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Muslims are able to think for themselves
• I WAS outraged but not surprised by the letter from
hopeful Lib Dem Omar Farooque Ansari (Labour lets down loyal
Muslim voters, Letters March 23) suggesting that Muslim people
are dumb and calling our community leaders stooges.
It was the Lib Dems who voted against the Racial and Religious
Hatred Bill, which was supported by the Muslim Council of Britain.
This would have helped to convict racist biggots such as Nick
Griffin, leader of the British National Party. It was also the
Lib Dems in Islington who cut funding to the Islington Bangladeshi
Association and various other Bangladeshi and Somali voluntary
sector organisations when they took control of Islington council
As someone who works with the voluntary sector in King’s
Cross, I have involved the Bangladeshi, Somali and other Muslim
communities in the consultation process with the King’s
Cross Railway Lands Development. The Muslim community will benefit
from more houses, jobs, sports centre, health centre, swimming
pool, primary school and community centre that will be built.
It was the hardworking stooges, as Farooque Ansari calls them,
who worked very hard to ensure that their communities get the
full benefits.
I have lived in this country for 30 years and have faced various
forms of discrimination and racism and it has been Labour Party
policies and actions that have supported my family and me throughout.
We were running scared from skinheads and racists. It was Camden
Labour Council that helped us as a Bangladeshi Muslim community
in the 1970s to develop our infrastructure and support our community
and also promote better community relations between groups.
We now have a very large Bangladeshi and Somali community in
Camden and the Labour Party continues to support those communities.
It is also the Labour Party that has most Muslim prospective
councillors from the Somali and Bangladeshi community for the
council elections on May 4.
Muslim voters choose to vote the way they do because of policies
and values.
Nasim Ali
First Muslim Mayor of Camden
• WHAT a cheek for a Liberal Democrat Council candidate
to claim that Camden’s Labour council hasn’t helped
the Bangladeshi community.
Labour has helped to make sure our children get a decent start
in life. The new Sure Start programme is helping every family
who needs help.
Camden’s primary and secondary schools have made a special
effort to make sure Bangladeshi children do well. And they are
so successful that parents from Lib Dem run Islington, desperate
to get their children into Camden schools, threatened our council
with legal action.
So, while Labour may not be perfect, their track record is far
better than where the Lib Dems are in power.
Mohammed Joynal Uddin
Stanhope Street, NW1
• AS a British Muslim I shall be voting in the borough
elections in Camden on May 4. I do not propose to tell anyone
how I intend to vote.
Like all British voters I have the right to a secret ballot,
and I shall cast my three votes for ward councillors on May
4 according to who I think will best represent my interests
and those of my co-religionists.
I will, though, agree with your correspondent, O Faruque Ansari
to this extent: he is quite right to say that no political party
should take ethnic or religious minorities for granted, or deal
with them as second-class citizens.
If Labour loses Muslim votes at the coming local elections,
it has only itself and its government to blame.
Narsir Hiar
Warren Road, NW5
• I WAS delighted to see the letter from O Faruque Ansari
(Labour lets down loyal Muslim voters, Letters March 23) saying
Muslims should not vote Labour again.
Our Muslim vote is very important in many wards in Camden,
and could be decisive in the local elections coming up on May
4.
Muslims have been taken for granted by the Labour Party for
too long. It is only by using our votes against Labour that
we can make our feelings known about Iraq and Palestine, and
about Muslim rights to freedom of speech and freedom from harassment.
Mahamod Ali
Athlone Street, NW5q Omar Faruque Ansari’s letter was insulting,
arrogant and incredibly patronising. Does he seriously believe
Muslims vote Labour out of stupidity? Who is he to say that
Muslims should vote Lib Dem as if that’s their religious
duty?
Labour worked with the Muslim Council of Britain to draft legislation
to crack down on those who stir up hate against Muslims. When
Labour tried to pass the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill into
law, the Lib Dems voted with the Tories against it. Voters won’t
be fooled by typical Lib Dem hypocrisy.
Omar Salem
Dynham Road, NW6
• I, LIKE many British Muslims, felt very badly let
down by the Blair government’s decision to support America’s
unjustified and damaging invasion of Iraq.
Like many other British Muslims I have been angered by the
subsequent attacks on Muslims’ human rights here in Britain,
which I fear will only get worse when and if the Labour government
introduces its identity card scheme.
It seems to me that, despite Britain’s multi-cultural society
and ethnically mixed communities, the Labour government still
follows foreign policies out of the country’s Tory imperialistic
past – dictated by greed for oil and Islamophobia just
as in the 1920s and at the time of Suez.
But one good thing about Britain is that it is still a democracy
where we do have a choice by voting. The system is not perfect
but our votes can make a difference if we cast them wisely.
In the coming local elections we’ll have three votes each
on May 4 to elect our local ward councillors.
I am not intending to cast any of my votes for Labour candidates.
Fokul Islam
Prince of Wales Road
NW5
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