The Brent Mosque’s Liberal Tendency
Posted by jonathanfryer on Sunday, 27th January, 2008
Nick Clegg was the guest of honour at a large celebratory dinner for the local MP, Sarah Teather, at the Howard Road Mosque and Islamic Centre in Brent this evening, attracting large numbers of predominantly Pakistani Muslims, as well as the local chief imam and elders, plus LibDem members. Sarah holds MP surgeries in the mosque twice a month, and several speakers paid tribute to her work with the Islamic community in Britain’s most diverse borough. That includes her dogged campaigning against the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
In his keynote address, Nick Clegg picked up the theme of civil liberties and lambasted the government for trying to press ahead with legislation to permit 42-day detention without trial. Gordon Brown also came under fire for supinely agreeing to George W Bush’s new European missile shield. Principle must be the touchstone of LibDem policies, Nick said, especially in international affairs. And he highlighted the failure of the international community to prevent the breakdown of order in Kenya following the flawed presidential election there, for which Mwai Kabaki was initially congratulated by Washington.
Link: www.brentmosque.co.uk
Jonathan Fryer 
James Schneider said
I desperately hope Sarah gets elected in the new Brent Central. It will be very difficult but she is an extraordinary MP, who genuinely cares for her constituents, to the point where she did not try to stand in the far more winnable Hampstead and Kilburn. I hope the community comes out and gives her their full support.