Excerpt:
I was offered the "Muslim patrol" story in Tower Hamlets, where self-proclaimed "Muslim vigilantes" filmed themselves verbally abusing and intimidating a gay man. Perhaps wrongly, I didn't use it because I wasn't sure whether a few kids on YouTube had national importance. I am glad, however, that the local police appear to be taking it seriously for once – in contrast to their lamentable attempts to ignore, downplay and cover up previous acts of "Islamic enforcement" and bigotry in the East End.
One Tower Hamlets organisation of undoubted national importance that continues to laugh up its sleeve at us is the East London Mosque, the capital's largest. The mosque's PR machine lost no time cranking out a statement condemning the "vigilantes" and claiming that the mosque was "committed to building co-operation and harmony between all communities in this borough. The actions of this tiny minority have no place in our faith." This claim has been trustingly repeated by various journalists in the coverage this week. But, as the most cursory investigation would show, it is a brazen lie.
There is no evidence that the East London Mosque is directly involved in the latest attacks. But at least one activist in the Islamic Forum of Europe, the Islamic supremacist group that runs the mosque, has previously threatened and intimidated people for violating "Islamic norms," using the IFE's name.