Wednesday, March 06, 2019
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia poison our politics
What is wrong with the two largest parties? Labour are still struggling with what appears to be institutional anti-Semitism within their ranks, fanned by the inability of their leadership to take the necessary decisive action to stamp it out. At the same time, the Tories continue to wrestle with Islamophobia amongst their membership.
Today's Guardian reports that the Conservative party has suspended 14 members for allegedly making Islamophobic comments after a string of abusive posts were uncovered on social media. They say that the suspensions come at a time of growing scrutiny of the Conservative party’s record on Islamophobia.
The former Tory chairman Sayeeda Warsi has again called for an internal inquiry and suggested the most senior figures in the party, including Theresa May, need to take the problem more seriously:
The messages included one from an individual who wrote that they would like to “turf all Muslims out of public office”. Another said they wanted to “get rid of all mosques”. Many comments were found on a Facebook group supporting Jacob Rees-Mogg.
A third said they could not vote for Sajid Javid, the home secretary, in any forthcoming leadership race because that would amount to a vote for “Islam to lead this country”.
A post in the Facebook group supporting Rees-Mogg, which showed a map of all mosques in Britain, provoked several hostile responses, including: “This is not a Muslim country” and “We’re just letting the takeover happen”.
Meanwhile, Labour's troubles over anti-Semitism continue with the 2,000 strong Jewish Labour Movement, which has been affiliated to Labour since 1920, holding meetings in Manchester and London today, to decide whether to sever ties with the party over its handling of anti-Jewish racism.
Jeremy Corbyn, who has been slow to react to complaints of anti-Semitism in the past, obviously understands that the optics of such a decision are very bad for the Labour Party. He has written to the JLM chair, Ivor Caplin, urging the group to stay, saying it was "integral to the Labour family".
That is no longer the view of one member of the Labour Party who has published his reasons for quitting. Jeremy Horton wrote about Corbyn: 'Antisemitism has been normalised in Labour and in my opinion your behaviour over a number of years has legitimised it. Your friendships with conspiracy pedlars, Holocaust-deniers and revisionists as well as supporters of anti-Semitic terror groups like Hezbollah gives credibility to their ideas and philosophies.' The full letter can be read here.
It is tragic that whilst the future of our country remains in doubt because of a disastrous decision to leave the EU, both main parties are embroiled in controversies about racism within their ranks. It is little wonder that many people think politics (and our democracy) is broken.
Today's Guardian reports that the Conservative party has suspended 14 members for allegedly making Islamophobic comments after a string of abusive posts were uncovered on social media. They say that the suspensions come at a time of growing scrutiny of the Conservative party’s record on Islamophobia.
The former Tory chairman Sayeeda Warsi has again called for an internal inquiry and suggested the most senior figures in the party, including Theresa May, need to take the problem more seriously:
The messages included one from an individual who wrote that they would like to “turf all Muslims out of public office”. Another said they wanted to “get rid of all mosques”. Many comments were found on a Facebook group supporting Jacob Rees-Mogg.
A third said they could not vote for Sajid Javid, the home secretary, in any forthcoming leadership race because that would amount to a vote for “Islam to lead this country”.
A post in the Facebook group supporting Rees-Mogg, which showed a map of all mosques in Britain, provoked several hostile responses, including: “This is not a Muslim country” and “We’re just letting the takeover happen”.
Meanwhile, Labour's troubles over anti-Semitism continue with the 2,000 strong Jewish Labour Movement, which has been affiliated to Labour since 1920, holding meetings in Manchester and London today, to decide whether to sever ties with the party over its handling of anti-Jewish racism.
Jeremy Corbyn, who has been slow to react to complaints of anti-Semitism in the past, obviously understands that the optics of such a decision are very bad for the Labour Party. He has written to the JLM chair, Ivor Caplin, urging the group to stay, saying it was "integral to the Labour family".
That is no longer the view of one member of the Labour Party who has published his reasons for quitting. Jeremy Horton wrote about Corbyn: 'Antisemitism has been normalised in Labour and in my opinion your behaviour over a number of years has legitimised it. Your friendships with conspiracy pedlars, Holocaust-deniers and revisionists as well as supporters of anti-Semitic terror groups like Hezbollah gives credibility to their ideas and philosophies.' The full letter can be read here.
It is tragic that whilst the future of our country remains in doubt because of a disastrous decision to leave the EU, both main parties are embroiled in controversies about racism within their ranks. It is little wonder that many people think politics (and our democracy) is broken.
