13 May 2011

Tower Hamlets Taliban: Death threats to women who don't wear veils. Gays attacked in the streets. .... at the heart of Britain's capital

.... Those familiar with life in Tower Hamlets are not surprised. They say that such attitudes are commonplace. Residents have grown used to the fact that the council-run libraries are stocked with books and DVDs containing the extremist rantings of banned Islamist preachers.

There is a Muslim faith school where girls as young as 11 have to wear face-covering veils. There are plans to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of municipal money to build a set of Islamic arches — the so-called ‘hijab gates’, which would look like a veil — at either end of Brick Lane, which is packed with Indian restaurants and clothes shops.

And there have been allegations of corruption during council elections, with the names of hundreds of Bangladeshi ‘ghost voters’ suddenly appearing on the electoral register.

But what many struggle to understand is how mainstream politicians are ignoring the corruption that is going on in the heart of our capital. [MailOnline] Read more [via ENGAGE]