What Muslims want :: UK Elections

Typical arrogant, bite the hand that feeds you, pronouncement. Leave us alone to do what we want, but at the same time allow us to to inexorable alter the society to suit our religious needs. The writer, for the Times, a Mr. Saleem Chagtai feels that UK Muslims should be treated like the Orthodox Jews. But there is a big difference, the Orthodox Jews, have made no overtures to bring Britain under Judaic law. No demands that schools and restaurants serve only Kosher. In addition, unlike the Muslims, who are constantly in need of government assistance, the Orthodox Jews are for the most part relatively self-sufficient. If Muslims lived in closed communities, and the women wore the burqa, what could people say. But when you want to work is a state school in a burqa, and demand that there be no male presence, or if you want to wear the burqa into a school, where small children are for example, then things like this cause friction.

To criticism the UK Labour's efforts with the Muslim community, would strike most as amazing. Probably hundreds of millions have been devoted to their communities. Money taken from all other community projects, from Sikh to Christian, if you were not Muslims forget it. His complaint though, is that much of the funding was spent on trying to moderate Muslim opinion, in the effort to ward off terrorism. And he further states that if Muslim leaders were left alone terrorist incidents such as the London bombings would not have occurred. But it was only after the terrorist bombings, the failed bombings and plots to bomb, that the money started to pour into the Muslim community.

It would appear they are not happy with the Tories. Who would be less willing to play their silly games. In some ways Labour got too close to the Muslim community, and in some ways this relationship needed to be questioned. For example when the London mayor was attempting to get re-elected for the third time, a part of the deal was to back a group of radical Muslims, [outwardly these Muslims said that they were for an open society, but secretly they were working within the democratic system for Sharia _ they were filmed]. The deal was they would throw their weight behind Ken's re-election, where he promised to get state funds for a £500,000 East London mosque extension. And of course anyone who criticized anything at all to do with the Muslim community was called a racist and likely 'bigoted', so that all these types of behavior could go unscrutinized.

The writer is the director of a Muslim group called the Clarity Institute, on a look at their courses, it appears that their aim is to bring society around to Islam through education, rather than Islam/Muslims conforming to society. It seems exactly what caused a stir in Holland with Tariq Ramadan's proposals, which were directed at teaching politicians, journalists, teachers, etc. how to deal with Muslims. When his job with the Dutch state was how best to get Muslims to integrate, not to Islamize the whole society. They were rejected, for the most part. Nothing new here.

Though a part of the reason many in the UK voted to oust Labour was because of its crushing-repressive support for Islam. While at the same time the shelving of all things Christian. Labour miscalculated 2.7% can't re-elect you.

UK election results:

Party	Seats	Gain	Loss	Net	Votes	%	+/-%
Conservative	306	100	3	+97	10,706,647	36.1	+3.8
Labour	258	3	94	-91	8,604,358	29.0	-6.2
Liberal Democrat	57	8	13	-5	6,827,938	23.0	+1.0
Democratic Unionist Party [NI]	8	0	1	-1	168,216	0.6	-0.3

Turnout					29,653,638	65.1	4.0

After 649 of 650 seats declared [Due to death final results 27 May]

My earliest memories of politics are of my father talking about the Labour Party. He came here from India in the 60s as an educated and qualified engineer. Labour was seen as the party of the unprivileged and the party of equality. The left were seen as champions of ethnic minorities both economically as well socially. They seemed to be the only party that actively welcomed non-whites back in the 70s and even the 80s.

The New Labour project has been a different proposition both in the 90s and the “Noughties”. The Party appears to have acted an agent of the American neo-conservatism project with Blair following George W. Bush’s lead on the War on Terror. Two long wars with limited success in Afghanistan and Iraq would have damaged Labour’s standing with the British Muslim electorate. Or so you would think."

Muslims vote Labour because they still appear to be the party most engaged with them, whether on a local or national governmental level. They have tried hardest to court the Muslim vote when it comes to matters such as Muslim faith schools and also help set up the Muslim Council of Britain. A Tory policy group document advising on strategy for working with the Muslim community makes for frustrating reading. The tone is patronising and almost colonialist in its analysis. An example of this is referring to the “inferior status of women” which shows a complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of Muslim society where the differing roles of men and women, as well as young and old, are interwoven into a sophisticated fabric of social order which the Divine ordained for the believers.

British identity is to be “explicitly extended to include people of diverse ethnic origin and religious affiliation and all individuals uphold the liberal democratic values of this country”. I wonder if such comments would be made about the Orthodox Jewish or other religious communities that exist in Britain today. The corollary of this is the proposal that people will need to trade their religious views for citizenship.

I was profoundly disappointed with Tony Blair and really wanted to use my vote to drive him out of office in 2005. But due to the flawed electoral process in this country where one votes for their local MP and not necessarily for the Prime Minister; I had to vote Labour because I felt that the local candidate was going to represent the local Muslim community interests more than the other candidates. This is in spite of the fact that I was, and still am, impressed with the work of the current Liberal Democrat MP, Sarah Teather, in the Brent East [London] constituency.

The Muslim community, by and large, hold many conservative (note the small “c”) values. They believe strongly in the family unit, a tough attitude against crime and many of them carry an entrepreneurial spirit. These are some of the things which the Conservative Party could have used to appeal to the Muslim voter.

The mainstream Orthodox Muslim community is fed up with the present government ignoring them and their concerns by supporting organisations that don’t represent them. Hundreds and thousands of pounds of public money, via direct Government funding, are going into self-styled anti-terror think-tanks lining the pockets of ignorant and insincere self-appointed spokesmen for Islam and Muslims who mistake notoriety for fame.

This is part and parcel of an agenda to try and distort Islam to try and force a Reformation within it. We are not going to sit back and let this happen. It is better to deal with Muslims and their concerns as they are without trying to confuse the picture and create a false paradigm with which to engage. Muslims do not want their values to be misunderstood and considered to be inferior as is inevitable through the lenses of liberality.

Orthodox Muslim scholars in Britain are the unsung heroes of this country who are leading the way in demonstrating how to lead a pious and enlightened life. It is their work that is giving our youth hope and a positive vision and if they are left to get on with their endeavours it is this that will really prevent the pointless and tragic events on 7/7 [London bombings]. Demonising the Muslim community and their true leaders will have to stop.

Muslims worldwide are a brotherhood united by common creed and values. Muslims in the UK are extremely upset by the War on Terror and its various subprojects. They want a government that doesn’t act in the interests of global capitalism waging wars and invading countries on the basis of spin and vacuous calls for “democracy” and “freedom”. Closer to home they want faith schools in order to develop intelligent and confident British citizens who can enrich this country with the beautiful morality of Islam whilst participating and engaging in society.

So what choice does the Muslim community have when it comes to the election? Most probably, they will do what I did in 2005 by voting for an MP that will offer most to their community. This means that the political party they come from will ultimately not matter.

Saleem Chagtai is director of the Clarity Institute

What Muslims want -Times Online