It is axiomatic that one may mock one’s fellow countrymen: if an Irishman tells a joke about the Irish, it is funny; if a rabbi mocks Jews, it is hilarious; if a Pakistani refers to ‘Pakis’, it is certainly not racist. And so Muslims are at liberty to berate their co-religionists: to do so is neither insult nor prejudice. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) sometimes comes out with utter rubbish, but more often than not, their observations are thoughtful and intelligent.
Consider this piece: ‘What type of idiot Muslim are you?’
They say:
The problem with Muslims when it comes to election time is that they fall into three categories of idiot:
1) The 'I am an idiot and too lazy to vote' Muslim
2) The 'I am an idiot and always vote Labour no matter how they treat me afterwards' Muslim
3) The 'I am an idiot and think I will go to hell by voting against a war' Muslim.
After 10 years of teaching Muslims to vote intelligently and, better still, join all political parties to make a difference (not to mention being the first group to make this a national Muslim issue) we couldn’t help but hold our heads in our hands in despair when we read this report in the Guardian that the dumb Muslims are still as stupid as ever.
If you want to break the psychological chains that made your friends idiots, why not come to a local branch discussion in your local area and let us make you clever again?
MPACUK : Operation Muslim Vote coming soon to an area near you.
It is refreshing that a dedicated Muslim site is prepared to say something as forthright as ‘the dumb Muslims are as stupid as ever’, not, of course, because they believe that all Muslims are dumb and stupid (presumably, they at least exempt themselves), but because it is the considered view of MPAC that the herd mentality and traditional tribal loyalties are proving insurmountable obstacles to religio-political enlightenment.
The Guardian piece which so grieved them was concerned with the Theos/ComRes research which showed that Muslims are attracted to Labour like a moth to a flame, Pooh Bear to honey, or (considering the perverted essence of the present Government) blue-bottles to faeces. Even when the moth has been singed (Iraq, Afghanistan), the bear made sick with sweetness (Tony Blair’s love-in with George Bush) or the flies gorged on a surfeit of excrement (rafts of ‘anti-terror’ legislation), the ‘dumb’ and ‘stupid’ Muslims just will not do what MPAC believe they should.
The Theos/ComRes poll established that if there were a general election tomorrow, 35 per cent of voting Muslims (meaning those Muslims who claim they are more likely than not to vote) would vote Labour. This compares with 22 per cent of voting Christians and 23 per cent of the entire voting population. By comparison, whereas 30 per cent of the voting population would tick the Conservative box, only 13 per cent of voting Muslims would do so.
Astonishingly, 49 per cent of Muslims claim they feel that the Labour party has been most friendly towards the Muslim faith over recent years, compared with 6 per cent who think that the Conservatives have been.
Or perhaps it is not so astonishing, since ‘over recent years’ the Conservatives have not been in a position to be ‘friendly’ in ways that many Muslims might like, especially with regard to foreign policy.
And so MPAC despair that ‘Labour appears to remain the natural home for British Muslims’.
The mistake, of course, is to presume that Muslims vote a particular way because they are Muslim. There are demographic and socio-economic reasons which might explain their voting intentions, as the The Guardian observes: ‘British Muslims are disproportionately younger and more urban. They come from lower-income households and experience higher levels of unemployment. These factors traditionally edge voters to the left.’
If Muslims vote Labour because they are young, urban, poor or unemployed rather than because they are Muslim, ‘it would mean that attempts to court the Muslim vote, or even engage with the Muslim community, are misguided’.
And when one reads the self-righteous waffle of Inayat Bunglawala, one may see the wisdom of this observation.
In another Guardian piece (about which MPAC have been uncharacteristically silent), Mr Bunglawala, who is the media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, berates David Cameron and the Conservative Party for failing to attend their ‘gala dinner’.He reminds us that the MCB is ‘the UK's largest Islamic umbrella body’, and points out that Labour sent the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw and the Communities Secretary, John Denham. And the Liberal Democrats sent their party leader, no less, Nick Clegg.
But he bemoans the fact that ‘no frontbencher from the Conservative party deemed it worthwhile attending this event, which brought together more than 400 key figures from the UK's diverse Muslim communities’.
He then reasons why they should have done:
‘The Theos research appears to confirm that UK Muslim support for Labour is on the increase once again after a torrid few years under the Blairite former cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly and her successor at the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department, Hazel Blears.’
Actually, Hazel Blears (rightly) severed links with the MCB following the revelation that Dr Daud Abdullah, the organisation’s deputy secretary-general, advocated attacks on British armed forces (specifically the Royal Navy) if they attempted to halt arms intended for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza. Dr Abdullah put his name to the ‘Istanbul Declaration’ along with 90 other Muslim leaders, because he supports the right of the Palestinian people ‘to resist the ongoing illegal and brutal occupation of their land’. The declaration includes the statement that ‘foreign warships in Muslim waters, claiming to control the borders and prevent the smuggling of arms to Gaza’ was a declaration of war.The ‘torrid few years’ to which Mr Bunglawala refers were as a result of Labour’s refusal to do business with an organisation which advocates betrayal and treason.
The Conservative Party is not interested in associating with those who reject parliamentary democracy, dismiss the rule of law and promote intolerance and discrimination on the basis of race, faith, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. The Conservative Party is not interested in being as popular as John Denham (who, along with Robin Cook, resigned over the Iraq war) if that popularity comes at the expense of national security.
Apparently, at the gala dinner, Mr Denham made it clear that ‘the government no longer wishes all UK Muslims to be viewed through the prism of terrorism and the security threat’.
The Conservative Party never has and never would do this: to do so would be akin to viewing all Roman Catholics through the prism of Gerry Adams’ blood-stained spectacles.
The Conservative Party is as concerned with jobs, housing and education as any Muslim; it is as alarmed by family breakdown and the pervasive lack of respect for authority and tradition as any Muslim; it is as disturbed by poverty and prejudice as any Muslim; it is as motivated towards self-improvement and social advancement as any Muslim.
That is why Muslims would find a natural political home within the Conservative family.
So when Inayat Bunglawala rebukes the Conservatives for a ‘needlessly offensive snub’, he might consider that the MCB is a self-appointed, self-perpetuating, self-important and self-indulgent organisation which no more speaks for the ‘Muslim community’ of Great Britain than Stephen Green speaks the 'Christian Voice’ for all Christians; it is the MCB which continually snubs the foundations of our liberal democracy; and it is Inayat Bunglawala who offends by perpetually falling into MPAC’s second category of Muslim idiot.
