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A controversial meeting has been hastily rescheduled after the original venue pulled out at the last minute.

At the meeting entitled ‘Not a terrorist - until proven... Muslim’ Elswick councillor Dipu Ahad was booked to speak about “the rise of Islamophobia”, alongside former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg.

The combination of speakers sparked a backlash from the community, and Coun Ahad believes the hotel cancelled based on pressure from members of far right political groups.

The meeting will now be held at Latif Restaurant, on Clayton Street, which is only a stones’ throw away from the Royal Station Hotel and Coun Ahad is expecting around 200 people to attend.

The Royal Station Hotel refused to comment to the Chronicle on the reasons behind their move to cancel the event, and told locals by tweeting “Tonight’s meeting @RoyalStation has been cancelled. Please do not attend.”

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Coun Ahad was not officially informed of the cancellation until after 1pm on Wednesday. He attributes the sudden change in plans to angry messages sent to the hotel over social media by members of far-right political groups.

“The Royal Station Hotel have bowed to pressure from the far right, from the Lib Dems” he said.

“Police have not had an issue with this. They have had no threats, and so cancelling it without justification, especially last minute, is absolutely disgraceful.

“This is exactly what the title of the meeting says. Cancelling just proves our point. Every muslim is treated as suspicious. If anyone wants to talk about Islamophobia, they’re under suspicion.”

The controversy centred mostly around the appearance at the gathering of former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg.

Mr Begg was cleared in 2014 of a string of terrorism charges, but has been criticised in the past as someone with “more than 20 years” of history with Islamic extremists.

Councillor Ahad came under fire from the leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrat group for sharing a platform with Mr Begg, a director of group Cage - a group which states it ‘highlights and campaigns against state policies, striving for a world free from oppression and injustice’.

Liberal Democrat leader Anita Lower expressed concerns about Coun Ahad’s appearance and said even though he is not appearing in his official capacity he should think carefully about any involvement.

The event has been criticised by a number of groups - including former EDL member Tommy Robinson, who accused Coun Ahad of ‘showing his true colours’ for taking part in the talks.