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Labour lets down loyal Muslim voters
• As a Muslim hoping to stand for election as a Liberal
Democrat in the Camden Borough council elections on May 4,
may I set out why I believe my Muslim brethren should never
vote Labour again?
It is not because of the illegal and
disastrously damaging war in Iraq, nor only because Britain’s
Labour government has participated in the dreadful murder
of tens of thousands of innocent Muslim Iraqi civilians during
the invasion and occupation of that country. The truth is
Labour’s anti-Muslim bias affects Muslims adversely in
Britain too.
Labour’s trampling on Britons’ traditional rights
of free speech and civil liberties, opposed by the Liberal
Democrats, is already being used disproportionately against
the Muslim community. This is how Muslims are being betrayed
and mislead by Labour politicians.
Police powers of stop and search, for instance, are used much
more against Muslims, especially young Muslims, than against
other groups. If compulsory ID cards are ever introduced,
as Labour wants, the state’s power to oppress Muslims
and other minorities will be vastly increased.
Labour’s intended legislation against “glorification”
of terrorism is specifically directed against Muslims. While
IRA (Christian) terrorists are fêted, it is now Muslim
suspects who are imprisoned without trial.
Expressions of sympathy for the Palestinian people, or uprisings
ag-ainst the tyrannical regimes which happen to be allied
to the USA and Britain, will be counted as “glorification”.
Labour want to make that punishable by imprisonment and deportation.
Meanwhile, as evidenced by the recent trial of Nick Griffin,
leader of the British National Party, those who preach hatred
against Muslims and Islam will too often escape conviction.
Already Muslim mos-ques, faith schools and clergy are being
put under special watch in Britain as part of the so-called
“war on terrorism,” while in the burgeoning fundamentalist
Christian churches religious bigotry goes wholly unchecked.
The “war on terrorism” all too easily becomes a
crusade against in Islam. Labour’s new immigration points
system also disadvantages Muslims, especially “low-skilled”
Bangladeshi workers such as cooks and waiters, despite the
fact that their services are vital to the Indian restaurants,
curry houses and balti establishments which serve London well
and contribute so much (£3.2 billion) to Treasury revenues
through the taxes they pay.
Immigrant workers are vital to London and Britain’s economy
with an otherwise aging population, but Labour gives preference
to East Europeans from EU communities rather than honouring
debts to Muslims from the Commonwealth countries which have
so much enriched Britain in the past.
In policy after policy Labour lets Muslims down. To take just
one more local example: where is any provision for the Bangladeshi
community in the planning proposals for the King’s Cross
Railway lands? Simple: there is none.
Labour has thrived on taking cynical advantage of the fact
that many Muslims coming to this country felt naturally attracted
to Labour by its supposed values and its professional beliefs.
The relationship has certainly served Labour well, but the
Muslims have been cheated. Labour has had the Muslim votes,
but the only Muslims to have been advantaged by Labour are
the few Labour Party supporting stooges encouraged to pose
as community leaders in return for council grants.
It is time for British Muslims in Camden to finish with Labour
and to vote Liberal Democrat for the party which opposed the
Iraq war, which would withdraw our troops and would give the
Muslim communities due respect.
O Faruque Ansari
Athlone Street, NW5
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