‘Mad Muslims planned to take out Woolas’

Election Court, day three: III

ELECTION agent Joe Fitzpatrick claimed that MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee were a bunch of Mad Muslims and their game plan was to take out Phil Woolas.

He said MPAC had operated the same strategy in Rochdale, working with Liberal Democrats, and had managed to overturn a majority of 6,000 to unseat the Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons in 2005. They called her a Zionist and Jewess and criticised her husband who had been in the TA and done a tour of duty in Iraq.

Mr Watkins says Mr Woolas and his publications sought to kindle a fear of Mad Muslims and falsely portrayed the Liberal Democrat as conniving with them.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he believed MPAC had written hate leaflets and were attacking a man with perfectly ordinary beliefs: "I think it is completely wrong and unacceptable to attack a man because he is a non-Muslim."

At a hustings meeting he believed an MPAC member was filming Mr Woolas from the front row. Mr Woolas had also been portrayed on the MPAC website with horns and a tail.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: "There are three or four bunches of crazies out there, MPAC, Radar (a Muslim website)...

He accused Mr Watkins of sending one message to Asian voters and another to other community members, over his stance on arms sales to Israel and Palestine

He said:"This is standard Liberal Democrat policy to send different messages to different groups.

"To Asians during Ramadan he sent a letter wishing them happy Eid and telling them he opposed selling arms to Israel. Look at his website and he is telling the white community we should not sell arms to either group. This is standard Liberal Democrat technique."



600 Bengali votes were ‘stitched-up’ over Mosque planning permission

Liberal Democrats had ‘stitched-up’ 600 Bengali votes in St Mary’s because of planning permission for a new mosque, Phil Woolas’s agent Joe Fitzpatrick claimed.

But Labour colleagues did not want copies of Labour’s Examiner newspaper attacking the way the planning consent for a mosque in Waterloo Street was passed distributed in Glodwick.

They said that it would give publicity for their local Liberal Democrat opponent, Councillor Mohammed Masud.

He said Councillor Masud had managed to get the planning application brought forward before the elections, and was able to claim credit for it and was telling people to vote Liberal Democrat because they would have more influence.

Labour colleagues asked him not to give Councillor Masud any extra publicity.

That was the reason parts of the ward in Glodwick did not get the paper.

“It was not because they were worried about upsetting local voters, he said.

And that led to a row with Phil Woolas over the final paragraph in the story. He said: “I wanted to report that this disgusting behaviour had stitched-up 600 Bengali votes but Mr Woolas over ruled me.”

Instead the paragraph read that Mr Woolas believed that the Bengali vote was turning his way.

A Labour pamphlet distributed on the day before the election and on election morning was also only sent to mainly white areas he said, to get the voters out. Turn out in white areas is 55 to 60 per cent.

“However, in Asian areas, they are effectively 85 to 90 per cent, so that was designed to improve the turn-out where we were desperate to improve it.

“If turn-out improves, those people are predominantly Labour. That is why we put it out in low turn-out areas rather than the Asian community.”