Body writes to the party after Conservative Party leader Lee Anderson claimed Sadiq Khan was controlled by “Islamists” and extremists.
LONDON: The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) wrote to the chairman of the ruling Conservative Party, Richard Holden, on Monday after a week of inflammatory statements and Islamophobia from senior figures in the party, inciting hatred of Islam and Muslims.
The MCB wrote to the government party after Conservative Party MP Lee Anderson claimed London Mayor Sadiq Khan was controlled by “Islamists” and extremists.
The Conservative Party has since withdrawn the Anderson whip, but the Muslim council insisted that the Conservative Party must investigate the structural Islamophobia that has persisted in the party for many years.
Of Anderson, the MCB wrote: “We note that he was only censured for refusing to apologize, not for making racist comments in the first place. We also note that the whip was withdrawn only after there was widespread condemnation across the board, while the Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet remained silent.”
The call for an investigation into structural Islamophobia in the Conservative Party follows a previous file of 300 cases of Islamophobia in the party brought forward by the MCB.
Despite a poorly structured inquiry to look at discrimination in 2022, this week of extremism in the Conservative Party shows that discrimination against Muslims remains strong.
In a letter to Holden, Zara Mohammed, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: “Our view is that Islamophobia in the Party is institutional, tolerated by the leadership and seen as acceptable by large sections of the party's membership.” .
She wrote: “Leaders – especially those in politics – have the ability to shape the agenda and a narrative, and play a role in Islamophobic hate crimes, which have recently tripled according to Tell Mama. These issues cannot – and should not – be ignored.”
The letter flagged a week of extremism that includes former Home Secretary Suella Braverman claiming in an article in The Daily Telegraph that “Islamists… are in charge” of Britain (a common conspiracy theory spread by the far right ), and also voiced by Robert Jendrick in the House of Commons; Former Vice President Anderson, who said of the Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan: “I don't actually believe that the Islamists are in control of our country, but what I do believe is that they are in control of Khan and they are in control of London; Conservative Party donor Sir Paul Marshall backs inflammatory tweets, including one that says: “Civil war is coming. There has never been a country that has remained at peace with a significant Islamic presence”; Former Prime Minister Liz Truss shared a platform with infamous far-right activist Steve Bannon and agreed with Bannon's claim that convicted far-right activist and Islamophobe Tommy Robinson was a “hero”.
Zara said: “These actions are not reserved just for this week. In recent months, we have had potential Conservative Party parliamentary candidate and newspaper columnist Nick Timothy openly defend discrimination against Muslims by calling for punitive measures that restrict religious rights and respond to far-right tropes about Muslims .
The MCB said that in the week it was reported there had been a staggering 335% rise in Islamophobic hate crimes, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman fueled the hate in her latest incendiary column in The Telegraph.
The MCB secretary general said: “On the front page of a national newspaper, a former Interior Minister has shamelessly spread extremist tropes about so-called 'Islamist' acquisitions. That this occurs on the day we learned of a sharp increase in Islamophobic hate crimes with more than 2,000 cases in the last four months is no less shameful.
Braverman's disgraceful article is Exhibit A for those investigating why there is a rise in Islamophobia in the UK. His incendiary messages were also articulated on the floor of the House of Commons.
“With a history of demonizing Muslim communities and peaceful Palestinian protesters, this is more dogwhistle politics to distract from the real issues of the day. This is a time when communities need to come together; Their sinister attempts to divide us will not succeed.”
She said: “Influential MPs and a Conservative Party donor are endorsing common talking points peddling conspiracy theories and Islamophobic tropes of alleged Muslim takeovers in our country.
“The Party’s silence in the face of such extremism as we approach the mayoral election echoes Zac Goldsmith’s racist campaign and shows that institutional Islamophobia in the Conservative Party continues unabated. Goldsmith's campaign failed then and we are sure this approach will fail again. “We urge the Party to act immediately and remove the whip from Mr. Anderson.”
Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative peer who was a cabinet minister in David Cameron's government, told The Guardian on Sunday that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak needed to “find the language” to “call Islamophobia Islamophobia”.
“What is it about the Prime Minister that he can't even denounce anti-Muslim racism and bigotry? Why can't he just use those words? she said.
Warsi said: “There will always be people who hide behind the word Zionist, people with a long history of anti-Semitism who use the term Zionist when they are actually referring to Jews. It is a very false form of anti-Semitism. And there are always people with a long history of anti-Muslim racism who hide behind the word Islamist when they really mean Muslims.”
