Habib Toumi

Israel’s Ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, has been summoned to explain on Thursday the use of passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, an Israeli daily has reported.

The summoning seemed as part of the full investigation pledged on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into the use of the forged passports by a hit squad that murdered Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh on January 20.

“We are looking into this at this very moment; we have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care,” Brown said in a radio interview, according to Haaretz.

Brown said the British government would seek to accumulate evidence about “what actually happened” before making any official statements on the matter.

Anticipating wider diplomatic developments involving Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said also on Wednesday that there was no proof Israel’s Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination.

Lieberman shrugged off any prospect of diplomatic problems with Britain over suspicions a Mossad team had used counterfeit British passports.

“I think Britain recognizes that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern,” he said. continue reading…

WITH political and cultural chasms widening between Muslim communities in the UK and mainstream British society, there is increasing unease on both sides of the divide. Until about 18 months ago, few heads would have turned when Andleen Razzaq, a London secondary school teacher and member of the Muslim charitable organisation City Circle, walked past Trafalgar Square on her way to the House of Commons.

 Her eastern looks and colourful headscarf were the visible part of Britain’s relaxed celebration of multiculturalism.

 The young woman is, in fact, so pleased with Britain’s multiculturalism that upon hearing about the French banon the wearing of “conspicuous” religious signs, she observed that “this ban by the French government contrasts with the general trend in the UK to look upon different groups as a celebration of Britain’s diversity. I think we can draw strengths from the range of religions and ethnic groups which form our society rather than trying to push everyone towards a mundane sameness”.

 But now, Andleen, like millions of other Britons, feels that a highly perceptible changehas occurred, inexorably forced by pressing questions about the genuine merits of multiculturalism when it is used by radicals as a licence for secession and the status of Muslim communities in Britain.

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