acrimonious debates between ife and isolationist, exclusivist groups such as hizbut tahrir and al-muhajiroun. In all occasions ife have clearly come out in support of active citizenship via the democratic route.
The notion that ife have infiltrated the labour party for theological expediency is the most obscure and bizarre argument I have heard all year. What proof do we have of this? Has secular policies in the labour party changed into theological diktats? No of course they haven’t. Is there thus a concerted effort on policy levels to islamise tower hamlets? Of course not that is pure hysteria and conjecture.
We then move to the cry that muslims also have alleged the link of ife infiltration and extremism. Those muslims who assert this are quite easy to decipher, one of the most prominent one being related to me. Their assertions are based on political self-interest emanating unfortunately from the polarised nature of politics in Bangladesh. I will put a wager that every bengali person who has alleged ife being a socially divisive and regressive is an awami league supporter. That every bengali resident in tower hamlets knows. If you as a journalist were ever to produce a mass opinion poll of bengalis in tower hamlets I will also put a wager that 90 percent plus will hold ife to be a moderate group.
Ted unless we base our assertion on nuanced analysis complimented by tangible proofs all we are going to create is mass hysteria and a clash of the extremes which will devastate social cohesion. We must prevent polarisation where muslims think of a given white person as a potential racist and where whites think of muslims as the enemy within. We all need to get away from hearsay allegations and scrutinise the matter at hand with our logical capabilities.
Ted I am disappointed that you have allowed this distasteful and foul mouthed individual a platform, you may as well give the bnp a platform.
Bodrul Islam you are a desperate individual who makes pathetic comments on facebook hoping to get notice. The commments you have made are borderline rascist and abusive and as a prospective politican this saddens me as I thought you were the new generation of Bengalis and future of TH.
We all know you stood as a respect candidate only to get your foot in and once this happened you would have changed our alliances and joined Labour as there is more chance of progress into national politic.
I supported you when you intially stood a as candidate even though I disagree with respect because I believed you had the potential to go far in politic but when I saw your campaign leaflet I was disappointed, Islam claimed to be a barrister and in the wedding fiasco you were also described as a barrister.
Islam please can you clarify whether you are a barrister and if not than why did you claim to be? Do you know it is a criminal offence to impersonated a barrister?