Yasmin Qureshi (born 5 July 1963)^[1] is a British-Pakistani Labour Party politician and a barrister practicing criminal law. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton South East^[2] in the May 2010 general election.^[3]

Biography[link]

Qureshi was born in Gujrat, Pakistan and moved to Britain when she was nine. Her father was an engineer and they lived in Watford.^[4]

She attended the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now London South Bank University) and obtained a BA (Hons) Law degree and completed her Barrister-at-Law examinations at the Council of Legal Education. She obtained a Master of Laws at University College London.^[5]

Political career[link]

At the age of 16 she joined the Labour Party and became active in local politics.^[6]

She stood, unsuccessfully, for Labour in the London constituency of Brent East in 2005.^[3] She has worked as a human rights advisor to the former London mayor Ken Livingstone^[3] and previously headed the criminal legal section of the UN Mission in Kosovo.^[3] Qureshi previously chaired the Human Rights and Civil Liberties Working Group of the Association of Muslim Lawyers and was President of the Pakistan Club (UK).^[5]

She was elected at the 2010 general election in the safe Labour seat of Bolton South East, inheriting a majority of 11,000.^[7] Qureshi, Rushanara Ali and Shabana Mahmood, elected at the same time, are Britain's first female Muslim MPs. Qureshi is also the first woman to be elected as the member of parliament for Bolton South East.^[3]

Qureshi is a supporter of "all-black shortlists" as a method of getting more ethnic minorities into Parliament.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Yasmin Qureshi MP Official constituency website'
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Official Flickr presence

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For the British writer/director see Babar Ahmed.

Babar Ahmad (born in London, England, May 1974) has been held in custody in the UK since August 2004. He has never been convicted of any criminal offence, but is held fighting extradition to the United States on allegations of involvement in websites supporting Chechen and Afghan insurgents.^[1][2]

In March 2009, he was awarded £60,000 compensation at the High Court in London after an admission by UK anti-terrorist police that they subjected him to "grave abuse, tantamount to torture" during his first arrest in December 2003.^[3][4]

He also appeared in the media in February 2008, when it was discovered that his conversations with Sadiq Khan MP had been monitored by the police during prison visits. An investigation of the monitoring found no impropriety.^[5]

He remains in prison awaiting the outcome of his appeal against extradition at the European Court of Human Rights.^[6] On 10 April 2012, the Court ruled that he can be extradited to the United States. ^[7]

Early life[link]

Babar Ahmad grew up in Tooting, South West London,^{[citation needed]} to parents who had migrated to England from Pakistan in the early 1960s.^{[citation needed]} His father is a retired civil servant and his mother a retired science teacher.^{[citation needed]}

Ahmad was educated at a public school, where he won academic prizes and obtained GCSEs and A-Levels. He then went to university and obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of London. Before his imprisonment in August 2004, he was working in the IT department at Imperial College London.^[8]

US prosecution of Ahmad and others[link]

Babar Ahmad was arrested in London on 5 August 2004 on charges of providing material support to terrorism, providing illegal support to the Taliban, money-laundering and conspiring to kill people. An affidavit filed with the US court details that Ahmad used aliases to operate Azzam.com, a website supporting Chechen and Taliban fighters. It further describes that items recovered from a house used by Ahmad included a British Airways Executive Club card in his name and next to it a floppy disk with a password-protected document containing a detailed description of the US Fifth Fleet, its ships, the date and time of its expected passage through the Straits of Hormuz, and that it was vulnerable to attack by "RPG" (rocket-propelled grenade).^[9] Ahmad was later indicted by a grand jury of US citizens in October 2004.^[10] Another man, Syed Talah Ahsan, was indicted in 2006 of involvement with Ahmad and with the battlegroup information in the document,^[11] and thereafter a US former navy seaman, Abu Jihad, was indicted and convicted of passing this information to them.^[12]

Under the Extradition Act 2003, the US does not have to provide any evidence before seeking the extradition of a British citizen.^[13]

US extradition documents state that "at all times material to the indictment" Babar Ahmad was resident in London, UK. However, the UK Crown Prosecution Service declared in July 2004 and December 2006, as did the UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith in September 2006, that there was "insufficient evidence" to charge Ahmad with any criminal offence under UK law.^[14]

Having been refused bail, Ahmad was detained in prison, where he remains. On 17 May 2005, Senior District Judge Timothy Workman approved his extradition at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, stating: "This is a troubling and difficult case. The defendant is a British citizen who is alleged to have committed offences which, if the evidence were available, could have been prosecuted in this country...." ^[15]

In September 2005, Sadiq Khan, Member of Parliament for Tooting, presented a petition of 18,000 signatures of then Home Secretary Charles Clarke asking for Babar Ahmad to be tried in the UK, instead of being extradited.^[16] On 16 November 2005, Clarke approved his extradition to the US.^[17]

On 28 November 2005, the UK Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee raised serious concerns about the one-sided UK-US extradition arrangements and, in particular, the case of Babar Ahmad. In a House of Commons emergency debate on 12 July 2006 about UK-US extradition, several MPs from all parties raised concerns at the case of Babar Ahmad. His name has also been mentioned repeatedly in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in relation to UK-US extradition.^[18] Thousands have attended demonstrations in support of him.^[19]

On 30 November 2006, he lost his appeal at the High Court.^[20] On 4 June 2007, the House of Lords refused to grant him leave to appeal to them.^[21]

On 10 June 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (France) ordered the UK Government to freeze Babar Ahmad’s extradition until they had fully determined his final appeal.

On 24 April 2012, the BBC reported the testimony of a British man convicted of plotting to blow up an aircraft, from the trial of Adis Medunjanin in New York. Saajid Badat was radicalised by Babar Ahmad, who arranged for Badat to receive "training in taking up arms", and that "when we talk about jihad it meant armed jihad, taking up arms". The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Babar Ahmad can be extradited to the US to stand trial on terrorism charges.^[22]

Police abuse case[link]

Babar Ahmad was first arrested at his Tooting home on 2 December 2003 by UK anti-terrorist police of 1 Unit 1 Area Territorial Support Group based at the high security Paddington Green Police Station. By the time he arrived in the custody suite of the police station, he had sustained at least 73 injuries, all later documented by both police and independent doctors, as well as in photographic and video evidence.^[6]

He filed a formal complaint that was supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). He complained that officers had beaten him with fists and knees, stamped on his bare feet with boots, rubbed metal handcuffs on his forearm bones, sexually abused him, mocked the Islamic faith by placing him into the Muslim prayer position and taunting, "Where is your God now?", and applied life-threatening neck holds to him until he felt he was about to die. Officers denied the claims, saying Ahmad had battled like a "caged tiger" during his arrest, adding his injuries were either self-inflicted or caused by a legal tackle that took him to the ground when he was first detained.^[23]

On 10 September 2004, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute any of the police officers involved in the attack. However, on 17 January 2005 the IPCC declared that PC Roderick James-Bowen (born 1971) would face internal police disciplinary procedures over the alleged assault.

On 13 April 2005 PC James-Bowen was cleared at a Police Misconduct Tribunal held at Woolwich Crown Court. Metropolitan Police Commander Andre Baker, the President of the Tribunal, stated that PC James-Bowen should be "commended, not castigated... for his great bravery" in arresting Ahmad.^[24]

On 18 March 2009, Babar Ahmad was awarded £60,000 compensation at the High Court in London after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson admitted that he had been the victim of a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged attack".^[25]

On 26 March 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced an inquiry into the Babar Ahmad case with external judicial oversight by retired judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson, to report back to the Metropolitan Police Authority.^[26][27]-

On 3 November 2009, following his acquittal in a separate racial abuse trial, 42-year-old PC Mark Jones of 1 Area TSG was named as being involved with the attack on Babar Ahmad.^[28][29] The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, announced that he was taking the case "very seriously" while considering whether to prosecute PC Jones and the other officers involved in the alleged assault on Babar Ahmad.^[30]

In August 2010 it was announced that Police Constables Nigel Cowley, John Donohue, Roderick James-Bowen and Mark Jones would be prosecuted for their part in the alleged assault on Babar Ahmad.^[31] The trial began on Tuesday, 3 May 2011, at Southwark Crown Court, London.^[32] On 3 June 2011 they were found not guilty.^[33] A recording from an MI5 bug in Ahmad's home did not include any screams of agony and no officers could be heard mocking Ahmad's faith.^[34]

Monitoring of MP visit to Ahmad[link]

On 3 February 2008, The Sunday Times newspaper reported in 2008 that UK anti-terrorist police had covertly bugged prison visits between Babar Ahmad and his local MP, Sadiq Khan, Member of Parliament for Tooting. The bugged conversations took place at HM Prison Woodhill in May 2005 and June 2006.^[5]

This information was reportedly leaked to the press by Detective Constable Mark Kearney, the police intelligence officer who conducted the covert surveillance of the visits, in alleged contravention of the Wilson Doctrine that banned Government surveillance of politicians in 1966.^[35]

Following widespread international media coverage of the revelation, the previous Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw MP, announced in Parliament the day after the article was published that he had asked a retired High Court judge, Sir Christopher Rose, to conduct an official inquiry into the affair.^[36]

The Rose Inquiry reported back to the House of Commons later in February 2008, stating that the police had done nothing wrong, causing some commentators to dismiss the report as a whitewash.^[37][38]

In June 2011, the Houses of Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the UK government to change the law so that Babar Ahmad’s perpetual threat of extradition is ended without further delay. Since all the allegations against Babar Ahmad are said to have taken place in the UK, an e-poll was set up (needing 100,000 signatures) to call upon the British Government to put him on trial in the UK and support British Justice for British Citizens; the e-petition reached its 100,000 signature goal as of November 2, 2011. The e-petition closed on 10 November 2011 with 140,359 signatures.^[39]

Notes and references[link]

• "Isolating terrorists; preserving justice" - BBC News, last updated 21 May 2007.
• "Former U.S. Navy sailor arrested on terror charges" - CNN, 8 March 2007
• "UK pair lose US extradition fight" - BBC News, 30 November 2006
• "Islamic group holds protest march" - BBC News, 10 December 2005
• "UK orders terror suspect extradition to U.S." - CNN, 16 November 2005
• "Briton charged in terror conspiracy" - CNN, 7 October 2004
• "Terror suspect 'can be extradited'" - CNN, 17 May 2004
• "Terror suspect remains in custody" - CNN, 16 August 2004
• "Father defends terror suspect son" - BBC News, 8 August 2004
• "Terror suspect 'had Navy plans'" - CNN, 6 August 2004

External links[link]

• Official Support website
• Three Years In Captivity by Babar Ahmad
• Caged Prisoners entry for Babar Ahmad - Ahmad's poems, letters, articles, etc.
• http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/4737002._Cops_should_face_criminal_charges_following_Tooting_man_s_assault_/
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6901957.ece
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5934380.ece
• http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

Yvonne Ridley
Born	(1958-04-23) 23 April 1958 (age 54) Stanley, County Durham, England
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	English
Occupation	Journalist and activist
Religion	Islam
Website
http://www.yvonneridley.org

Yvonne Ridley (born 23 April 1958, Stanley, County Durham, England) is a British journalist, war correspondent^[1] and Respect Party activist best known for her capture by the Taliban and subsequent conversion to Islam after release, her outspoken opposition to Zionism, and her criticism of Western media portrayals of the War on Terror. Ridley currently works for Press TV, the Iranian-funded English language news channel.

Biography[link]

As a young girl, she already had an ambition for professional reporting. Stimulated at 14 by the publication of a letter she sent to the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle, she was determined to become a journalist. At 16, she wrote to every newspaper group in the UK and subsequently she attended a journalism course at the London College of Printing. Since then she has written for The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer, The Mirror and the News Of The World and she was deputy editor of Wales on Sunday. She was chief reporter when the Sunday Express, sent her to Afghanistan after 9/11.^[2]

She has also worked as a broadcaster, producer and presenter on programmes for BBC TV and radio, CNN, ITN and Carlton TV travelling to Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and the West Bank. A founder member of Women in Journalism, she was also a promoter of women’s rights, although after she converted to Islam, she publicly criticised some aspects of the 'sisterhood' promoted by Western feminism.^[3] She is also a founder member of the Stop The War Coalition and the RESPECT political party.

In her spare time Ridley travels throughout the UK and across the globe promoting peace and the anti-war message.^{[citation needed]} She has also delivered lectures on issues relating to Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir and Uzbekistan, Women in Islam, the War on Terror and journalism at universities across the US, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. Ridley is a founder member of the Friends of Islam, an All Party Parliamentary Group and Women in Journalism. In addition she is a member of the National Union of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, a founder of Women in Journalism, and is also a member of the Society of Authors. She has written two books called "In The Hands of the Taliban"^[4] and "Ticket to Paradise" and is currently writing and researching for two other titles including a biography of Osama bin Laden. Ridley is a patron of the UK-based pressure groups Cageprisoners and Hhugs. She also devotes much of her time to humanitarian work and charities.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Ridley has married twice.^[5] Her first husband was Daoud Zaaroura, a former Palestine Liberation Organization officer. Zaaroura was a PLO colonel when Ridley met him in Cyprus, where she was working on an assignment for the Newcastle-based Sunday Sun. They had one daughter called Daisy who was born in 1992.^[6]

Capture by the Taliban[link]

Yvonne Ridley came to prominence on 28 September 2001, when she was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan whilst working for the Sunday Express. Repeatedly refused an entrance visa, she decided to follow the example of BBC reporter John Simpson, who had crossed the border anonymously in a burqa.

Colleagues said Ridley responded to text messages from friends until 26 September 2001, after having told them she would attempt to cross the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan. It became clear that she had been discovered without passport or visa, and was held by the authorities after being arrested with her guides, the Afghan refugee Nagibullah Muhmand and Pakistani Jan Ali, in a village in the Dour Daba district near the eastern city of Jalalabad in Nangahar, close to the border with Pakistan. She was dressed like an Afghan, but it is believed she was caught after attempting to take photographs, an illegal activity under the Taliban. She was spotted two days later, on 28 September, after slipping across the border by local people who pointed her out to security forces, who took her to Jalalabad for further investigation on possible espionage charges, that carried the death penalty. Shortly before, the Taliban had asked all foreigners to leave the country and had said they would not issue visas to journalists. They threatened that anyone found using a satellite phone would be executed.^[7][8]

She would at least be prosecuted for entering the country illegally, reported the Afghan Islamic Press agency, quoting the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, Mullah Abdur Rahman Zahid.^[9]

Qudratullah Jamal, the Taliban's information minister, expressed the suspicion that Ridley was possibly a member of a military "special forces" unit like the British SAS.^{[9][10][11][12]} It was also suggested that she and other westerners could be kept by the Taliban as hostages.^[13]

The British high commissioner to Pakistan, Hilary Synnott, met the Taliban-ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef and opened negotiations intended at a quick release of Ridley.^[14][15][16] While the press in Britain speculated about the reason of her arrest and the seriousness of the suspicion,^[17][18][19] she was kept in solitary confinement for seven days and then moved to a prison in Kabul.^[20] In the prison in Kabul she met the Christian missionary Heather Mercer, who was also kept by the Taliban and was unaware of the latest developments^[21]

The same week British bombings on Afghan targets as part of the Operation Enduring Freedom began, while the whereabouts of Ridley were unknown to the British authorities and it was feared that these bombings would jeopardise her release.^[22][23][24] Then her release, ordered on 'humanitarian grounds' by Taliban-leader Mullah Mohamed Omar, was reported by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef.^{[25][26][27][28]} After her release on 9 October 2001, when her Taliban captors escorted her from the Kabul prison to a Pakistan border post at the foot of the Khyber Pass, near Peshawar, she revealed that she had kept a concealed diary inside a box for a toothpaste tube and in the inside of a soap wrapper, and had been on hunger strike throughout her captivity, but denied to have been physically hurt in any way.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]}

After the release of Ridley, her guides Jan Ali and Nagibullah Muhmand, as well as Basmena, the five-year-old daughter of the latter, were kept by the Taliban in a prison in Kabul, according to Reporters sans Frontières.^[35][36]

Conversion to Islam[link]

According her own account after her release, during her captivity she was asked by one of her captors to convert to Islam; she refused, but gave her word she would read the Qur'an after her release.

In freedom, she kept this promise, as she said partly to find out why the Taliban treated women as they do.^[37] She said it changed her life.^[38]

The Qur'an, she says describing the holy book of Islam, is a "magna carta for women".^[39] She converted to Islam in the summer of 2003, stating that her new faith has helped put behind her broken marriages and a reputation as the "Patsy Stone of Fleet Street." When comparing her treatment to female prisoners' held in American custody, such as Aafia Siddiqui, she said that in Taliban's custody she was given her full privacy as a woman, and was handed the key to the door of her cell to lock from the inside.^[40] In 2004, she described her journey of faith for the BBC's religion site (see A Muslim in the Family), as well as in other publications and on other occasions in which she emerged as a "fierce critic of the West".^[41]

Subsequent career[link]

Ridley's memoir detailing the 11 days she was held captive, In the Hands of the Taliban: Her Extraordinary Story. Ticket to Paradise (Dandelion Books, LLC 2003), a novel based on the backdrop of 9/11,^[42] was written before she converted to Islam; friends say it was never published in the UK because she was too embarrassed by its risque content.

In December 2001 she expressed worries that officers from Mossad, the Israeli secret service, or from other intelligence agencies were plotting to have her killed, in an effort to boost public support for the war in Afghanistan.^[43][44]

She announced a return to Afghanistan,^[45] which she did with her daughter Daisy, who also had a great deal of media attention during the captivity of her mother.^[46]

2003 saw Yvonne Ridley employed by the Qatar-based media organisation Al Jazeera, where, as a senior editor, she helped launch the English language version of their website. On 12 November of that year she was fired because Al Jazeera found her "overly-vocal and argumentative style" was incompatible with the station’s programme.^[47] After her departure from Qatar, she published an article about her experiences there. Her dismissal was also attributed to her campaigning for journalists' rights on the al-Jazeera English channel and website.^[48][49][50]

She won her case for unfair dismissal against the organisation,^[51] but was asked to return in May 2006 when it lodged an appeal against the Qatari court decision. Ridley won the appeal and the judge ordered her original award be doubled. However Al Jazeera once again lodged an appeal with the case going to the Supreme Court for a final hearing. She won that case through lawyers Gebran Majdalany in December 2007 and was awarded 100,000 Qatari riyals, which equates to around £13,885, damages.^[52][53]

Ridley was placed at the top of the Respect coalition's party list at the 2004 European Elections for the North East England region but was not elected.^[54] She stood as the Respect candidate at the Leicester South by-election in 2004.^[55][56] She came in fourth, with 12.7% of the vote. However, when she stood again in the May 2005 general election, her share of the vote dropped to 6.4%. In the local government elections in 2006 she stood unsuccessfully for a seat on Westminster Council.

She began presenting The Agenda With Yvonne Ridley, the Islam Channel's politics and current affairs show, in October 2005.^[57] However, the show and Ridley were axed from the channel after she refused to shake the hand of a Saudi prince at a post-Hajj feast.^{[citation needed]} The channel blamed Ofcom for exerting pressure, which that organisation denies. According to several published reports, Saudi pressure was brought to bear upon the channel head over the hand-shaking incident. The Islam Channel maintains that Ridley "has not been sacked and is still working for us."^[58] However in April 2008 Ridley won her case for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination against Mohamed Ali Harrath, the CEO of the Islam Channel as well as the channel. The full 30-page report was published on the website Harrys Place.^{[59][60][61][62]}

Ridley now works as a freelance journalist/presenter for Press TV, the Iranian English language 24-hour news channel,^[63] hosting many talk shows among them The Agenda^[64] being the major one. She also writes a column for the New York-based Daily Muslims^[65] and other publications. In May 2008, in an assignment by Press TV, she and the film-maker David Miller shot a documentary based on Guantanamo Bay after being given unprecedented access to the now defunct Camp X-Ray and the operational Camp Delta, by the US military which operates the naval base in Cuba where hundreds of men, defined as enemy combatants, have been detained since January 2002. Their film Guantanamo: Inside the Wire was nominated in the 2009 Roma TV Film Festival in Italy.

Since first August 2008, Yvonne Ridley has joined the Free Gaza Movement^[66] in Cyprus as it heads for Gaza to challenge the Israeli siege. Press TV is following the progress of the movement and Yvonne Ridley, who will be on board with Indy film-maker Haq Nawaz, and is publishing her blogs to Press TV's website.^[67] The SS Free Gaza and the SS Free Liberty both arrived without incident in Gaza on 23 August. During their brief stay Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh gave a rare interview to Yvonne Ridley which was later broadcast on Press TV. As the free Gaza Movement activists departed four days later Gaza PM Haniyeh issued genuine Palestinian passports with diplomatic status to the majority describing them as Ambassadors for Palestine. The film To Gaza with Love by Nawaz and Ridley has been shown in several film festivals and was nominated for an award at a London film festival in 2009.

In November 2008 she and the young award-winning film maker and journalist Hassan al Banna Ghani headed for Afghanistan to produce a documentary about female prisoners being held by the US. In Search of Prisoner 650 is expected to be broadcast by Press TV in the spring of 2009. During the making of the film the two came under fire amid a clash between the Taliban and Afghan police on the road to Ghazni. The drama was filmed and is expected to be used in their film.

In March 2009 Ridley and George Galloway, then a RESPECT MP, founded the organisation Viva Palestina and took a convoy of more than 100 vehicles bearing aid across North Africa to Gaza via the Rafah border. Again collaborating with film-maker Ghani, Ridley made a documentary about the 25-day journey called Three Uncles go to Gaza. The film was highly acclaimed by critics at the Istanbul Human Rights film festival in December 2009.

In a column by Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times on 5 July 2009 Ridley along with other journalists was accused of being a stooge for the Iranian regime.^[68]

In January 2011 Ridley made a 40 minute exclusive interview with Mona Thwany, widow of the 2010 Stockholm suicide bomber. Swedish journalists were critical of the interview, saying she asked very few critical questions.^[69]

Her views[link]

Her vocal support for causes involving Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, Xinjiang and Uzbekistan have made her a popular speaker in anti-war circles.^[70] During a February 2006 meeting at Imperial College London^[71] Ridley described Israel as "that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East" and further that her party, the Respect Party, "is a Zionist-free party ... if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists,"^[72] while both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were "riddled with Zionists."^{[73][dead link]}

At the "Muslimer i Dialog" conference in Copenhagen in September 2005, Ridley was asked if she didn't see it as a problem that militant Islamists distribute recruiting videos of Iraqi insurgents killing hostages. She replied that it was necessary for Muslims to have these videos at home as an alternative form of news to what she perceived as the propaganda of Western media. At the same meeting she compared British Prime Minister Tony Blair with Pol Pot. Since then Ridley has said that the Danish record and translation of her speech was incorrect.^[74] She returned to Copenhagen in May 2006 to take part in a conference on Islamophobia and was given a standing ovation after urging Muslims not to "kneel before their enemies" or "kiss the hand that slaps them."^[75] Along with former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and several other speakers including scholars and politicians, the Copenhagen Declaration was formed and signed.

Critics have accused her of defending the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his campaign of violence in Iraq and Jordan, describing the victims of the 9 November 2005 Amman bombings in Jordan, which saw 60 persons killed and 115 injured, as Iraqi collaborators, Saudi, Indonesian and Chinese intelligence officers and the upper echelons of society. The outpouring of public outrage manifested in spontaneous demonstration she described as staged and the work of "Jordanian troops out of uniform" and "government lackeys" together with "Christian and Muslim Bedouins" who had all been commandeered or paid to demonstrate by the Jordanian government and the CIA. Al-Zarqawi was denounced by his family after the bombings, a move that Ridley thought "cowardly." She said of al-Zarqawi himself that she would "rather put up with a brother like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi any day than have a traitor or sell-out for a father, son or grandfather" – a reference to the Jordanian royal family.^[76]

At a meeting of the Respect party on 6 June 2006, following the Forest Gate raid, Ridley urged all Muslims in Britain to "boycott the police and refuse to co-operate with them in any way, shape or form until the boys are released," attacking Sami Yusuf including "asking the community copper for directions to passing the time of day with a beat officer." Her comments were labelled as "sheer, undiluted madness" by Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who added that "To not co-operate would be of no benefit to the Muslim community; no benefit to the police; and no benefit to the security of our country."^[77][78][79] But at the time George Galloway, leader of the RESPECT Coalition to which Ridley belongs also distanced himself from her comments, saying "Our policy is not that we should withdraw co-operation from the police."^[80] The two men were subsequently released without charge and an official apology was later issued to the family by the Metropolitan Police Force.

To start with, Ridley strongly opposed the Western intervention in the 2011 Libyan civil war, and spoke in a rally opposing it held in Central London. However, after talking with Libyan friends who asked her to "come and see for herself", she travelled to rebel-held Benghazi where she became a wholehearted supporter of the Libyan rebels' cause and accepted that they had no choice by to ask for the Western powers' help. This was expressed in an article entitled "I was wrong to oppose military intervention in Libya – wrong, wrong, wrong" ([3]) which she wrote in Benghazi on 30 April 2011. In February 2012 she expressed her strong support for the controversial Jordanian cleric, Abu Qatada, and her opposition to Theresa May's plans to deport him from the UK. http://themuslim.ca/2012/02/17/british-justice-in-dock-over-abu-qatada/

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Yvonne Ridley site
• Official Yvonne Ridley 2005 election site
• Yvonne Ridley audio and video lectures from Halal Tube
• " Video media of Yvonne Ridley Explaining Her kidnap Ordeal, Islam and Women Clears Misconceptions", www.TurnToIslam.com, 25 April 2006. – webpage with 1-hour long interview. Page contains streaming Flash video.
• "Yvonne Ridley", BBC Inside Out – North East & Cumbria, 6 October 2003.
• "Online Journalist Profile: Yvonne Ridley, Al-Jazeera.net", interview by Jemima Kiss, Journalism.co.uk, 10 January 2004.
• Yvonne Ridley's account of her experience with Afghanistan and Islam, MSA NY, 23 March 2006. MP3 audio.
• "Stop collaboration with police", Ezania.net. – Includes link to MP3 of 7 June 2006 BBC 4 interview with Yvonne Ridley after the 2 June 2006 London terror raid in which she urges Muslims to quit all collaboration with the Metropolitan police until they release the two arrested youths.
• How I Came To Love The Veil an article by Yvonne about women veiling themselves.
• Yvonne Ridley Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Cher Lloyd
Lloyd performing in April 2011
Background information
Birth name	Cher Lloyd
Born	(1993-07-28) 28 July 1993 (age 18) Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
Origin	Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
Genres	R&B,pop, dance-pop, hip hop, synthpop, rap, dubstep
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, model,
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Syco, Epic Records
Website	cherlloyd.com

Cher Lloyd (born 28 July 1993) is an English recording artist. Lloyd rose to fame when she finished fourth in the seventh series of The X Factor. Shortly afterwards, Lloyd was signed by Simon Cowell to Sony Music subsidiary Syco Music.

Cher Lloyd's debut single "Swagger Jagger" was released in June 2011. Despite receiving negative reviews, the single entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the Irish Singles Chart. Her second single "With Ur Love" was released on 31 October, featuring Mike Posner, and peaked at number four in the UK, and number five in Ireland, preceding her debut album Sticks + Stones, which peaked at number four in the UK Albums Chart and number seven on the Irish Albums Chart.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Cher Lloyd used to live in Malvern with her parents Darren and Dina, and three younger siblings brother Josh, and sisters Sophie and Rosie. Lloyd attended Dyson Perrins CE Sports College, where she studied performing arts.^[2] She also attended theatre arts school Stagecoach.

[edit] 2010: The X Factor

During her time on the show she was mentored by Cheryl Cole (pictured).

Lloyd had previously auditioned for The X Factor twice before (when the minimum age was lower) singing ballads, but did not make it through.^[3] Lloyd has previously performed at holiday camps and said she gets a mixed reaction to her music, but was a big hit with x-factor judge at the time Cheryl Cole. She remarked on their similarity and Cheryl went on to support her throughout the show.^[4] She auditioned singing the Keri Hilson version of "Turn My Swag On".^[4] At bootcamp she sang a rap version of "Viva La Vida"^[5] adding lyrics she claimed to have written herself, but this was disputed and reports claimed she took them from a song by rapper Swizz Beatz.^[6][7] At the judges' houses she performed "Cooler Than Me"^[8] but suffered from tonsillitis and was unable to complete her song.^[9] She was given a second chance, but broke down sobbing and could not complete the song. Despite this, she was still picked as one of the final three girls by mentor Cheryl Cole.

Lloyd sang a rendition of "Just Be Good to Me" in the first of the live shows. In the second live show she sang "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)". In the third live show, she sang a mashup of "No Diggity" and "Shout", and in the fourth live show she sang "Stay". This was the first time Lloyd did not rap in her performance, and Cowell even called it "the performance of the season". In week five, Lloyd sang "Empire State of Mind", but judges stated that after last week they were disappointed, and Cowell said it was copycat. However, the judges agreed that she redeemed herself with her rendition of "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" mixed with "Mockingbird", by Elton John and Eminem respectively, in week 6. In the seventh week, Lloyd was in the bottom two for the first time after her rendition of "Imagine", but Cowell, Cole and Walsh all saved her in the final showdown, resulting in Paije Richardson being eliminated. In the following week Lloyd performed "Girlfriend", followed by "Walk This Way". Both performances were credited by the judges and she was saved by the public vote the following night, securing her position in the semi final.^[10] In the semi-final, Lloyd performed "Nothin' on You" and "Love the Way You Lie" and was in the bottom two with Mary Byrne. She was saved by the judges again and put through to the final, even though voting statistics after the show revealed that Lloyd had the fewest votes.^[11] In the final she performed a mash-up of "The Clapping Song" and "Get Ur Freak On", followed by a duet with will.i.am, which was a mashup of "Where Is the Love?" and "I Gotta Feeling". Lloyd was then eliminated in fourth place, having received the fewest public votes.^[12]

[edit] 2011–12: Sticks + Stones, touring, and other ventures

Lloyd performing on the X Factor Live Tour, April 2011, the tour saw Lloyd performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.^[13]

After the final it was announced that Lloyd had been signed by Syco Music.^[14] Lloyd and nine other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour from February 2011 to April 2011. The tour saw Lloyd performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.^[15] Songwriter Autumn Rowe^[16] and producer RedOne^[17] worked on her debut album, scheduled for release in November 2011.^[18] Her debut single, "Swagger Jagger", received its first airplay on 20 June 2011 after it had been leaked onto the internet on 15 June 2011^[19] however, this version was later confirmed as only the demo of the track on Lloyd's Twitter account.^[20] The single was released on 31 July 2011^[21] and peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 7 August 2011.

On 28 July 2011, Lloyd previewed five tracks from her upcoming album during a Ustream session, including tracks featuring Busta Rhymes, Mike Posner, Ghetts, Mic Righteous and Dot Rotten.^[22] Lloyd confirmed on Twitter that "With Ur Love" featuring Mike Posner was to be released has her second single. The single was released on 30 October 2011. The single received its first radio airplay on 21 September 2011. The music video premiered on 1 October 2011, on morning show T4. The single sold 74,030 copies in its first week becoming the highest-selling number four single since Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)", which sold 74,248 copies in October 2010.^[23] Lloyd confirmed the album's title "Sticks + Stones" on her twitter. The album was released on 7 November 2011.^[24] The album peaked at number four and has sold 198,199 copies in the United Kingdom as of January 2012.^[25]

On 21 November 2011, Lloyd announced her debut headlining UK tour, the Sticks + Stones Tour, set for March and April 2012.^[26] In December 2011, two more dates were added due to popular demand for tickets.^[27] "Sticks + Stones" will be released in 2012 through Epic Records in the United States^[28] On 13 December, a music video for "Dub on the Track" featuring underground artists Mic Righteous, Dot Rotten and Ghetts, who also all appear in the accompanying video, premiered on SBTV.^[29][30] The song will not serve as the third single.^[31]

December 2011, Cher Lloyd signed a record deal with L.A. Reid to Epic Records in the United States. She is expected to release her debut album in the United States in late 2012.^[28]

"Want U Back" was confirmed^[32] as the third single from the album. The single version features vocals from American rapper Astro and was released 19 February 2012.^[33] Following the release of the music video on 6 January 2012, the single peaked at number twenty-six on the UK Singles Chart, due to digital downloads from the album.^[34] Cher confirmed via her official website that "Beautiful People" is the fourth single from the album, but there is no official release date.^[35]

In February 2012, Lloyd spoke out to BBC Radio on her consistent cyber-bullying and how she fears for her safety after becoming a victim of online bullying. "I'm public property and there's nothing I can do — I have got to deal with it." She continued: "The message that I have got for people is: I have always tried to act the hard person and that was just a front for me. It is about time now that I let people realise that I am a real person and if I can do it, with all these people that want a piece of me, then other victims can speak out as well. There have been many times when I have cried myself to sleep. I am very scared because I like to think people think I'm strong, because if they don't, then they might not think I can do it."^[36] Lloyd also spoke to Newsbeat on how she thinks the government should take more action in preventing cyber-bullying.^[37] On 24 February 2012, it was announced that Cher Lloyd has signed a modelling contract with Select. Select's special bookings revently stated:

Her strong individuality represents everything that we love about the youth today and their music. Like everyone, she is a melting pot of different emotions, from super confidence oozing fun to a vulnerability

Lloyd has previously appeared on the cover of RWD Magazine and modelled for fashion bible Wonderland.^[38]

2012–present: Marriage and second studio album[link]

On 10 April 2012, Cher Lloyd announced she has started work on her second album, and has done a few songs.^[39] Lloyd plans to re-release her single Want U Back in the US without Astro, but has recorded a remix with Snoop Dogg.^[40] L.A. Reid also plans to introduce Lloyd to American media in New York, hoping Lloyd will make a breakthrough in America.^[41] Cher Lloyd has recently confirmed her engagement to boyfriend Craig, and hopes to get married as soon as possible.^[42][43][44] However, Lloyd has received controversy due to marriage at a young age, but has argued her "Gypsy background means she should have already married by now". She hopes to get married sometime in the summer of 2012.^[45]

Discography[link]

• Sticks + Stones (2011)

Tours[link]

• 2011: The X Factor Live Tour 2011
• 2012: Sticks + Stones Tour

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Cher Lloyd discography at MusicBrainz