Muslims told not to vote for Labour

Sarah Hall, political correspondent, Monday 13 May 2004, The Guardian

Tony Blair's hopes of patching up relations with the Muslim community have been dealt a fresh blow by a leading Islamic organisation which is urging its members not to vote Labour at next week's European elections.

Underlining the government's fearthat it is facing a hammering at the polls because of Iraq, the Muslim Association of Britain is calling on Muslims across the country to back anti-war candidates.

The association, which formed part of the Stop the War coalition, has published tactical voting guidance on its website, suggesting which candidates should be backed in certain areas. In the four regions where it believes candidates for the anti-war party, Respect, have the greatest chance of winning seats, it urges Muslim voters to back them.

In the south-east, it calls on them to vote for the Green MEP, Caroline Lucas, who has spoken passionately against the war and campaigned against the French opposition to Muslim girls wearing hijab in schools. The call comes as Labour seeks to stress its pro-Muslim credentials by campaigning on measures it has introduced, such as stamp duty changes to encourage Islamic mortgages, the sponsorship of an annual pilgrimage to Mecca and state-funded Islamic schools.

In a recent speech to Muslim Labour voters, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, also stressed Labour's record of two Muslim MPS, three Muslim candidates in safe Labour seats, four Muslim peers and 200 Muslim councillors.

Yet, with 2 million Muslims in Britain, the government anticipates a battering over the war, particularly in metropolitan districts with large ethnic communities. Yesterday the prime minister admitted it was a "divisive" issue that had monopolised the discussions he had while campaigning in the north-west and Yorkshire.

"Iraq is the shadow over our support," he told BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost. "There's no doubt about that, no point disputing that." Labour has seen support among Muslim voters plummet from 75% at the last election to 38%; psephologists predict that it could lose as many as 300 council seats. In the London mayoral contest, the incumbent, Ken Livingstone, wins their endorsement because of his record for London Muslims and consistent opposition to the war, but he is the only Labour candidate to do so.

At local council level, the guidance says that on Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, "the Liberal Democrats are considered far better than Labour or the Conservatives". Muslims made up 15% of new Liberal Democrat members last year and the number of Muslims backing the party has more than trebled, to 36%, since the election.

The voting advice has been organised by Anas Altikriti, who is standing as the Respect candidate in Yorkshire and the Humber. The association, which claims to have about 1,000 paid-up members as well as other sympathisers, is not the national body for the Muslim community, the Muslim Council of Britain.

But Mr Altikriti, whose father went to school with Saddam Hussein but was a strong opponent of the regime, is confident the advice will prove influential and that Respect could win seats.

Such confidence may be over-optimistic, given that ICM figures suggest Muslim voters who have traditionally voted Labour have switched to the Liberal Democrats, and that the Greens are also confident of taking a large chunk of the anti-war vote.

In the north-west it is understood that because of the the threat of letting in a BNP candidate Muslims are in discussions about voting for the Liberal Democrats; Saj Karim, one of the party's seven black and ethnic minority candidates for the Euro elections, is standing.

Labour ministers insist Iraq will not prevent them regaining support in a general election. "They'll give us a slap," said one minister with a constituency with a high proportion of Muslims. "But they realise that on schools and hospitals we're streets ahead."

Source: The Guardian