There’s an interesting little spat developing between Fiyaz Mughal of Faith Matters and the founder of the Tell Mama group and the current management of Tell Mama. This spat highights a growing gap between Mughal and the group that he founded and also tells us a lot about how Tell Mama is now a major campaigner for censorship about media articles that are criticial of Islam.
Now to give Mughal some credit here, he wrote an article for the Spectator magazine (pasted as an appendix below) which although it flogged his usual hobby horse of ‘Islamophobia’, also gave his view as to how the Conservative Party should court the Islamic vote. Mughal believes that more prominent action on ‘Islamophobia’ would attract Muslims to the Tories. This is not an argument that I agree with, even though Mughal put his ideas over in a reasonable way. This is because whatever small benefits the Tories may get from tacking towards Muslims who are as Mughal said ‘family oriented’, it would be outweighed by the Tories taking a more Islam critical stance. I think that the Tories would do better electorally if they were honest about the threats that come to us from the ideology of Islam. Also we already have a defacto ‘Muslim Party’ in the form of Labour, we don’t need another one.
Mughal also criticised the Tories for not making use of one of his friends the peer Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (see links below) who has helped Mughal push the ‘Muslims as victims’ line for a number of years. Mughal believes that Lord Bourne has been kept in the background for some reason but he doesn’t specify what reason, just that Lord Bourne has been underutilised. He also took a bit of a dig at the Tories in general and whilst not mentioning Boris Johnson’s government did seem to be adversely comparing Boris’s attitude towards him and his groups and their messages and that of David Cameron’s government. Does this suggest that Mr Mughal and his groups are less welcome in government than they used to be? Let us hope that is the case.
Whilst I disagree with Mughal, his views and his groups, I have to defend his right to speak to whatever magazine or outlet that he wishes to speak to. For me to say otherwise would not be consistent. He, as we all should, has the right to speak his mind and speak it to anybody who will listen. Unfortunately for Mr Mughal and something that provides entertainment for the rest of us, that is not a view that is shared by Tell Mama the group that he founded.
This is because the ‘Taqiyya Town’ organisation Tell Mama has had a fit of the vapours over Mughal’s decision to appear in the pages of the Spectator magazine. Because Tell Mama have gone from being a mere, but less than thoroughly honest, ‘Islamophobia monitoring organisation, into being a full on pro-censorship entity, the sight of their founder appearing in the pages of a magazine that they’ve run lot of hate press about recently has seriously triggered them. It may also have triggered some of the less than savoury left wing pro censorship groups that Tell Mama now openly consorts with and supports, groups like ‘Stop Funding Hate’ for example. I suspect that entities such as Stop Funding Hate may be putting political pressure on Tell Mama and its post Mughal management to distance themselves from anything to do with a magazine that these groups have both targetted for criticism. We saw this most recently over Rod Liddles humorous article suggesting that the Tories may gain more seats if the more extreme of Britain’s Muslims stayed at home on election day. Tell Mama and their new left wing censorship hungry friends had a field day with much wailing and gnashing of teeth from them over this article.
Possibly under pressure from pro-censorship groups, Tell Mama has issued a statement disassociating themselves from Mughal’s article in the Spectator. Here’s the extraordinary and telling statement in question.
Something has spooked Tell Mama into making this statement that slews into areas that they may not have wished to go into. The line ‘despite it being written by our founder and director (until 2016)’ looks as far as they may dare go in disassociating themselves from Fiyaz Mughal and his decision to write an article for the Spectator. I would guess that their new best friends in the left wing pro-censorship groups are flexing their muscles and calling the shots now with Tell Mama, hence this extraordinary public statement by TM.
Fiyaz Mughal has the perfect and I believe inalienable right to speak to whatever outlet he chooses. He believes that he has the key to helping the Tories attract votes from Muslim individuals so he goes into a conservative magazine in order to put his arguments before an audience that may be receptive to it. This isn’t anything ‘wrong’, this is common sense targeting to the most appropriate audience. That Tell Mama under its new management has decided that the Spectator is persona non grata not only tells us that Tell Mama has morphed into an openly pro-censorship organisation, but also why this group should not be in reciept of public money. When I look at what TM are saying then it certainly looks as there is ‘Trouble in Taqiyya Town’.
Appendices
Article on Lord Bourne asked by a member of the public
The censorious Stop Funding Hate group part one
The censorious Stop Funding Hate group part two
Screenshot of TM tweet on this issue
The original Specator article that Tell Mama found to be inappropriate
Amongst many leaflets posted and campaigns found around this general election, we can see groups setting out to ‘mobilise the Muslim vote’. I find the term stomach-churning. I’m a director of Faith Matters, which seeks to foster good relationships between all faith communities. I don’t believe in seeing people’s political choices as some form of block activity or vote: religious, racial, or anything else. But identity politics is, unfortunately, on the rise – and we can see plenty of it in this election campaign.
I’ve seen a mailshot from one group that declares: “we kicked out 8 Islamophobic MPs in 3 general elections. Help us kick out 14 more in this one!” I was all agog to find out who these ‘Islamophobic MP’s’ were, what evidence had been found to unmask them. Then I saw the list: it includes Amber Rudd, the former Home Secretary and Iain Duncan Smith. Now, you can call these former Cabinet members many things, but ‘Islamophobic’ is not a charge that has any relevancy.
But the Conservatives certainly do have a problem with support in Muslim communities. The British Election Study suggests that 85pc of Muslims voted Labour in the last general election and the Tories have done very little to engage with such voters this time around. The focus has been only on ‘getting Brexit done”. Perhaps it’s assumed such messages will resonate within Black and Minority Ethnic groups as much as anyone else ) (remember that many had deep concerns about EU membership expressed before the Brexit vote).
There are plenty Muslim votes to be won, if the Tories were to try a bit harder. A great many of them espouse core conservative values: the importance of hard work and decent education. Law and order forms an essential backbone to how they live their lives and they carry with them a respect for their country – our country – the United Kingdom. Tackling rising levels of anti-Muslim hatred, better life chances and opportunities, feeling safe and secure and supporting entrepreneurism are all ‘pull points’ that Conservatives can use to draw in Muslim voters.
In fact, the Tories have done substantial amounts to confront anti-Muslim hatred, but almost no attempts seem to be made to communicate this. The national anti-Muslim hate monitoring project that I helped set up, Tell MAMA, was supported under David Cameron and his successor. Much was done to tackle anti-Muslim hatred at a street level, raise awareness of anti-Muslim hate with press agencies and ensure that good practice in challenging and countering anti-Muslim hate was disseminated. As faith minister, Lord Bourne was passionate about countering anti-Muslim hatred. But he has hardly been utilised in this campaign, meaning that he has few chances to talk about what was achieved. Such missed opportunities will make it harder for Conservatives to tap into the young social activism that is so becoming embedded in large sections of Muslim communities today.
It makes no sense for the Conservatives to allow themselves to be on the back foot with Muslim communities. It makes sense to reach out, engage, recruit, mobilse and energise young British Muslims with hope, a sense of dignity and with equality and transparency embedded into the heart of the Party. The Tories might argue that they have done a lot – but it is also public perception that matters. They need to talk a lot more about what they do.
For my part, I’ve made it clear that I can never support a Jeremy Corbyn-led government. His choice of political ‘friends’ make clear that our values as a country will be at stake should he win, especially if he ushers in groups whose ideologies are autocratic, divisive and polarising. I have challenged Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups, Islamists and far-right extremists for decades, because they are ideologically and physically a threat to our nation’s soul. But as the recent rise in support for the Labour Party demonstrates, not everyone sees it this way.
It’s shocking to read that just 7pc of Jewish voters intend to back Labour at this election. But it’s also alarming to see studies suggesting that just 11pc of Muslims backed the Tories in the last election. Surely a one-nation Conservative Party should be shocked at such low support in any section of the population? And surely it’s worth the effort to win back any such voters? It will need drive, determination and energy. But if Brexit can be done, winning over large sections of Muslim communities can also be done.
Fiyaz Mughal is the Director of Faith Matters and Founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism
