Paul Weston in The Telegraph blog:
The unprecedented decision of Mohammad Sarwar, Labour MP for Glasgow Govan since 1997, to stand down before the next elections, follows threats upon both his and his children’s lives.
Mr Sarwar has the dubious honour of being both Britain’s first Muslim MP (and Scotland's first ethnic-minority MP) -- and Britain’s first MP to be driven from office upon pain of death.
When he was elected, to a fanfare of media coverage, Mr Sarwar managed yet another first; he refused to swear allegiance to the Queen, preferring instead the ancient British tradition of swearing his oath upon the Koran, the copy of which, incidentally, was placed inside an envelope lest it “be touched by one not of the faith.”
Mr Mohammad Sarwar was instrumental in forcing the British government to press ahead with Pakistan's extradition of three British Muslims evading prosecution for brutally and sadistically torturing an innocent 15-year-old Glasgow boy, Kriss Donald, to death. Thus, in the eyes of some British Muslims, MK Sanwar committed a crime of such magnitude that only his death could adequately compensate for his treachery.
When Britain, a first world country, loses a democratically elected politician because he fears for his life, we are entering a wholly new era. Britain is now an Iraq, a Zimbabwe, we are becoming, in political terms, a genuine third world country, and our BBC led media, showing a total disregard for impartiality, has veered from mere bias to dangerous censorship, with all the disturbing implications this portends for our democratic future.
