Janice Small and Imtiaz Ameen: Islamic extremists have no place in our West Yorkshire communities
Janice Small, PPC for Batley and Spen and Imtiaz Ameen, prospective local election candidate for Dewsbury Dewsbury South speak out against Islamic extremists in their communities. They are calling on all Muslims in the West Yorkshire area to condemn the planned march of Islam4UK through the town of Wootten Bassett.
Janice has long campaigned for freedom of speech and civil liberties and ran Yorkshire MP David Davis’s Liberty by-election campaign last year. She said:
“I believe that free speech usually exposes the extremists in our midst and am always happy to debate and expose others’ abhorrent views like the BNP and Hizb ut tahrir, but we cannot allow this group to effectively spit on the graves of our brave servicemen and women and would deeply offend our dead soldiers’ families”.
Janice was out and about in the snow this weekend and spoke to a number of Muslims who were quick to condemn the planned march through Wootton Bassett: matter what we think of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and stand up to extremists whether from this group or the far right. Janice Small, ConservativePPC for Batley and Spen added that
“The Muslims in the constituency of Batley and Spen are outraged that this sick and unrepresentative group are trying to speak in their name. The people of Batley and Spen wholeheartedly condemn the actions of this abhorrent group and call on the Home Secretary to ban its march. We must support our troops no matter what we think about our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and stand up to extremists whether from this group or the far right”.
Janice has links on her website and Facebook page to sign a petition to stop this group:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240318/100-000-people-Facebook-protest-Islamic-extremist-march-military-town.html
Imtiaz explained: “ I am normally against banning marches but on this occasion the location of the proposed march is what has led me to reach my conclusion to seek a ban. I don’t agree with banning this group as its members will simply reappear with another name and by the time we have worked out who the new group is, they will have done plenty of unsavoury work without being noticed - Islam4uk is simply a rebranding of Al Mohajiroun which was formed by ex Hizb ut Tahrir members. By leaving the group in its current form subject to it not breaking any laws, my view is that it is easier to police and keep a watchful eye on”.
Imtiaz’s posting on the influential ConservativeHome blog can be found at :
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2010/01/imtiaz-ameen-islam4uks-planned-march-through-wootton-bassett-must-be-banned-.html |
