Labour MP Naz Shah has sparked debate after criticising No 10’s alleged “secret boycott” of a “controversial” Muslim organisation.
On Sunday night the Every day Mail reported on No. 10’s ”boycott” of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) after Conservative management candidate Penny Mordaunt was criticised for assembly with the group in 2021.
Shah has been no stranger to controversy herself, having been suspended from Labour in 2016 over 2014 Fb posts that instructed Israel must be “relocated” to the USA. After the feedback have been publicised she give up as parliamentary assistant to then shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
She later advised BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme that whereas she “wasn’t anti-Semitic… what I put out was anti-Semitic”. The Labour whip was restored to her later that yr.
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Shah advised MPs in Monday’s confidence debate that she “[did] not know the place to start on the report of successive Conservative Governments on engagement with Muslim communities,” and referred to the MCB as a “mainstream Muslim organisation backed by mainstream British Muslim mosques, organisations and establishments.”
She defined:
“After I noticed the entrance web page of the Every day Mail final night time and heard in regards to the so-called “dodgy judgment” of the Minister for Commerce Coverage, the fitting hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), in assembly a “controversial” Muslim group, I didn’t anticipate the assembly to be with a mainstream Muslim organisation that Members on either side of the Home meet frequently.”
She later tweeted that “No.10’s Boycott of the @MuslimCouncil is disgraceful. The times when Conservative Governments might prop up Muslim organisations primarily based on 1/2 individuals, funded for their very own functions is over!
“Each neighborhood has a proper to be heard by their authorities and so do British Muslims,” she went on.
Theresa Could’s former joint Downing Avenue chief of employees, Nick Timothy, hit again at Shah’s remarks through Twitter, responding: “The “boycott” of the MCB started in 2009 beneath Gordon Brown, supported strongly Hazel Blears. It was prompted by the MCB deputy normal secretary, Daud Abdullah, signing the Istanbul Declaration which justified terrorism. I’m not conscious the MCB has ever denounced the Declaration.”
Gordon Brown’s administration was certainly the primary to sever ties with the physique in 2009 after then deputy normal secretary Dr Daud Abdullah co-signed a declaration that advocated Muslims partaking in “jihad” towards the state of Israel.
The then secretary of state for communities and native authorities, Hazel Blears, revealed an open letter stressing that the federal government wouldn’t take care of the MCB till Abdullah resigned and the organisation distanced itself from the declaration. Abdullah responded to Blears in The Guardian newspaper, accusing her of an “ill-advised try to train management,” and threatened to sue her for libel. The federal government rejected Abdullah’s threats and no authorized motion was pursued.
In 2010 Blears’ successor as communities secretary, John Denham, restored relations with the MCB.
The federal government advised The Guardian that: “The MCB … have made clear to us that Daud Abdullah signed the assertion in query in a private capability.” Acknowledging that he had not disavowed the declaration, the federal government admitted that it nonetheless had “…considerations in regards to the uncertainty of Daud Abdullah’s private place on this challenge” claiming that they might “not be partaking with him,” till he offered “the clarification that we’ve all the time been searching for”.
In line with the MCB web site, “solely” the Conservative Social gathering has had no formal ministerial engagement with the group lately. The organisation says it met with a number of Liberal Democrat ministers through the Coalition years.
Dr Rakib Ehsan, a social cohesion knowledgeable, advised Politics.co.uk in mild of the controversy: “The UK Authorities is correct to take warning over partaking with ‘neighborhood organisations’ that aren’t essentially consultant. Identitarian group-based advocacy tends to painting Britain in an excessively destructive mild. The truth of the matter is that Britain is likely one of the greatest locations to reside as a Muslim.”
Mordaunt, who was knocked out of the Tory management race on Wednesday afternoon, tweeted a couple of assembly with MCB’s incumbent secretary Zara Mohammed final February, writing: “Nice to have met with @ZaraM01 right this moment, to want her each success and listen to extra about her plans. Look ahead to working together with her and her group. #IWD2021 @MuslimCouncil.”
Mohammed has led the MCB since her election as its first feminine secretary final yr. She responded to Mordaunt’s submit stating: “It was pretty assembly you @PennyMordaunt thanks on your encouragement and phrases of knowledge, stay up for difficult inequality and empowering extra girls #IWD2021″.
Mohammed advised Politics.co.uk: “Thus far, the federal government has not given a sound cause for its self-imposed and opaque coverage of non-engagement. As a substitute, we’re topic to insinuations which deploy anti-Muslim tropes that we’re extremist and un-British. In actual fact, we’re a democratic, British organisation that represents a cross part of Muslim communities. We rejoice our communities, particularly in initiatives that promote the widespread good. Mainstream voices in different religion communities should not handled on this method, nor ought to we.”
Politics.co.uk has reached out to Penny Mordaunt MP for remark.
