Woman of Tatar Muslim Background Triumphs at Eurovision

As the nation was glued to their television screens, a small but important fact missed many by. This fact, was that the Ukrainian lead singer known as Dzjamala, is in fact a Muslim female – Susanna Jamaladinova.

Dzjamala performed the song “1944” during the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm and was born in Kirghiz (Kyrgyzstan) to a Crimean Tatar father and an Armenian mother. Both Dzjamala and her father are Muslims and with her mother being Christian and her family are in fact a microcosm of the mix of faiths and the co-existence of Christian and Muslim histories in our continent.

During Stalin’s era many Tatars were treated with particular disdain and many lost their lives as they were transported from areas like the Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania to gulags around the Soviet Union. This relocation meant that Dzjamala was born in Kyrgyzstan , though when Ukraine gained independence, she returned back to her ancestral home.

Dzjamala’s win comes on the back of a year which has seen London elect a Mayor who is a Muslim and with the ‘Great British Bake Off’ being won by Nadiya in 2015. We say that those promoting anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry, that they are in the minority and they do not speak for our country or the majority of voices within them.

We also have to make clear that there are some groups purporting to advocate for British Muslims who promote a corrosive victim narrative suggesting that Muslims have no future in Europe and that they are perpetual victims. Your narrative is also defunct and downright dangerous. Muslims have a future in Europe and will continue to do so and in fact Dzjamala’s story reflects this very fact.

There may well be difficult times in the future around the place of Muslims in Europe, though this will never take away from the fact that Europe needs Muslims as much as Muslims need Europe. This relationship which has lasted over a thousand years will continue and shows that those who sell perpetual victim-hood sell a busted flush.

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Tommy Robinson Outdoes Himself in the Buffoonery Stakes

Not to be outdone in the ‘there are Moozlims‘ everywhere paranoia of far right extremists, Tommy ‘I have Changed’ Robinson, decided to put his toe in the sewer of anti-Muslim bigotry through his Twitter account. His involvement can only be described as an epic fail in the world of the Twitterati.

Failing to realise that he was targeting the wrong woman, he decided that Muslim lifestyle magazine Producer and Emel Founder, Sara Joseph, was in fact Saadia Khan, the wife of London Mayor, Sadiq Khan. Not to be outdone in the circulation of the graphic placing Sara and Saadia as being the same woman, (now with a Hijab), Tommy decided to put out the graphic in the hope that it would persuade people that the ‘Islamic take-over’ of London’s Town Hall has begun.

Hey, who cares, when one Muslim woman looks like another huh? Or maybe it was that in the rush to spread fear since ‘Moozlims’ have taken over the Mayoralty, they now had a secret plan to Islamize all of the of State institutions. This view that Muslims are secretly taking over is truly what far right sympathisers.

Robinson may truly believe this stuff, even though we think that he secretly knows that this not true. Alas, he has built his platform on anti-Muslim bigotry. So why really change?

In his blind hatred Tommy can’t tell the difference between Saadiya and me.
Malice knows no boundaries it seems. pic.twitter.com/jGBkdsND4U

— Sarah Joseph (@SarahIJoseph) May 8, 2016

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Conservative Member of Parliament Calls the Campaign Against Sadiq Khan – ‘The Rough and Tumble of Politics’.

Efforts by the Conservative party to link the new Mayor of London to Muslim extremism during campaigning for the capital’s election were just part of the “rough and tumble” of politics, a senior MP said on Saturday.

As politicians from all sides lined up to condemn his party’s tactics in the mayoral race won by Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants and the first Muslim to hold the job, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon refused to apologise.

“In the rough and tumble of elections, you get stuff said, questions asked,” Fallon told the BBC when asked if he regretted describing Khan as a “Labour lackey” who speaks alongside extremists.

“I think it is right that candidates for some of the most important offices in Britain do get scrutinised about their past associations.”

Conservatives including Prime Minister David Cameron and Fallon himself had sought to question whether London would be safe being run by the 45-year-old Khan, a Labour Party MP who grew up in public housing in the capital’s inner city.

Khan, whose parents worked as a bus driver and a seamstress, defeated Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, the son of a billionaire financier, by a record margin to secure the biggest individual mandate in British political history. His victory in Thursday’s election made headlines around the world.

Some commentators suggested the focus on Khan’s religion had backfired in a city noted for its diversity and which is one of the world’s top financial centres. Britain remains largely free of the identity politics seen in the United States.

During the race Goldsmith had joined forces with Cameron and other senior party members to question Khan’s past appearances alongside radical Muslim speakers at public events, accusing him of giving “oxygen” to extremists.

CONTROVERSY, CONGRATULATIONS

A former human rights lawyer, Khan said he had fought extremism all his life and regretted sharing a stage with speakers who held “abhorrent” views.

“This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division,” Khan said in a short speech after the results were announced early on Saturday. “I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again.”

Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative Party chairman, said the campaign had damaged the party’s reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion, while Labour politicians called on Fallon and Cameron to stop smearing their candidate.

As the left-wing mayors of New York and Paris saluted Khan, the Financial Times newspaper described the win as a “remarkable triumph over the racial and religious tensions that have bedevilled other European capitals”, saying it highlighted London’s tolerance.

Among the first to congratulate Khan was Goldsmith’s sister Jemima, a journalist and campaigner who described London as a city for all cultures, backgrounds and religions. She said the victory was a great example to young Muslims.

“Sad that Zac’s campaign did not reflect who I know him to be — an eco friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity,” she tweeted.

Sajid Javid, business secretary and a Conservative, said on Twitter: “From one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another, congratulations.”

Khan’s victory makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, presiding over such issues as policing, transport and housing for 8.6 million people. The mayor does not run the City of London financial district but can try to influence the government in lobbying for the capital.

The Labour party also maintained control of the London Assembly, making the capital one of the few bright spots for the opposition party, which endured a day of poor results in elections elsewhere in the country.

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The London mayoral campaign has been a heated set of campaigns that have focussed on the backgrounds of individuals and on the associations that candidates have had with people whose views have been regarded as ‘repulsive’ and ‘extreme.’ Newspapers have led headlines on associations with extremists and social media activity has suggested that one of the candidates is Islamophobic. Within these charges, the truth has been somewhat lost.

Questioning the links between a candidate and their past associations is legitimate political discourse when someone puts themselves up for a public role such as the mayoral candidate for London. However, framing a candidate who happens to be Muslim just through the lens of extremism at a time when Muslim communities feel that they are trying to counter anti-Muslim tropes, may well have wider and deeper community impacts. This is not to say that questions should not be asked, however, there is much more to Sadiq Khan than his past associations and in the next few weeks, we would urge that the issues be looked, which include transport, housing and the role that London can play as a beacon city globally for financial investment. These are bread and butter issues and Sadiq continues to lay out these plans daily in his campaign. His plans on these bread and butter issues should be engaged with and the continuous focus on whom he associated with ten or more years ago is re-enforcing a view in some quarters, that Muslims as a whole cannot be trusted. This is unacceptable and if anything, may be turning off Muslims who may have considered politics as a future career.

Alternatively, we have seen Twitter campaigners from Labour suggest that Zac Goldmith is Islamophobic. This is a line that has been pushed by a lot of Labour campaigners against the Conservative MP and environmental activist. We have met with and spent time with Zac Goldmith. He is far from being Islamophobic and is reflective and thoughtful and deeply cares about communities. To label him as Islamophobic, undermines the value and the strength of the term and Zac is someone who has spent many years working with faith communities and with Muslim communities. Indeed, he was instrumental in working with the Kingston mosque in tackling the far right who had targeted the mosque and his involvement brought all communities together against far right extremists targeting the local Muslim community. To suggest that Zac Goldsmith is Islamophobic is to suggest that Sadiq Khan may be susceptible to being sympathetic to people with extreme views. Both narratives and suggestions are just obscene.

There are two weeks to go before Londoners go to the poll to elect their London Mayor. In these two weeks, let us focus on the policies of both Zac and Sadiq which can ensure that London remains the great city that it is. Let us vote for the candidate who can further enhance our capital city at an international level and thereby bring in much-needed investment and ensure that housing and transport issues are looked at. That is what we want from a London Mayor and that is what we hope campaigners focus on.

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Not to be out-done in the scraping the bottom of the political barrel, extremist group Britain First sent out circulars by e-mail stating that self-appointed Britain First leader, Paul Golding, would be standing for the Mayor of London.

The circular hyped up the publicity that individuals and political parties will get through a two page platform in which to highlight their positions. The booklet will be delivered to homes in London. What is interesting is that the Britain First bulletin also played on issues of race by suggesting that,

“Each mayoral candidate is entitled to a two-page spread in a booklet that is delivered to 10 million people in London, 45% of which are still ethnically British.”

The bulletin also suggests that mayoral candidates will receive a ‘Daily Politics’ interview, though our call to media outlets will be to investigate comments and statements made by individuals like Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and to hold them to account for them. Media outlets cannot give these individuals an easy ride so that their messages of separation, based on race and religion, be allowed to resonate within our united capital.

You would also think that any group would carefully consider the statements it made against other mayoral candidates. Yet this is the statement made against Labour hopeful, Sadiq Khan MP.

“Labour has chosen a Muslim career politician with strong sympathies for his fellow radicals and extremists, – Sadiq Khan.”

The statement not only opens up Britain First and its leaders to potential civil legal action, it shows the kind of dog-whistle politics that they are playing and no doubt, if the Labour hopeful did take any legal action, Britain First who rail against ‘the politics of victimisation’, would then simply play out this position.

The e-mail bulletin finishes with a call for £30,000 for the campaign. Anyone even considering donating, should think carefully about supporting a group who seek division rather than a united London. That is the choice ahead, whether we support the politics of hope or the politics of hate.

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