Despite the furore, the current assault on London mayor Sadiq Khan by the now-suspended Conservative MP Lee Anderson ought to come as no shock. In a lot the identical means, neither ought to we be stunned at prime minister Rishi Sunak’s failure to name out what Anderson stated as being something apart from blatant Islamophobia. When it involves the Conservative social gathering, we have now been right here earlier than. For them, that is Islamophobia 101.
The current controversy started when Anderson – who was till very just lately the social gathering’s deputy chairman – instructed GB News that Sadiq Khan had “given our capital metropolis away to his mates”. As he went on, “I don’t truly consider that the Islamists have gotten management of our nation, however what I do consider is that they’ve received management of Khan, and so they’ve received management of London”.
Since then, Anderson has doubled down, including: “whenever you suppose you’re proper, you need to by no means apologise as a result of to take action can be an indication of weak spot”.
Anderson has misplaced the whip, however past that the message popping out of the Conservative social gathering has been tempered. Sunak has didn’t even acknowledge Anderson’s feedback as Islamophobic, not to mention condemn them as such, saying as an alternative: “I believe an important factor is that the phrases had been unsuitable, they had been ill-judged, they had been unacceptable.”
The Conservatives’ drawback with Islamophobia
In current years, the Conservative social gathering has struggled to disentangle itself from numerous allegations that it’s Islamophobic. In 2018, the Muslim Council of Britain introduced the social gathering with a file detailing near-weekly incidents involving numerous social gathering members.
For these corresponding to the previous social gathering chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the file was merely the tip of the iceberg. Noting how experiences of hate and discrimination are notoriously under-reported she claimed on the time that Islamophobia is “widespread [in the party]…from the grassroots, all the way in which as much as the highest”.
In the identical 12 months, former prime minister Boris Johnson referred to Muslim girls who select to put on the full-face veil as “letterboxes” and “financial institution robbers” in an article for the Telegraph. He dismissed the feedback as little greater than a gaffe however the allegations prompted the then dwelling secretary Sajid Javid to ask his rivals throughout a BBC Conservative management debate to decide to an exterior investigation into Islamophobia, whoever the following chief is perhaps. All, together with Johnson, agreed.
Once Johnson had secured the social gathering management nevertheless, the investigation was shifted away from Islamophobia onto discrimination extra broadly. Doing so enabled the social gathering to distance itself from the very cause why such an investigation was deemed obligatory within the first place: claims of widespread Islamophobia.
Quibbling over definitions
Another means the Conservatives – and certainly others – have chosen to disclaim allegations of being Islamophobic is to assert that they don’t have a definition for Islamophobia and due to this fact can’t assess whether or not feedback corresponding to Anderson’s are Islamophobic. Such a premise is after all a farcical, straw man argument.
Like all different discriminatory phenomena – from racism to homophobia – loads of definitions have been put ahead that may very well be adopted by the Conservatives. They may merely look to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims, which in 2018 made historical past by placing ahead the primary working definition of Islamophobia within the UK. In its report Islamophobia Defined, it posited that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a sort of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.
Despite this definition being adopted by Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and numerous native governments throughout the nation, the Conservative social gathering introduced it was not desiring to undertake the definition on the idea that additional consideration was obligatory.
Continuing to disclaim the existence of an applicable definition is, at this level, a handy method to keep away from being accused of being Islamophobic. As I put it in my 2020 e book Reconfiguring Islamophobia, all the talk round definitions achieves is to afford detractors permission to do nothing about the issue itself.
Attacks on Sadiq Khan
Opposition events had been instantly important of Anderson’s feedback. But whereas the Labour social gathering Chair Anneliese Dodds described them as “unambiguously racist and Islamophobic” and the Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate Rob Blackie castigated the MP for “spreading harmful conspiracy theories”, it’s attention-grabbing that nobody has highlighted how attacking Khan particularly is turning into an alarmingly frequent political tactic.
This was nowhere extra evident than throughout Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 London mayoral marketing campaign. Branded “disgusting” on the time, Goldsmith revealed a chunk within the Mail on Sunday with the headline: “Are we actually going handy the world’s best metropolis to a Labour Party that thinks terrorists are its mates?”. Goldsmith went on to color rival Khan as a safety danger, claiming he had previous hyperlinks with extremists and that he supported Islamic State. Sound acquainted?
So too does the Conservative social gathering have a historical past of laying declare to Islamist extremists infiltrating different elements of British society. Michael Gove, throughout his time as training secretary, launched an investigation into claims “Muslim hardliners” had been taking up state colleges in Birmingham, regardless of the letter that made the allegations being instantly dismissed as a hoax by the police. In 2015, Theresa May, whereas dwelling secretary, took it even additional, launching a marketing campaign in opposition to “entryist” infiltration throughout huge swathes of the general public and third sectors by Islamist extremists.
While there needs to be no hierarchy in relation to hate or discrimination, the fact is that in relation to Islamophobia, the scrutiny directed at different types of prejudice is undeniably absent. What could be stated and alleged about Muslims in political (and public) areas can’t be stated about different non secular teams and communities.
It needs to be stunning that the prime minister can’t even acknowledge Anderson’s feedback as Islamophobic – however it isn’t. It’s simply one other instance of the sheer disregard and utter contempt that’s proven by political leaders in direction of this drawback.
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Chris Allen doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.