Daud Abdullah To Sue Hazel Blears Over Smear

Several of today’s news outlets report that Dr Daud Abdullah, the Deputy Secretary-General at the Muslim Council of Britain, has via his lawyers sent a letter to the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears calling on her to publicly apologise for her remarks about him or face a libel suit.

As ENGAGE reported last week, Blears had in a letter published in the Guardian (now removed from its online edition) made a ludicrous and incendiary allegation that the Gaza Declaration that Daud Abdullah had signed ‘advocated attacks on Jewish communities all around the world.’ That was simply baseless and appeared to be clearly designed to malign and smear Daud Abdullah in the public eye.

It comes as no surprise, of course, that Blears was vocally supported in her actions by pro-Israeli websites like Harry’s Place and ‘ex-Islamists’ such as Shiraz Maher who now works for the discredited neo-con outfit, Policy Exchange.

Daud Abdullah is right to ask for a public apology for a smear that was made in public. Blears cannot claim parliamentary immunity and will now have to prove her wild allegations in a court of law.

We hope that Daud’s decision to stand up to Blears’ crass bullying will send a clear signal to all that government Ministers cannot act in such a cavalier manner and that they are not above the law.

Blears has been an utter disaster as Communities Secretary. The imperial manner by which she has sought to try and intimidate independent voluntary Muslim organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain into becoming government propaganda outlets like the Quilliam Foundation suggests that she has delusions of grandeur. She should be sacked before matters get much worse.