Mosque Visiting, in a “Private Capacity”

It appears that the mayor is on a recruitment drive.

Earlier in the summer she took herself along to the Masjid Imambargah, a mosque in Plaistow, near to the Abbey Arms. With the closure of the Imamia Mission on Romford Road this is the only Shia mosque currently operating in the borough.

She was at pains to point out that she was there in a personal capacity, not as the First Citizen of the Borough. Yeah.

But this may account for the fact that there is very little about her mosque visits appearing on social media.

An explanation may be found in the following conversation which we are told occurred on her visit, and although the text is ours, the gist of the conversation is as it was reported to us.

Mayor Fiaz, in her private capacity, speaking to a female congregant: “We are looking for new councillors, there aren’t any Shias at the moment, you should put your name forward for selection.”

Female Congregant: “I don’t think I can, my English is not very good.”

Mayor Fiaz: “Don’t worry. We’ve got Bengali councillors who can’t speak English. I’ve even got one who can’t speak English on the cabinet.” (We think that she was referring to Councillor Mohammed Muzibur Rahman, Deputy Cabinet Member for Communities; though of course, she may have been referring to his Green St East colleague, Nilufa Jahan who has the Deputy post for Environment.)

This does begin to appear to be a campaign to stack the selections with Fiaz loyalists regardless of any service to the Labour Party and of qualification that they might have to run the borough.

We know that Mayor Fiaz has indicated that she wants rid of half of the councillors. It seems that the qualifications necessary to be a replacement are (a) that the candidate is female and…. Well, there doesn’t seem to be an ‘and’. But being Muslim won’t hurt. And it probably helps if you are already a member of the Labour Party.

So, watch out boys, your days are numbered.

We will bring you more reports from the mayor’s mosque visits “in a private capacity”, as we receive them.