Ms. Nusrat Ghani, Conservative MP for the Wealden constituency of East Sussex and Joint Vice-Chair of the 1922 Committee, was replaced as transport minister in a Cabinet reshuffle in February 2020. She recently claimed that an unidentified government whip had informed her at the time, in connection with Ms. Ghani’s dismissal, that “her Muslimness was raised as an issue” and her “Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”. These damaging allegations, by the first-ever female Muslim Conservative MP and Britain’s first female Muslim government minister, elicited an immediate declaration of support from two Muslim Cabinet members, the Health and Education Secretaries, leading to the Prime Minister’s hasty announcement on 24 January 2022 of an inquiry into the matter by the Cabinet Office.
Allegations of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party are by no means new. Frequently cited high-profile examples include Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 London mayoral campaign, during which he accused his Progressive Muslim opponent Sadiq Khan of extremist Islamist sympathies, and Boris Johnson’s column in The Telegraph on 5 August 2018, in which he disapproved of the use of face-coverings by Muslim women, although not condoning an outright ban in Denmark. At the grassroots level, a poll of 1,200 Conservative Party members, commissioned by Hope Not Hate in September 2020, showed that almost half of the participants believed that Islam is “a threat to the British way of life”, while significant numbers sensed widespread hostility to Britain within the British Muslim community, many of whose members had retreated to areas where Sharia law dominates and non-Muslims are unwelcome.
The 51-page Report of the Independent Investigation into Alleged Discrimination Citing Protected Characteristics within the Conservative and Unionist Party in England, Wales and Northern Ireland appeared on 25 May 2021. The investigation, chaired by Professor Swaran Singh (a psychiatrist), reviewed a centralised complaints database at Conservative Party headquarters for incidents and responses, over a six-year period from 2015 to 30 November 2020. Out of a total of 1,418 complaints, concerning 727 incidents of alleged discrimination, two-thirds of incidents related to anti-Muslim discrimination. The anodyne report, described by some Muslim Tories as a “whitewash”, rejected former Conservative Party Chair Baroness Warsi’s assertion that the Conservative Party is institutionally racist and Islamophobic, but did identify “a Party complaints system in need of an overhaul”.
Islamophobia is a relatively new phenomenon in the UK. In the 1970s and 1980s, so-called “Paki-bashing” targeted all brown-skinned South Asians and was not specifically aimed at Muslims. Islamophobia started to creep in during the 1990s, prompting a November 1997 report by the Runnymede Trust entitled Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All. Islamophobia increased dramatically after 9/11, when the focus of hatred shifted from race to religion, just as the religion of Islam became conflated with the ideology of Islamist extremism, making all visibly practising Muslims the object of hatred and hate crimes.
There is no universally accepted definition of Islamophobia, which thus shifts the onus of proof on the alleged victims themselves. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (established in July 2017) defined Islamophobia on 27 November 2018 as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”, but this definition was not endorsed by the Conservative government. Another definition, from a November 2020 briefing paper by professor Imran Awan and Dr. Irene Zempi, refers to “a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims… that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation” and to a “structural and cultural racism which targets the symbols and markers of being a Muslim”.
Whatever the precise definition of Islamophobia, visible evidence of being a practising Muslim, as provided by one’s choice of attire, including face-covering and headgear, can trigger verbal abuse, intimidation, violent attack, and property damage by Islamophobes, quite apart from a growing body of online abuse on social media platforms.
Islamophobia can be attributed to perceptions of the growing threat of Islamist terrorism, which is fuelled by provocative calls to jihad (religious war), inflammatory sermons targeting “infidels”, and other manifestations of Salafist and radical Shiite preaching in the West. Muslims are frequently, and mostly unfairly, generalised as people who do not share in Western cultural values, discriminate against women, and do not attempt to integrate into their host societies, instead demanding their own schools, legal system, and access to halal food. Conspiracy theorists also depict Muslims as fifth columnists, committed to the Islamicization of society and the “replacement” of white people by non-white Muslim in “white genocide” conspiracies.
Islamophobia can potentially involve significant numbers of people. The UK has a large Muslim community, amounting to over 2.8 million, out of a total population of 68 million. Muslims predominate in England, where they form 4.4 per cent of the population. Islam is also the fastest growing religion in the country. Following the first purpose-built mosque in Woking in 1889, there are now around 1,836 mosques, as of 2021, along with numerous smaller prayer rooms, as well as Islamic seminaries and cultural centres. In some towns, particularly in the north of England, Islamic institutions have come to dominate certain localities, where Muslims lead parallel and separate lives from non-Muslim indigenous communities.
Recent world events have led to the radicalisation of a small minority of younger Muslims, while larger numbers have reverted to traditional modes of dress in a public display of their commitment to Islam. Far from coming together over time, Muslims and non-Muslims appear to have drifted apart in parts of the UK, creating an environment in which Islamophobia can readily flourish. Even as the Conservative Party examines its working structures in an attempt to reassure Muslim Tories, it seems clear that many obstacles to have to be overcome before relationships improve and trust can be restored.
Ashis Banerjee