#nazir afzal

[dadsinsuits]

Nazir Afzal

[camillasgirl]

Lot's known about King Charles's interest in green issues, less about Queen Consort Camilla's passion for tackling violence against women and girls. With little fanfare, she has been educating herself and working with NGOs to ensure awareness is raised and action taken. A true champion.

Nazir Afzal, a former Chief Crown Prosecutor 10.09.2022

[tweetingukpolitics]

[arcticdementor]

(link)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Rakib Ehsan

Published: Dec 2, 2023

With a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping Britain – and London in particular – you might expect local authorities to jump at the chance to show some solidarity with their Jewish communities.

If so, you’d be wrong. Havering Borough Council is a case in point. On Thursday, it announced it was to cancel this year’s Hanukkah celebrations. The council claimed that erecting and lighting the large menorah outside Havering Town Hall could ‘inflame community tensions’ and lead to vandalism and disruption. (It had already paid for the specially designed menorah.)

On Friday, in the face of a considerable backlash, Havering announced a u-turn. It has been reported that the council had an ‘urgent meeting’ with Jewish community leaders and has since decided that the menorah-lighting event could indeed go ahead later this month.

But this volte-face will do little to erase the damage done by the original, spectacularly ill-judged decision. Indeed, Havering’s initial move to cancel the event has been roundly condemned by those of all faiths and none.

Nazir Afzal, the first Muslim chancellor of Manchester University, pointed out that the celebration of the Jewish festival has nothing at all to do with the war in Gaza. Dr Krish Kandiah, the director of the pro-refugee Sanctuary Foundation, pledged to stand ‘with the Jewish community in Havering’. Hope Not Hate founder Nick Lowles also intervened, saying that the council’s original decision was wrong ‘on every level’.

Muhammad Manwar Ali, an experienced figure in the counter-extremism field, was blunter still. He described the plan to cancel the event as ‘absolutely awful’ and a form of ‘shameless appeasement’. He’s not wrong. Havering seemed more concerned with appeasing anti-Semites than with supporting the local Jewish community.

Havering seemed to think that by cancelling Hanukkah celebrations community tensions would be eased. This is absurd. It would have made them worse. Not only was Havering threatening to cancel a religious celebration that has long brought joy and happiness to the capital; it was also pandering to nasty extremist factions.

Failing to stand in solidarity with British Jews sends a dangerous message. Regardless of your opinion on the conflict in Gaza, Jewish people are not agents of the Israeli government – they simply want to celebrate their religious holiday in peace. Havering was effectively threatening to suppress one religious minority at the presumed behest of another. All because it assumed that the visible display of Jewishness would upset – and potentially anger – the local Muslim community. Which is also incredibly insulting to Muslims.

Havering has not only failed its Jewish residents – it has also undermined religious freedom more generally. This kind of decision, although it has been reversed, still sets a sinister precedent. It suggests that the feelings of some minority groups should take priority over the rights of others.

If we want to build a truly harmonious and diverse society, we cannot capitulate to bigots who may take offence to harmless religious rituals. Now more than ever, we must rise above tribal identity politics in Britain. We need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with British Jews and send the clear message that anti-Semitism and hatred will not win.

==

Imagine the cries of "Islamophobia" if, for example, Ramadan activities were cancelled. Imagine the protests and the violence that would have unfolded.

Now, notice how they were not even asked to cancel Hanukkah, they just voluntarily did so to placate the perceived offence of one group over another.

Not only were the Jews supposed to just quietly accept this, but it tells you the privileged position Islam occupies, even when nobody actively seeks to exercise that privilege.

[ukrfeminism]

5 minute read

November 26 2022, The Sunday Times

When Sophie, a female firefighter, walked past male colleagues, they would taunt her about her weight by imitating the sound of a truck reversing.

Then there was the time at the London Fire Brigade (LFB), when her helmet was filled with urine, and the moment she found herself zipped inside a body bag as part of a practical joke.

The experiences contributed to Sophie (not her real name) being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Looking back, she compares her time at work to being in an abusive relationship.

Her anecdotes, along with dozens of other examples of racism, bullying and misogyny, will form part of a damning 88-page investigation published tomorrow, which will reveal the “toxic culture” in the country’s largest fire service.

Details include a black employee finding a noose above his locker, while a Muslim firefighter had a terrorism hotline sticker placed near his belongings. When the man returned from the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, colleagues asked how his “al-Qaeda training” had gone. At some stations, semen was smeared on women’s tunics.

For Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor in the Rochdale grooming gang case, who was asked to conduct the LFB independent review, the stories he heard over many months were “stomach-turning”. Although Afzal emphasised that “our review is rooted in deep respect for the work of LFB staff”, he concluded that the brigade was institutionally misogynistic and racist.

Afzal and his team conducted 250 interviews with former and current staff as well as a dozen focus groups. More than 100 written submissions were received and surveys completed by 1,672 employees.

The report, titled the Independent Cultural Review of London Fire Brigade and obtained by The Sunday Times, was commissioned following the death of Jaden Francois-Esprit, a trainee at Wembley fire station who took his own life aged 21 in August 2020.

An inquest last year heard that Francois-Esprit believed he was being bullied at work because of his ethnicity, with claims that he was teased about the Caribbean food he brought in for lunch. He had made 16 requests to be transferred to another station.

Delivering her conclusion in February 2021, Mary Hassell, the coroner, said that Francois-Esprit had not been bullied. He did, however, have a “vivid interior life at odds with the world around him”, she told St Pancras coroner’s court in London, and his deteriorating mental health had gone undetected.

Although LFB already had “sophisticated” mental health services it could do more, Hassell said in her conclusion. Ordering a prevention of future deaths report, she wrote: “In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

It was after the inquest that the brigade’s commissioner, Andy Roe, opened an independent investigation.

In a statement released tonight the brigade said it was taking immediate action after the recommendations made in the report. Roe said: “Today is a very sobering day. There is no place for discrimination, harassment and bullying in the brigade and from today it will be completely clear to all staff what behaviour isn’t acceptable and what the consequences will be. I am deeply sorry for the harm that has been caused.”

Roe said he would be “fully accountable for improving our culture” and said he would accept all of the recommendations in the review.

The figures provided for Afzal’s report backed up Hassell’s fears. In the past five years, six members of the brigade’s staff had taken their own lives, data revealed. It also gave “harrowing examples” of those who attempted suicide.

“Unless a toxic culture that allows bullying and abuse to be normalised is tackled then I fear that, like Jaden, other firefighters will tragically take their lives,” Afzal concluded.

His comments came after many pages of testimony from those who had worked in the brigade.

One woman writes: “It’s now reached a point with me that I tell my female friends not to let male firefighters in the house. Why? Because I know what they do. They go through women’s drawers looking for underwear and sex toys. Then they will spend hours bragging about the dildo they found and they will refer to the women as sluts. We hear it all the time and I’m sick of it.”

A Muslim staff member said he was “routinely bullied” because of his faith, with bacon and sausages put in his coat.

In WhatsApp messages shared with Afzal’s team, members of the brigade mocked the death of the black basketball player Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash with his daughter in 2020. Time and time again, racial and misogynistic abuse was passed off as “banter” at the brigade.

The report adds to the scandals that have engulfed the emergency services in recent years. Wayne Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer, was jailed almost a year ago for the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard.

The LFB was also accused of “serious shortcomings” and systemic failures” in its response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, in which 72 died.

As part of the Afzal report, Dany Cotton, head of the brigade at the time of the Grenfell blaze, was interviewed. She describes being told on more than one occasion that London was not ready for a female commissioner. She began a campaign to stop the use of the word fireman, called #Firefightingsexism and received death threats.

“Many people wanted me to fail and several said it to my face,” she tells the review, adding that one of her biggest battles was with “internal terrorists”, appearing to refer to the brigade.

Yet she is declining to talk publicly in support of the independent report, in part to avoid yet more abuse. Cotton is one of many women in the LFB who shared their experiences.

The report’s authors write: “This ranged from being groped during training exercises and kicked and punched, to having their uniforms urinated on and men keeping diaries of when they suspected women were on a period and telling them they ‘didn’t want to be around women who were bleeding’.”

One female employee said: “The threshold for bullying is so high, you would have to gouge someone’s eyes out to get sacked. Everything else is seen as banter.”

Sophie often thinks back to an evening out with colleagues when the DJ played a song which began with a shout out for “Sophie the station cleaner”.

That night she was having only soft drinks but they tasted sweet — spiked with spirits — so she kept throwing them away when no one was looking.

When she went to the lavatory she overheard her male colleagues conspiring to get her drunk, with a bet on to see who could get her back to the station to have sex. She saw that as conspiracy to rape.

But as awful as that seemed at the time, it was not quite as bad as the humiliating day in the mess when her colleague bent down in front of everyone and sniffed her crotch. He said she must be having her period as she smelt like his dog’s bottom: “all blood and shit”.

No one intervened, no line manager stepped in, Sophie says. In fact they usually laughed too. And some of those men are now senior figures in the brigade, she says.

Last year, the brigade attended more than 100,000 call-outs. There are 102 fire stations, which are home to 412 watches — the teams that operate in shifts around the clock.

More than 4,500 of the 5,000 staff are firefighters, but only 425 are women and just over 500 are from ethnic minorities, a tiny proportion in such a diverse city.

At their best, the report finds, London firefighters work closely, look out for each other and share a keen sense of pride and purpose. “The work is frequently dangerous, so their closeness is based on a need for firefighters to be able to completely rely on each other and trust colleagues with their life,” the review says.

It may take some comfort from the finding that the “demonstrable bigotry” found in fire stations does not extend to the public.

When it comes to saving lives, apparently, firefighters do not discriminate. “It’s like someone pulls a switch,” one black firefighter tells Afzal. “They change when they’re on the fire ground. It’s like they remember why they’re firefighters.”

It seems to Afzal that the brigade’s culture is “pickled in aspic”, a throwback to the last century “where offensive banter — particularly that characterised by extreme sexism — was apparent.” Some watches seem to operate almost “outside the law”, Afzal adds.

“There were fights and I nearly had my legs broken,” one watch manager says in the report. “I’ve been urinated on, headbutted, had cold water poured over me. It was horrendous.”

The measures put in place by the brigade to make improvements — initiatives such as the “Togetherness Strategy” and the “Safe To Speak” programme — are ineffective, the investigation concludes.

The report describes a “mental health time bomb”, with a significant number of firefighters who are vulnerable and appear to lack support. “We need to rescue ourselves as well as rescue others,” one union said.

The brigade’s human resources data analytics are “lacking sophistication”, according to the report, but disclose that increased numbers of staff are leaving the service since Grenfell. There is also increased absence related to anxiety, stress or depression and more than 250 Grenfell-related referrals to in-house counselling and trauma services.

One black firefighter, Gareth Dawes, 40, who contributes to the report, experienced a long history of microaggressions — “the nice racism that comes behind a smile” — before eventually helping to create what he termed a “progressive space” at his fire station where racist, sexist and homophobic language and behaviour would not be tolerated.

After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Dawes had gone to be part of the “cultural change” team at brigade headquarters — but he was left feeling unsupported and isolated.

He alleges he was told that the brigade wanted to prioritise women over black people because “for black people it is just about belonging”. Dawes saw this remark as insulting. His work was downgraded and he felt bullied and pushed out. He eventually resigned.

“We all know as black people that as soon as you raise your head above the parapet your career is done,” he said. He believes the brigade is in a state of denial about its problems.

Sophie, the female firefighter, is also hoping for change. After leaving work, the abuse would continue online, she says. When someone posted a picture of her online, a commenter asked “who’s that f***ing fat pig?”. She received obscene phone calls and messages containing extreme pornography.

Although she says she is not vindictive, she hopes tomorrow’s report will ruin the reputation of the brigade so it can be rebuilt from scratch.

Afzal says many stories he has heard “reinforce the perception that I had about the excellent service they [the LFB] provide”. “During this review, we saw many examples of bravery and dedication to public service,” he writes. Yet he also says his investigation “alerted me to significant concerns”.

“We found dangerous levels of ingrained prejudice against women and the barriers faced by people of colour spoke for themselves,” he adds.

The report makes a series of recommendations, including zero tolerance for workplace bullying, and a review of past complaints and mechanisms to make it safer to report bullying, racism, misogyny and homophobia.

There should also be a cultural audit of all fire stations to assess their risk to firefighters, developing a robust way of measuring brigade culture, ensuring secure facilities for women in stations and recruiting more Londoners, Afzal says.

In future, a “culture dashboard” for the LFB should be set up, using a traffic light system to highlight the worst-offending stations when it comes to “toxic behaviours”.

Reacting to the report last night, the brigade said that from now on anyone accused of discrimination, harassment and bullying will be suspended following a risk assessment and while an investigation takes place. If the accusation is upheld, they will be dismissed. An external complaints service to report bad behaviour has also been introduced, with leaders now undertaking inclusivity training. A mental health hub has also been launched.

Roe said: “This report highlights many issues within the brigade, and it also highlights examples of completely unacceptable behaviour from some of our staff when dealing with the public. These staff jeopardise not just the trust placed in us, but the safety of those who now might be dissuaded from requesting our help.”

He added: “We will challenge poor behaviour and do everything required to rebuild trust with our people and the communities we are here to serve. We will root out the people, systems and behaviours that discriminate against others and let the rest of us down. I know that change can take time, but change starts today.”

The family of Francois-Esprit also believe there is still much work to be done at the brigade. Speaking to The Guardian this summer, his mother Linda said: “We want organisational change in Jaden’s honour so no other employee experiences the trauma which led a healthy vibrant passionate young man at the prime of his life to experience a mental health crisis and untimely death.”

[randomberlinchick]

The home secretary has been getting away with her politics of performative cruelty and vindictiveness for too long. Every unchallenged provocation she makes only increases her boldness. Her comments that the members of sexual grooming gangs are “almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values” were deliberately loose and consciously inflammatory, and were not based on the facts that, as a lawyer and a senior minister, she has an obligation to uphold. These were not dog-whistles, but racist language.... The Office for National Statistics estimated in 2020 that at least 3.1 million Britons had been sexually assaulted as children, and a Home Office report the same year found that most members of sex-abuse gangs are white and aged under 30, not brown and middle-aged. According to the former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who led the high-profile case against the Rochdale grooming gang in 2012, “the vast majority of these crimes are carried out by white British males”. To single out one community does not just encourage racist responses against them. It also puts the victims of sexual predators in other communities at greater risk.

But please don't let the facts get in the way . . .

[voiceofbangus]

Ward member among dozens join AIP in Haran Chogal Langate

Shakir bhat

Langate February 12: In a major boost to Awami Ithad Party in Langate Haran Chogal as dozens of workers joined Awami Ithad Party.

In a statement to the press, the joining was arranged by the party cadre in which over three dozen workers of NC & PC joined AIP in presence of DDC Mawer,Bock President ,BDC Langate & BDC Mawar.

Speaking on the occasion, BDC Langate Showkat Hussan Pandith, welcomed them into the party and hoped that they will work for the benifit of party and people.BDC Tahir Aftab highlighted the contributions of Er Rashid & AIP in every field of life.

Meeting was also attended by Iqbal Supernaghama,Advocate Irfan Aziz,Farooq Ahmed Dar,Sarpanch Ayaz Ahmad,Mashoq Ahmad

Those prominent who joined the party are Ward member Shabir Ahmed, Abdul Rashid Najar,Ghulam Hasan Shiekh,Bashir Ahmad Shiekh,Nazir Ahmad Gojri,Khazir Mohammad Shiekh,Shabir Ahmad Wani, Asif Nazir Gojri, Mohammad Afzal Shiekh, Azad Ahmad Shiekh,Showkat Ahmad Wani, Mohammad Ashraf Shiekh,Nasir Ahmad, Mohammad Sultan Shiekh, Aijaz Ahmad Wani, Ghulam Rasool Najar, Mohammad Maqbool Najar,Ghulam Mohiuddin Najar,Bilal Ahmad Najar and Manzoor Ahmad Dar

[bronva]

Top lawyer says Lady Susan Hussey also questioned his ‘heritage’ at the palace

Top lawyer says Lady Susan Hussey also questioned his ‘heritage’ at the palace

Nazir Afzal used to be the chief crown prosecutor for the North West (Picture: Getty) A top lawyer claims he was questioned about his ethnicity by the same woman who insisted a black activist reveal her ‘heritage’. Nazir Afzal, former chief crown prosecutor for the North West, attended the same charity event at Buckingham Palace as Ngozi Fulani on Tuesday night. He said Lady Susan Hussey, who was…

[buzz-london]

Mr Philp said: 'I spoke to the LFB commissioner Andy Roe on Friday to set out my strong feelings that this behaviour is totally unacceptable and needs to completely end.

'He has committed to implementing all 23 of the report's recommendations, including importantly outsourcing the complaints service so complaints are dealt with externally to the fire brigade.'

Mr Philp said he will also be in touch with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, 'who of course has oversight responsibility for the London Fire Brigade'.

Commissioner Roe recently said the findings were 'horrifying' and that 'public confidence and trust' had been 'betrayed'.

He said at a press conference: 'Where we find people have behaved appallingly, we will dismiss them', promising a zero-tolerance crackdown.

Nazir Afzal - a former chief crown prosecutor for the North West - led the damning report into the toxic culture inside the London Fire Brigade.

[jhamazamnews-blog]

London Fire Brigade is 'institutionally misogynist and racist', independent review finds | UK News

London Fire Brigade is ‘institutionally misogynist and racist’, independent review finds | UK News

The London Fire Brigade is “institutionally misogynist and racist” with a “toxic culture that allows bullying and abuse”, an independent review has found. The review’s author Nazir Afzal OBE said he and his team “found dangerous levels of ingrained prejudice against women and the barriers faced by people of colour spoke for themselves”. He said they were more likely to be subject to disciplinary…

[realestate6767]

Graana Property Festival Lahore 2022 | Expo | Sapphire Properties

With the starting bell ringing, team Sapphire Properties started their journey of the biggest property festival in Pakistan, Graana Property Festival Expo Center Johar Town Lahore. Real-Estate investors started pouring in right away as exhibitors prepared for a busy day, and Team Sapphire energetically made sure everything was in order at camp. Around noon, the throng began to thicken, with a continual buzz of interested people visiting various realtors. The first day of the event started with a bang as the CEO of Sapphire Properties, Mr. Bilal Afzal, greeted the chairman of Blue World City, Mr. Saad Nazir, at the entrance. Sapphire Properties CEO Mr. Bilal Afzal also presented flowers to chief guests for honoring the event with their presence.

[tweetingukpolitics]

[ingek73]