ENGAGE As The Secretariat To The All-Party Parliamentary Group On Islamophobia

We, the undersigned, strongly disapprove of the joint statement issued by Kris Hopkins MP and Lord Janner of Braunstone, as reported in the Jewish Chronicle (10 December 2010), to dispense with the services of ENGAGE as secretariat to the newly established All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia. ENGAGE has been instrumental in the formation of the APPG and we urge all members of the Group and parliamentarians of all parties to reject their recommendation and to resist the pressure being exerted by right wing bloggers and others.

The statement appears to have been prompted by articles written by Andrew Gilligan and former Conservative MP, Paul Goodman to which ENGAGE have responded in detail:
Response to Andrew Gilligan: http://iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/1-news/1116-a-response-to-andrew-gilligans-smears-about-engage
Response to Paul Goodman: http://iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/1-news/1135-engage-responds-to-paul-goodman

From this state of affairs two deeply disturbing issues emerge. The first is trial by blog where the articles of Andrew Gilligan and Paul Goodman should influence elected officials, who in some cases, made election pledges to support an APPG on Islamophobia during the ENGAGE run election hustings events, to sideline them on supposition of an Islamist agenda.

The second is the accusation of unsuitability on grounds of political leanings, with the Jewish Chronicle referring to ENGAGE pursuing an explicitly anti-Zionist agenda.
Whether anti-Zionist or not is irrelevant to the role of secretariat in the same way that one would not expect Lord Janners pro-Zionist stance to affect his serving on the APPG or investigating Islamophobia in the UK from his position as vice chair.

We reiterate our strong support for ENGAGE as secretariat to the APPG on Islamophobia and calls for its removal to be rejected.