It is being reported today(£) that Lord Ahmed blamed his prison sentence for dangerous driving back in 2009 on a Jewish conspiracy. These deplorable (and ridiculous) accusations were allegedly made in a TV interview back in April 2012:
Lord Ahmed claimed that his prison sentence for dangerous driving resulted from pressure placed on the courts by Jews “who own newspapers and TV channels”. Britain’s first male Muslim peer also alleged that the judge who jailed him for 12 weeks was appointed to the High Court after helping a “Jewish colleague” of Tony Blair during “an important case”.
He claimed, falsely, that Mr Justice Wilkie was hand-picked and sent from London to carry out the 2009 sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court because no other judge was willing to handle his case. The alleged plot to punish him stemmed, Lord Ahmed claimed, from Jewish disapproval of his support for the Palestinians in Gaza. His comments were made during a television interview on a visit to Pakistan.
Although Lord Ahmed was suspended from the Labour Party following allegations that he had announced a bounty on George Bush and President Obama, he was later reinstated following an investigation. He has been involved in several other controversial episodes:
In 2009, Ahmed joined forces with a number of British-based Islamists to sign a letter praising Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he walked out of a debate with President Shimon Peres at the Davos Conference in Switzerland.
…
In 2005, Ahmed hosted a book launch in the House of Lords for an activist who frequently uses anti-Semitic language in his work. Russian-born Israel Shamir claimed that blood libels against the Jews were in fact true and that all political parties were Zionist infiltrated.
In an interview on the Iranian mouthpiece Press TV during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Ahmed said that Jewish student groups actively recruited for the IDF. He said that British Jews who served in the IDF should be arrested and, if necessary, charged with war crimes.
It is to be hoped the Labour Party will take swift and decisive action if these allegations prove founded.
Update: He has now been suspended.
Engage 
March 14, 2013 at 10:55 am
Usually the Jewish conspiracy (errr… pro-Israel lobby) is content to wield its devastating weapon, a bad-faith accusation of antisemitism, to discredit people who “support the Palestinians in Gaza”. But in Lord Ahmed’s case, it decided to have him fitted up for causing a car crash and imprisoned. Only later did it accuse him of antisemitism…
https://engageonline.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/david-hirsh-the-livingstone-formulation/
‘… the appeal court did agree to the “exceptional” course of suspending the sentence for 12 months after learning that his sentence would hinder Ahmed’s work “building bridges between the Muslim world and others.”’
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=306382
March 14, 2013 at 12:12 pm
An MP once told me that Lord A had a reputation for speaking before he thinks. Quite possibly she was being kind.
March 14, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Brian R., having read The Times coverage (unfortunately behind a pay wall, so I can only reproduce parts of it), I have to support your contention that your acquaintance was being kind. The Times says in its article that it “…has obtained video and audio of the Urdu-language broadcast, in which the…Pakistani born businessman also claims [beyond that is his comments about the Lobby] that his conviction was subsequently overturned ‘in a way that kept my honour intact’.” As The Times notes acerbically, Lord Ahmed is wrong. The full article covers the equivalent of a whole page.
One might be excused for thinking that The Times, as a normally Conservative Party supporting paper, might be out to get in a blow against the Labour Party. However, it has a proud record of being against antisemitism. It was, after all all, their then-Constantinople/Istanbul correspondent who secured a copy of the book, published in 1864, that carried the equivalent of the Protocols, but aimed at the Freemasons, which reappear in the Tsarist fabrication aimed at the Jews. (You can follow this whole farrago, fictionalised, but essentially a drama-documentary in Umberto Eco’s “The Prague Cemetery”. I have to tell you that I have held a copy of the loan agreement between The Times correspondent and the White Russian emigre that caused the book to be passed to The Times, and the papers expose of the whole thing.
The Times, in a powerful editorial, also today (14 March), reminds us that this is what they did back then in 1922, as well as attacking contemporary antisemitism. Today, The Times definitely earns its soubriquet of “The Thunderer”. BTW, The Times also finds space to note Lord Ahmed’s House of Lords hosting of that nice man Israel Shamir; they don’t fail to note that Shamir is an antisemite.
Unfortunately, The Guardian manages to struggle to a couple of column inches, no editorial (and, no, I haven’t logged on to “Comment is Free”) and the report is fairly anodyne. It’s here, if you need it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/14/labour-suspends-ahmed-jewish-conspiracy
March 15, 2013 at 3:03 pm
DavidPavett comments at CiF in response to article by Dr Usama Hasanl on Ahmed’s “alleged” remarks (‘Jewish conspiracy’ also in scarequotes). The comments are as usual all over the place, God knows why serious newspapers still host so many nutters. But Pavett’s comment is a light in the darkness.
Brian R
=====================
15 March 2013 12:59pm
Recommend
75
Nazir Ahmed claims, apparently, that he was treated harshly by the court which gave him 12 weeks for killing a man due to careless driving (sending a text message while at the wheel). I cannot understand how he could have been given such a light sentence. Compare that to Huhn getting nine [sic] months for his fiddling on a case of exceeding the speed limit.
Also, the Times says that it has a video of Ahmed’s infamous interview and that it has sent a transcript of it to his solicitors. Isn’t time to release the video to stop the speculation? Overall it is not looking good for Ahmed.
I was interested to read that the Saudis have financed the distribution of thousands of copies of that old anti-Jewish forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A few years ago I wrote to the Muslim Council of Great Britain to ask what advice they give to young Muslims coming across this publication. I wrote five times and got no answer. A Muslim friend wrote asking what she should tell pupils who came across it. No answer again. How should one interpret this silence?
March 15, 2013 at 8:45 pm
I am shocked that in UK there is only a 12-week sentencing for a vehicle homicide for texting and driving. Is it not illegal there?
I am also shocked that their seems to be no indication of remorse for what he did: Kill an innocent man through irresponsible behavior.
So is it shocking he is a racist, too?
March 16, 2013 at 11:38 pm
It gets worse: he only served 16 days, because his lawyers got him released on the grounds that his freedom was vital for him to continue his community relations work. And, yes, you read those last 9 words correctly.
Brian R.: I suspect that we all know the answer to the last question that David Pavett poses. Well, those of us with working brain cells do.
March 15, 2013 at 8:56 pm
I believe that the fatal accident could not be directly linked to the dangerous driving because the texting took place several minutes before the crash. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/25/lord-ahmed-jail-text-crash
March 16, 2013 at 11:46 pm
Quite true and the court noted that they could not find a direct link between his texting and the accident. Which is why the original sentence was only for 12 weeks. If there had been a direct link (i.e., he was texting at the moment – or scant seconds before – the accident accident occurred), then the charge would have been “causing death by dangerous driving”, which carries sentences of years. At the same time, the court noted that he shouldn’t have been texting anyway, just as one is not supposed to use a mobile phone (cell phone) while the vehicle is in motion and the user is also the driver.
More important is his apparent antisemitic comments to the Pakistani television station, which is what he has been suspended by the Labour Party for. If found guilty, he’s likely to be expelled from the Party.
March 22, 2013 at 9:43 pm
Sarah: completely OT — what’s happened to harry’s place? Has the site been subject to another mass hack attack?
March 23, 2013 at 12:20 am
I would like to know also. Why is it impossible to access HP? I thought there was a problem with my American computer settings. Anyone know?
March 23, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Yes, there is a problem which is being investigated. HP has a facebook site where there may be some more recent information.
March 24, 2013 at 3:03 pm
From the Facebook page, “We’re moving servers, but it is taking longer than expected”.
March 22, 2013 at 11:09 am
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/sorry-truth-virus-anti-semitism-has-infected-british-muslim-community
Shorter link http://tinyurl.com/d2y6dhj
‘To claim [as Lord Ahmed did] that your jail sentence for dangerous driving is the result of a Jewish plot is bigoted and stupid … There are thousands of Lord Ahmeds out there: mild-mannered and well-integrated British Muslims who nevertheless harbour deeply anti-Semitic views.
‘It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism isn’t just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it’s routine and commonplace. Any Muslims reading this article – if they are honest with themselves – will know instantly what I am referring to. It’s our dirty little secret. You could call it the banality of Muslim anti-Semitism …
‘Growing up, I always assumed that this obsession with “the Jews” was a hallmark of the “first-generation” immigrants from the subcontinent. In recent years, I’ve been depressed to discover that there are plenty of “second-generation” Muslim youths, born and bred in multiracial Britain, who have drunk the anti-Semitic Kool-Aid. I’m often attacked by them for working in the “Jewish owned media” …
‘The truth is that the virus of anti-Semitism has infected members of the British Muslim community, both young and old. No, the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict hasn’t helped matters. But this goes beyond the Middle East. How else to explain why British Pakistanis are so often the most ardent advocates of anti-Semitic conspiracies, even though there are so few Jews living in Pakistan? …’
etc .. Link above
The sorry truth is that the virus of anti-Semitism has infected the British Muslim community
It’s a shameful fact that Muslims are not only the victims of racial and religious prejudice but purveyors of it, too.
New Statesman blog
By Mehdi Hasan Published 21 March 2013