Excerpt:
I've written in some detail in today's paper about the campaign of abuse, threats and violence being mounted by Muslim extremists in Tower Hamlets to "Islamise" this multicultural area. There were plenty of other examples I left out – the pharmacy assistant threatened for not wearing a veil, the Labour councillor targeted in an 18-month hate campaign for her "Western" dress, and so on.
Now some of the people worst affected – the local gay community – are increasingly taking a stand. Last week, a group of gay activists wrote a brave and important open letter drawing attention to the problems and the role in them of the fundamentalist East London Mosque, the area's largest Muslim institution.
Though the mosque regularly claims to be opposed to hate, its actual actions expose this as a lie. Over the last few years, in the activists' words, the East London Mosque has "hosted numerous hate preachers who have promoted the most vicious homophobia imaginable."