That mystery man who, we’re told, abused hapless Ahad Miah’s Facebook page by posting a salute to Hitler was also busy hacking into his Twitter account, it seems.
As a reminder, on July 15 last summer “someone” posted this image on Miah’s Facebook page:
Miah, a Tower Hamlets First candidate in last May’s elections and a friend of several senior figures in that “party”, immediately found himself in hot water with Mayor Lutfur Rahman. I’m told he admitted to neighbours he’d been an angry man during the Gaza crisis last summer and that he may have done things he now regretted. However, he then issued a statement on Facebook to say he had no idea how that picture got there. He said someone had gained access to his account.
Not many, if anyone at all, believed him.
I didn’t realise he also had a Twitter account. Perhaps he didn’t either. A reader of this blog sent me this Tweet that Miah posted on July 17, two days after that Facebook salute.
— Ahad Miah (@ahadmiah06) July 17, 2014
But enough said on Miah; he’s now history and I doubt very much we’ll see him again trying to make his way in politics. The reason he popped on this blog was because he was part of a DCLG-funded weekend away in Suffolk discussing faith and “promoting integration” with the Salvation Army.
You’ll recall that the weekend at Kentwell Hall was paid for by a £2,000 grant from the Near Neighbours fund, which is from a DCLG pot and administered by the Church Urban Fund.
The grant was submitted by Nick Coke of the Salvation Army in Stepney. His application outlined the purpose of the trip (which was meant to be to Devon at that point and thus requiring quite a bit of diesel and a minibus):
A weekend away to deepen relationships, build understanding and develop plans for future working for 15 leaders from Stepney Salvation Army, Stepney Father’s Group and The Stifford Centre.
The work will have four main areas of impact:
1) Leadership development. The project will develop the capacity of individuals in each institution to work together with others for positive change in Stepney.
2) Cross-institutional relationships. The project will help to build a better working relationship between the Salvation Army, Stepney Father’s Group and The Stifford Centre on issues of shared concern.
3) Building a wider Stepney alliance of organisations. The project will help to build the momentum of a Stepney citizens movement that will seek to reach other institutions and build partnerships in the neighbourhood
4) Influence beyond Stepney. Our desire for the ‘film’ is to share our project with Muslims and Christians outside Stepney and to raise aspirations about what can be achieved in UK communities.
The 2 leaders of the work will be:
Captain Nick Coke – co-leader of The Salvation Army – has 12 years of experience living and working in Stepney. He has built a Salvation Army congregation in Stepney from scratch, is a co-chair of the Tower Hamlets branch of Citizens UK and has a proven track record of building relationships with people of all backgrounds and faith in Stepney.
Ishaque Uddin – leader of Stepney Father’s Group – has lived in Tower Hamlets for 25 years. He founded the group 10 years ago, has previous experience of inter-faith initiatives in Stepney and has been trained in community organising.
They will be supported by secondary leaders in their institutions and by the director of the Stifford Centre.
In my original post on Sunday I said the trip to Suffolk involved the Sally Army, the Stepney Fathers and the Stifford Centre. I said those three groups had been meeting for some time and that they had played badminton and socialised generally.
Well, the Stifford Centre trustees have been in touch and they’re really very angry. They say they’re not Bengali dominated (they are). They say they don’t have clandestine meetings (who mentioned clandestine?), they say they’re “transparent” (really, see a few sentences later), they say they don’t play badminton with the others….and that none of their “representatives” were on that weekend away.
This email came from Salman Alam and Ahbab Miah. The latter is the centre’s committee secretary, while the former is the centre’s director–the man Nick Coke said was supporting the grant application.
So this was curious. Might the grant application have been written on a false premise; might the Near Neiighbours fund have been misled? I asked the Stifford people if they’d had any involvement at all with the project. This is what they said:
We were consulted a long time ago by Salvation Army/Stepney Fathers Club representative about a possible Near Neighbours project involving a weekend away day and while that was an aspiration of the project, we had not heard more about the project development.
I asked them to be more specific about “a long time ago”. They said they “were unable to comment any further on this matter” and that they’d publish a statement in due course. That’s transparency for you.
I also asked Nick Coke for an explanation. I asked whether any Stifford people had been on the trip, whether his grant application had been made on a false premise, and why the venue had been changed from Devon to Suffolk. He said he’d been told to refer all questions to the Church Urban Fund. I’m awaiting their response. Maybe they need a weekend away to work it all out.
As for extended breaks, there might be a few in need of those after tomorrow’s Election Court verdict, which comes at 10.30am.
Many have their fingers crossed, many are praying. I’m informed this was being circulated day on a Whatsapp ‘Muslim Professionals Forum’ that includes Lutfur advisers:
Pls prey…
for 1st Muslim executive MAYOR of Britain.
Mayor Lutfur case
judgment tomorrow
The commissioner has decided that the judgement will be given tomorrow Thursday. He will disclose the decision on Thursday and has not given any indication either way.
Win or lose
We will respect Allah’s
Decision
He is the Master planer.
Preying? Couldn’t be planer.(sic)
Trial by Jeory 