Islamophobia in the Tory Party

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Response (26th of June 2018)

Good after­noon,

Thank you for your email.

Mus­lims are an impor­tant part of the British iden­ti­ty. Anti-Mus­lim dis­crim­i­na­tion under­mines soci­ety from with­in, and there is absolute­ly no place for it in this coun­try or in the Con­ser­v­a­tive Party.

Our Par­ty takes all alle­ga­tions of dis­crim­i­na­tion extreme­ly seri­ous­ly and has a clear and ful­ly trans­par­ent process to inves­ti­gate com­plaints made to it under the Party’s Code of Conduct.

Since becom­ing Chair­man I have been very clear that any­one who believes that they have suf­fered from dis­crim­i­na­tion or abuse, or who has wit­nessed such acts by some­one in the Par­ty, should come for­ward and lodge a for­mal com­plaint under the Code. I have ensured that there is a ded­i­cat­ed email address: [email protected] and a direct tele­phone line: 0207 984 8050 where a mem­ber of the team will be able to help.

When cas­es have been report­ed cen­tral­ly the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty has con­sis­tent­ly act­ed deci­sive­ly, sus­pend­ing or expelling those involved and launch­ing an imme­di­ate inves­ti­ga­tion. In addi­tion, the swift action we take on not just anti-Mus­lim dis­crim­i­na­tion, but dis­crim­i­na­tion of any kind is tes­ta­ment to the seri­ous­ness with which we take such issues.

I appre­ci­ate you tak­ing the time to write to me regard­ing this matter.

Yours sin­cere­ly,

THE RT. HON. BRANDON LEWIS MP

Chair­man of the Con­ser­v­a­tive Party

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MCB disappointed with the Conservative response

Tories accused of turning blind eye to Islamophobia in the Party amid fresh new revelations

26 June 2018

Amid fresh new rev­e­la­tions of Islam­o­pho­bia, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty is accused of turn­ing a blind eye on the issue as it ignores wide­spread calls for an inde­pen­dent inquiry.

The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain has once again for­mal­ly writ­ten to the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty demand­ing a wide-rang­ing inquiry into Islam­o­pho­bia in the Party.

Giv­en the lack of response or even acknowl­edge­ment of the first let­ter, sent almost a month ago, the Coun­cil sug­gests that the Con­ser­v­a­tives are turn­ing a blind eye to the mount­ing evi­dence and ignor­ing calls for an inde­pen­dent inquiry.

The ini­tial let­ter out­lined a sig­nif­i­cant body of evi­dence demon­strat­ing “week­ly occur­rences of Islam­o­pho­bia” with­in the Par­ty, as well as appar­ent neg­li­gence of the Par­ty to act after the Lon­don May­oral cam­paign and the actions of Bob Black­man MP.

In the inter­ven­ing peri­od, fresh new rev­e­la­tions include ongo­ing “week­ly occur­rences of Islam­o­pho­bia” from can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty; the dis­cov­ery of how vice-Chair Ben Bradley dis­missed Islam­o­pho­bia and appeared to have attempt­ed to cov­er this up; lived expe­ri­ences of Mus­lim mem­bers, can­di­dates and rep­re­sen­ta­tives; and evi­dence sug­gest­ing a senior gov­ern­ment min­is­ter had “extreme” views on Muslims.

The let­ter cites sup­port for an inquiry from mosques, stu­dents, senior Mus­lim peers, Mus­lim organ­i­sa­tions, the Con­ser­v­a­tive Mus­lim Forum, Jew­ish groups, Con­ser­v­a­tive Home and edi­to­ri­als from The Times and The Observer.

Harun Khan, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the MCB said: “We earnest­ly hope that the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty address­es con­cerns of Islam­o­pho­bia with the seri­ous­ness it deserves. The true extent of the prob­lem can only be achieved via an inde­pen­dent inquiry.”

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MCB Response to Boris Johnson’s Comments on the Niqab

We agree with, and back calls by the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) to under­take an inde­pen­dent enquiry into these alle­ga­tions.

6 August 2018

Boris John­son right­ly oppos­es the Dan­ish ban on the niqab but den­i­grates the minor­i­ty of women who choose to wear it. He described them as look­ing like “let­ter box­es” or “bank rob­bers” – in lan­guage that would not be used about oth­er faiths.

His com­ments are par­tic­u­lar­ly regret­table in this cur­rent cli­mate, where Islam­o­pho­bia and anti-Mus­lim hatred is becom­ing wor­ry­ing­ly per­va­sive with dis­ap­point­ing­ly lit­tle action from this cur­rent gov­ern­ment. Mus­lim women bear the brunt of hate on the streets. Just this week, two peo­ple were jailed for tor­tur­ing a Mus­lim con­vert and a book­shop was attacked by Islamophobes.

Mr Johnson’s com­ments come at a time when he report­ed­ly met Don­ald Trump’s for­mer right-hand man Steve Bannon.

We need respon­si­bil­i­ty and action from our politi­cians, not pan­der­ing to the far-right. Mr Johnson’s com­ments also under­scores the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain’s call for an inquiry into Islam­o­pho­bia in the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty. Such crass com­men­tary should have no place in our polit­i­cal discourse.