President Obama was back in office on Wednesday the 7th of November, 2012; he had taken some time off from office for his campaigning in the U.S. Presidential Election.

Obama went to his hometown, Chicago, where he celebrated his victory. He received a standing ovation as he visited hundreds of campaign staffers, some of whom scrambled on top of desks to get a better view of him.

Obama, now has an opportunity to change the way his administration operates and expand the agenda it pursues. Almost immediately, he will address a host of expected departures in his senior staff, giving him the chance to fill out the top levels of his administration with new people best suited to achieve his second-term ambitions.

“There’s a lot of flexibility in how you do it,” said Martha Kumar, a Towson University professor of political science who specializes in presidential transitions. “You work with what you’ve got and the environment you’re in, and right now for this president that’s the fiscal-cliff issues.”

The campaign season has effectively frozen the business of Washington for much of the past year. Obama now faces a year-end fiscal showdown with a Congress largely unchanged by the recent election, as well as his own second-term staffing issues in the White House and at key Cabinet agencies (WP, Obama,8).

The Republican Party definitely needs to analyze what went wrong in their campaigning. They had a setback after the loss of two senate seats. “I hope there’s going to be some real soul-searching [in the] Republican Party about what they’re willing to cooperate on,” Vice President Biden told reporters traveling aboard Air Force Two.

Referring to the election results, Biden said, “I think the real takeaway is: What is the takeaway going to be on the part of our Republican colleagues?” (WP, Obama,8)

Although the unemployment rate was high, and a massive hurricane brought about disaster, damage and destruction to the eastern coast of America President Obama did the best he could with whatever resources he had in hand. The credit of capturing the most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, added a much deserved feather to his cap. The president informed his decision to withdraw military troops from Iraq within a few years. All of this did act in his favor.

Carrying ahead emotional stance, opposition came with, “I feel very optimistic about, in my view, immigration reform,” Biden said Wednesday. “Because as we talked about with most of the Hispanic communities I spoke with over the last month, it played a major role. And that’s got to be a wake-up call for a lot of my Republican colleagues.”

Obama is enjoying his victory which has provided him with the chance to rule the United States for the second term, as well. Obama was seen in his hometown along with his family, meeting his fellowmen and expressing his gratitude and acknowledging his obligations to his country.

 

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Demonstration against the English Defence League, Tower Hamlets June 2010In March this year the English Defence League's political wing, the British Freedom party, launched a letter campaign aimed at persuading MPs who had signed Unite Against Fascism's founding statement to withdraw their support from the organisation. The hook for this campaign was provided by a witch-hunting article by Andrew Gilligan (a journalist greatly admired by right-wing Islamophobes) who had accused UAF vice chair Azad Ali of being a fascist. The model letter provided by the BFP also included the claim that Azad Ali had been "exposed at the web site Harry's Place" (which has been another source of inspiration for far-right racists).

It appears that the only positive response the BFP received was from Brian Donohoe, Labour MP for Central Ayrshire, who took up the issue after being contacted by George Whale, editor of the British Freedom website. To the delight of the BFP, Donohoe replied to Whale with a friendly assurance that he was pursuing the question of UAF on his behalf: "I have written to both the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary asking for an update on this website as I am sure the majority of these 'signatories' are unaware their names are listed there." Donohoe also relayed to the Home and Foreign offices Whale's accusation that UAF is an extremist group.

Giving Donohoe the benefit of the doubt, we can only assume that he was unaware of Whale's political background – though you'd have to be politically very naive not to suspect that a constituent demanding that you sever links with an organisation committed to opposing the far right might, just possibly, have some connection to the far right himself.

As it turned out, Donohoe was given an admirably firm brush-off in a letter from James Brokenshire MP, parliamentary under secretary for crime and security at the Home Office. Brokenshire made it quite clear that the Home Office didn't buy the BFP's charge that UAF is an extremist organisation:

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) was formed in Great Britain in late 2003 in response to electoral successes by the British National Party (BNP). It began as a coalition that included the Anti-Nazi League, the National Assembly Against Racism, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and leading British unions such as the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) (now Unite) and UNISON. Its honorary president in 2012 is said to be Doreen Lawrence.

If Donohoe or any of the other signatories to UAF's founding statement objected to their names appearing on the UAF website, Brokenshire suggested, then the simple solution was to contact UAF and ask for their names to be removed.

The letter concluded:

Your constituent also makes reference to a Daily Telegraph article by Andrew Gilligan about Mr Azad Ali who is the Vice Chair of UAF. Dr Whale is concerned that Mr Ali appears to want to destroy British democracy and replace it with Sharia law. Sharia is not part of the law of England and Wales.

Sharia principles are the code of personal religious law governing the conduct of Muslims. They can extend into all aspects of people's lives (for example requirements to give charitably, to follow certain dietary rules and to pray) but provided an activity prescribed by Sharia principles does not contravene the law of England and Wales, there is nothing that prevents people living by Sharia principles should they choose to.

This is part of people's legitimate right to freedom of expression and we must ensure that where [there] is a need to address something that is a recognised problem, we do not stigmatise the vast majority of Muslims who live peacefully in the United Kingdom and who contribute fully to our society.

I hope this clarifies the situation for your constituent.

You may wish to ask Brian Donohoe why he allowed himself to be used in this way by a leading figure in a far-right group that serves as the political arm of a gang of racist street thugs. He can be contacted at brian.donohoe.mp@parliament.uk

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Last July the Independent on Sunday reported that the National Association of Muslim Police had delivered a letter to the home secretary, Theresa May, expressing their concerns about the targeting of their members by the English Defence League, and in particular about the case of an EDL member who had been arrested in 2010 in possession of explosive devices and a list of Muslim police officers' names.

As a result of an FOI request Richard Bartholomew has acquired a copy of the letter, which was evidently written by NAMP president Zaheer Ahmad, and he has published the relevant section:

Last year the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) arrested a man who was actively gathering intelligence/information on serving Muslim Officers including myself and other senior NAMP executive members. According to MPS he was in possession of a quantity of fireworks/Devices, neither NAMP nor any of other persons targeted have or were ever made aware of the full extent of this enquiry e.g. explosives and other enquiries to date. The police also found partial addresses and surveillance videos on his computer, this would suggest that he was undertaking reconnaissance activities. At the time were told that the man arrested was a lone wolf and not linked to any organisations. It took us just a few minutes of basic internet research to establish that this individual has links with the EDL and has attended EDL rallies and meetings, which we brought to the attention of MPS. He was released with any bail conditions and no risk assessment was carried out. This individuals is still of concern to us and we are not aware whether he is still subject to any ongoing intelligence work by SO15 or whether he has been referred to the National Domestic Extremism Unit for intelligence purposes or de radicalisation programme.

The investigation by Specialist Operations (SO) was very poor and dismissive of our concerns… It took the intervention of ACPO officers to inject a degree of seriousness into the investigation. However, sadly the investigation did not lead to charges being brought forward… MPS advised us that a file was sent to Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and they have advised no further action be taken. Earlier this year we had the opportunity to meet senior officials from CPS, we were extremely upset and disheartened to learn that they have no recollection of giving MPS advice on this particular case.

James Brokenshire, the parliamentary under secretary for crime and security, replied on behalf of the home office:

The MPS is extremely disappointed with the inaccurate assertions made in Mr Ahmad's letter, including issues around the quality and conduct of the investigation and the lack of referral to the CPS. However we do understand that the concerns raised by Mr Ahmad need to be addressed. A senior officer from the Counter Terrorism Command has already been in touch with him and a meeting has been arranged for September, during which we will address the allegations and hopefully provide him with the necessary assurances.

Richard Bartholomew suggests that the reason for the failure to take action against the EDL may have been that a police spy was involved. A more likely explanation is that it reflected the Met's refusal to accept that the EDL is a violent extremist organisation.

After all, in 2009 the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, stated that the MPS took the position that the EDL were "not viewed as an extreme right wing group in the accepted sense". When he took over as co-ordinator of the National Domestic Extremism Unit at Scotland Yard in 2010, DCS Adrian Tudway expressed the same opinion. In April last year Tudway wrote that the EDL were "actively moving away from the right and violence". This was in an email to a Muslim group whom he advised to "open a direct line of dialogue" with this mob of far-right anti-Muslim thugs as it would be "the best way to engage them and re-direct their activity".

As Zaheer Ahmad of NAMP commented: "There is a strong perception in the Muslim communities that the police service does not take the threat of right wing extremism seriously."

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