Female Muslim In Need - Help Needed As- salaamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahamtullah Wa Barakaatuh RE: Muddassar Arani Course of Action: File concerns to the MPs See letter below. I enclose a copy of the letter that I would welcome individuals to sent out to their MPs so that concerns can be raised in relation to what is taking place. If any one is able to have this placed on the Websites for the community to file concerns this will be appreciated. Date Your Name Your Address MPs Name MPs Address Dear Member Of Parliament, I write this letter as a concerned member of your constituency with regards the treatment of a Human Rights Lawyer, Muddassar Arani, by both the press and government organs. Since 2004, Ms Arani has been subjected to a witch-hunt in the press for defending high-profile suspects within the so-called 'War On Terrorism'. I obviously need not remind you that this 'war', without definition, target or objective, is causing untold misery within the Muslim community and making them feel victimised for the sake of political gain. Some of those victims obviously require representation, however the Government, Courts and press through their treatment of Ms Arani and her firm would seem to disagree with this view. She has been hounded unnecessarily in an extremely intimidating fashion which raises serious questions within myself of how much the government actually does believe in a vision of 'multicultural Britain', and more importantly whether this is a vision that includes the Muslim community. I quote some examples below of Ms Arani's treatment, which I hope you will agree has been racist, islamophobic, and defamatory in nature :- The Sun stated under the headline "Hamza's lawyer hits you with a massive legal aid bill" that Ms Arani was in receipt of hundreds of thousands of pounds in Legal aid for representing a Client, Mustafa Kamel. This was completely false and no money was received from Legal aid for this case. However, this falsehood has since been repeated numerous times in both broadsheets and tabloids. The article also listed the car, house and location of the house that Ms Arani drives and occupies. This is a breach of Part 13 of the Press Code of Practice. The Daily mail, The Daily Express and others have since repeated the spurious allegations, without any basis and without any right to reply offered as per articles 1 and 2 of the Press Code of Practice. All of the articles above have been defamatory, racist and anti-muslim in nature, in particular making strong reference to the fact that Ms Arani is a Muslim who wears Islamic Dress, with a strong subtext that it is wrong for Muslim lawyers to defend Muslim clients. The Police have also acted towards her in a bigoted and racist manner. They have passed details of other law firms to her clients being held in detention, without them requesting or being dissatisfied with the services of Arani and Co. The Police did not allow her to contact clients being held in Paddington Green Police Station. The Police also informed her that her clients were being subjected to further search procedures, out of malice, as she had 'too much contact' with them. The courts service as well is not immune. When she made statements about her clients treatment at HMP Belmarsh ( incidentally this view is supported by various Human Rights Groups, as well as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane and Degrading treatment or Punishment ), Mr Justice Fulford in summarising a case accused her of deliberately delaying the trial by making these allegations. Steven Kamlish QC accused me of trying to bribe his client Kwaku Asidu, even though Mr Asidu did not accept these allegations. I could go on with examples of character assassination, victimisation and intimidation, however for the sake of brevity I will only quote the above examples. In summary, what is happening to Ms Arani is completely unwarranted, and is clearly a targeted policy to prevent Muslims receiving a fair trial. I should mention to you that Pat Finucane, Human Rights Lawyer of Ireland, also defended high-profile clients on many occasions and was often subjected to abuse, intimidation and victimisation. He often discovered that the police had abused their authority in the rule of law, and he was vilified for this. Sadly, Pat Finucane is no longer with us, having been assassinated by Right-Wing extremists who were strongly suspected to have been provided information by the Police. I trust that these days are gone, however the case of Ms Arani seems to be moving further towards that tragic past once more. I trust you will see that it is necessary to end this character assassination for the sake of community relations. Yours faithfully,
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