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January 13, 2009 Muslim ministers warn of Gaza backlash Senior MPs tell of 'immense anger' in Asian communities about crisis The two most senior Muslim figures in the Government have warned about the impact of the Gaza crisis on Britain's Asian communities amid angry demands from some Labour MPs for Gordon Brown to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure on Israel to halt their military campaign. Sadiq Khan, the Communities minister, and Shahid Malik, the Justice minister, took the unusual step of speaking out about concerns that British Muslims have about the crisis. The Commons also heard demands from Labour MPs for Britain to impose an arms embargo on Israel. Mr Malik said many British Muslims were not aware of the Government's calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and warned that "the sense of grievance and injustice is both profoundly acute and obviously profoundly unhealthy". In a letter to his Dewsbury constituents he said he had been in "constant contact" with Mr Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. Both ministers made it clear they strongly supported Mr Brown's stance on Gaza. But Mr Malik said: "It's crucial we redouble our efforts to communicate with the public about UK Government actions if we are to dent the entrenched cynicism that exists, especially among British Muslims." In an email to his Tooting constituents, Mr Khan said the Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell had "assured me that the Foreign Office are fully aware of the strength of feeling". However, Labour MPs called for the Government to take tough action against Israel. Peter Kilfoyle, the former defence minister, said: "Will he undertake to ensure that no arms go to Israel at the moment given that it is guilty, in many people's eyes, of state-sponsored terrorism." Marsha Singh, the Labour MP for Bradford West, added: "Is it not time to expel the ambassador of Israel, is it not time we brought our ambassador back from Israel. Is it not time we called for international sanctions against Israel?" Sir Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour former minister, accused Israeli leaders of war crimes. He told MPs: "Is it not an incontrovertible fact that Olmert, Livni and Barak are mass murderers or war criminals and they bring shame on the Jewish people." [iCopyright]C 2009 Independent News and Media. Permission granted for up to 5 copies. All rights reserved. You may forward this article or get additional permissions by typing http://license.icopyright.net/3.7463?icx_id=news/uk/home-news/muslim-ministe rs-warn-of-gaza-backlash-1332010.html?service=PrintICopyright into any web browser. Independent News and Media Limited and The Independent logos are registered trademarks of Independent News and Media Limited . The iCopyright logo is a registered trademark of iCopyright, Inc. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=83851/stime=1231845808/nc1=3848627/nc2=3848641/nc3=5349275> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
