Enquiry into the Direction of the Campaign Needs to be Undertaken by the Conservatives

It took Jeremy Corbyn some time to ensure that he set out an Inquiry into Antisemitism which will be headed up by Shami Chakraborty. The Inquiry is needed given the charges of antisemitism that should be looked into and given the fact that the Labour Party has a proud history of tackling racism. (For those who believe that antisemitism is not racism, let us put this bizarre argument to bed, it is racism and legally seen as such).

But there are questions to be asked of the campaign of Zac Goldsmith and let us not forget that towards the end of the campaign, the theme consistently put out was the link between extremism and Sadiq Khan. Some within the Conservative Party must have known that this would be read negatively within Muslim communities at a time when many Muslims are tired of their communities being framed solely through the lens of extremism. This was also expressly stated by Baroness Warsi in tweets that she put out.

These impacts would therefore have been known, but someone in the campaign made the decision to run on the extremism narrative and to push it through repetitively. Who was that individual or individuals is the question to be asked? How could this have been the main theme of Zac Goldsmith’s campaign is another question to be asked? Who authorised the campaign and who agreed to it? These are legitimate questions to be asked.

If we are to have a London united, then the public also need answers to these questions. In fact, over 1 million Londoners voted for Sadiq Khan. At the very least 1 million people would surely like an answer to these questions. We hope that the Conservative Party does show transparency and order an Inquiry into what went so disastrously wrong with the campaign that they had to resort to the lowest common denominator – innuendos about how the Labour candidate met someone over 10 years ago who was extreme and by default must have tendencies towards extremists. This is the narrative that was weaved and it was a toxic narrative. It is a narrative that has been soundly rejected by Londoners. However, now the questions must be asked about the Conservative campaign.

The post Labour Did the Right Thing on AntiSemitism, Now the Conservatives Must on Islamophobia appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Mayoral Campaign Was Run on the Basis of Smears, Innuendo & Negativity

The Conservative Mayoral campaign that has been run fixating on extremists and past associations with extremists may well have put off voters from listening to the public policies of Zac Goldsmith. Zac Goldsmith himself is a man who cares about issues affecting communities and is someone with a genuine desire to make a positive change for communities. Yet the campaign placed around him may well have also damaged his public reputation in the way that it constantly sniped at past events in the life of Sadiq Khan. It gave the impression of Goldsmith as being aggressive and playing to the lowest common denominator, of placing extremism with a Labour Muslim Mayoral candidate with no real tangible evidence.

Stories even went back to 2004, as a way of placing a question mark in the minds of voters, as though he was somehow secretly ‘one of them’. What ‘one of them’ meant was left to the reader, though it was a subtle attempt to suggest that people could not trust Sadiq Khan.

It looks like the people of London have rejected the attacks and the negative campaigning against Khan’s character. Also, let us be honest and say that whilst associations which politicians had should be questioned since they are in the public eye, the constant focus on who Khan met sometimes over a decade ago showed that the Tory campaign was solely based on pressing the button on extremism and Khan. They were playing to this core campaigning theme with little regard of the damage that it was doing to its image in Muslim communities. We believe that this will have short and medium term implications for the Conservatives as many Muslims remember and associate this campaign with them. This in itself is sad since this Conservative Government has ben strong on tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and ensuring that this is pushed through at a national and local level. This should also not be forgotten.

We hope that such a campaign is assigned to the past. It is clear that Londoners have rejected the negative campaign and in significant numbers. We also welcome the new Mayor of London and hope that he unites Londoners rather than dividing them.

The post Never Again Should Such a Torrid Campaign Be Run for the Mayor of London appeared first on TELL MAMA.

A campaign to re-instate a dinner lady sacked for gross misconduct is growing online.

Nita O’Dell, 54, had worked at the Billesley Primary School in Birmingham for almost 21 years. On her Facebook, she had shared a meme that read “Guide dog for a Muslim woman. It’s called a Barka.” Variations of this meme have appeared in different forms since 2010.

The school fired O’Dell for gross misconduct in September. An anonymous source had sent the school a screenshot of the shared meme. She lost the appeal last Thursday.

Yet to suggest this sacking came from this one incident is untrue. A spokesperson for the school confirmed that this was not an isolated incident. All staff had been warned about public Facebook posts. O’Dell had been on a final warning prior to the sharing of this meme.

Newspaper headlines, however, distort this fact:

“Give her back her job”: Mail readers support dinner lady sacked over burka joke on Facebook

Community calls for dinner lady sacked for ‘liking’ Facebook burka joke to be given job back

RACIST? School dinner lady SACKED after 21 years for ‘liking’ burka dog joke on Facebook

School dinner lady sacked after 20 years for ‘liking’ burka joke picture on Facebook

This story remains a cautionary tale about public posts on Facebook. And of the need to read beyond headlines.

The post No, a dinner lady was not sacked for sharing burqa joke on Facebook appeared first on TELL MAMA.