A question of religion

 

Alistair Campbell once famously said "we don't do god" when questioned about religion. Over the years religion has come to be less important in British political affairs as illustrated by the complete lack of concern that our Prime Minister is now "outed" as being a Catholic.

Nobody cares except a few people who went on social media pronouncing on the rights and wrongs of him being married in a Catholic Church whilst the majority of people didn't give a damn. That was something unthinkable given the militant Protestantism and anti-catholic prejudice that founded modern Britain.

Even as late as 1978 Enoch Powell was a warning against the Papery and went on to become a Unionist MP. Northern Ireland (along with parts of Scotland and Liverpool) are exceptions to the declining role of religion in politics. However there one other area where religion has grown in influence.

When the Rushdie Affair broke out about his novel The Satanic Verses the reaction from large sections of the British Muslim community caught everybody by surprise. Until then like most people in this country Islam was not something I really thought about and just associated the religion with Arabs and not much else before then.

Even the left didn't know how how to react to the the death threats which were manipulated by the Iranian clerical dictator Khomeini as part of what turned out to be part of their attempt to increase their influence in the Muslim world. 

One of the more influential far-left groups in this country the International Marxist Group had found itself with not one but two co-thinking groups in Iran as a result of an ideological split over the question of the Fourth International's approach to to supporting the "Iranian Revolution". One group supported the wearing of the hijab, the other opposed it.

Both groups ended up suppressed and broken in exile as the Clerics cracked down on on all opposition illustrating the dangers of backing reactionary movements not that the far-left or even a lot of the mainstream and liberal establishment is much better in it's approach.

The Batley and Spen by-election comes at the same time Ed Husain a reformed Islamic extremist and former adviser to Tony Blair publishes his new book . The Times reported:

...mosques are stocking books that call members of al-Queda bretheren and refuse to acknowledge their role in the September 11 attacks. In some conservative areas Muslim parents have forbidden their children to take part in drama because it is seen as corrupting.

Husain said that women were being alienated and left unprotected because of the rise of the Sharia court.

The paralell legal system in which they were married is not recognised under British law and meant women were at risk because their husbands could unilaterally divorce them. They do not have recourse to legal protection in terms of financial support and are not able to divorce a potentially abusive or controlling husband as only he can grant permission Husain said.

In his review of Husain's book, Jawad Iqbal wites in the Saturday Review:

The troubling relaity is that Islam in Britain is dominated by an ultra-orthodox version of the faith by a sect known as the Deobandis. They control almost half of Britains mosques. This is a group that gave birth to the Taliban in Afghanistan. A flavour of their ideas come in edicts that womwn should not leave the home unless necessary, music is frowned upon.

Both Husain and Iqbal talk of very real segregation and near apartheid in some areas around the country which should be of concern but raising these issues leads to cries of "Islamophobia" from the hard left, let alone the very real extremists in the Muslim community itself.  Even the "liberal" establishment and some women's rights activists talk as if treading on eggshells when it comes to these issue.

There are some like Maryam Namazie and groups like the One Law For All Campaign and the Council of Ex Muslims who do speak out but are themselves attacked by white liberals and leftists who conflate atheism and secularist demands with supposed Islamophobia.

It is in this environment that allows the right like Anne Marie Waters to write about why she is standing in the forthcoming by-election:

According to the Times, Batley and Spen is one of the top 15 constituencies where Muslim voters are “most influential”. The sharia-advocating Muslim Council of Britain believes around 8,000 Muslims will vote. This is good news for one of the candidates George Galloway, whose history of sucking up to Muslims is well known. His presence will mean that Labour cannot be guaranteed the Muslim vote, something it will be less able to rely on in the future when Islamic parties promising sharia begin to form and win.

The Muslim population of the constituency is around 20% and it shows. The town of Batley hit international headlines recently in a show of just the kind of muscle we can expect in a town with a large Muslim population, and it is this that prompted me to stand.....

....The bullying and intimidation of non-Muslims – mostly white – across Yorkshire and throughout Britain is so utterly toxic. If it were happening to anyone besides white people, it would be an international scandal. It has been going on for decades as Muslim immigrants congregated and wanted to make areas their own. 

Every action has a counter reaction and the self-imposed segregation of some communities has led to the inevitable backlash. Not one anyone would like to see continued by either extreme.

I recall bemoaning the end of children shouting "penny for guy" that I grew up with and was a feature in all those comics we used to read. Most of us knew about but didn't really care about he origins of fireworks night and it's decline and seeming replacement by the more "secular" Halloween (though not all witches are evil as Pagans might point out) is a sign that is possible to move away from hundreds of years of hate.

How we tackle the conflict that has arisen in some areas and end the mutually exclusive prejudice which has arisen since the Rushdie Affair will be a long and difficult one. The nation has become accepting of a Catholic Prime Minister but the schism arising around fundamentalist Islam and the difficulties of integration shown in the recent cartoon affair in Batley shows there is a long way to go.