British Labour councillor Zahir Ahmed, who represents the Daneshouse and Stoneyholme ward  in Burnley, has been pressured into quitting for his lack of attending required meetings and failure to represent those he was elected to serve.

Mr Ahmed, who is required to attend full council meetings, only managed four out of a possible 10 – at a cost of £675 each.

Yet Ahmed will not immediately stand down as he doesn't want to cost the area "alot of money"

Isn't he already doing so? And at what price comes literally NO representation for those people living in Daneshouse and Stoneyholme?

Now I suppose we could cut Ahmed some "slack" as he says his excuse for the above failure is that he's been busy in Pakistan "visiting his ill parents". But then why is his resignation coming under pressure rather than out of his own dedication to responsibility? After all he is in a position that he willing vied for and won - I personally find his lackadaisacal response - concerning if not appalling - thus I did a quick (and far from complete) rundown of some of the other recent muslim councillor "issues" in Britain:

SIX middle-aged Muslim men, all pillars of their communities, won seats on Britain’s biggest local authority in the most corrupt election campaign since the Victorian era.

Muslim councillor, Arif Waghat,  convicted of benefit fraud - yet refuses to quit office.

Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain said he would not support female candidate because she is "too white and ...'my Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish'. 

Report says that half of the 42 people convicted for electoral malpractice since 2000 are British Muslims. The report says extended family and kinship networks, frequently with their origins in settlement patterns in Pakistan and Bangladesh, are mobilised to secure the support of up to several hundred electors, effectively constituting a “block vote”. In areas such as Tower Hamlets in eastern London, such practices are frequently referred to as “village politics”. 

A female Muslim councillor has been subjected to a hate campaign by Muslim men in her ward, leaving her unable to visit some of the streets that she represents.

 Female muslim councillor calls for postal votes to be scrapped - “As soon as the postal vote arrives in the home, family members find themselves placed under pressure to fill in their vote in the presence of the male head of the family who has promised the votes in his household to a particular party.”She said that young members of the family and women are placed under particular pressure, and those who demand the right to vote in secret risk being cut off for showing disloyalty.

The above certainly gives voters something to think about - doesn't it?

Article in full:

Councillor quits after attending only 4 meetings

August 14, 2009