Which Muslims are ‘acceptable’ enough for Labour to engage with?

Rioters driven by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hatred have primarily attacked Muslims and mosques leaving many fearful of the risk of further violence and hate crimes. As anxieties among Muslim communities grow, the UK Government has no plans to meet with the largest body representing British Muslims, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

Though the MCB holds credibility among Muslims in the UK, Labour in government have long refused to engage with them. Instead, they are now supporting the creation of a new Muslim group provisionally called the Muslim Leadership Council to become the primary point of engagement between the government and Muslim communities.

At a time when British Muslims are facing increasing Islamophobia and threats from the far-right, the Government needs to engage directly with Muslim communities and their representatives rather than creating a friendly vehicle for themselves.

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In recent months, Labour have lost the trust and support of many British Muslims which has severely impacted their majority in a number of constituencies at the recent General Election.

The party needs to talk to these communities themselves and understand the actual causes of this disconnect and loss of support, instead of creating their own organisations. In doing so, the new government is set to repeat the same mistakes as the previous Labour government in creating bodies that fail to truly represent British Muslims, leading to further distrust.

Following 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the previous Labour government set up Muslim groups that would agree with their views but were rejected by Muslim communities. The MCB was criticised as an “extremist” organisation and not deemed “acceptable” for government engagement.

Instead, the Government decided that it would engage with a particular type of Muslim who was sympathetic to government policy, even as these policies discriminated against Muslims themselves. It did so through organisations that embodied what it thought Islam in Britain should look like, with the aim that they become community leaders and mediate between the government and British Muslims.

In 2006, the Government began to distance themselves from the MCB, officially cutting all ties in 2009, after replacing them with the Sufi Muslim Council (SMC) as a representative organisation. The SMC was launched in Westminster with the backing of the then Labour government as a “moderate” alternative, supportive of Western foreign policy.

According to co-founder, Haras Rafiq, the organisation was established due to a “vacuum of leadership” and in response to the Government’s call for “moderate Muslims” to stand up. Critics have argued that the creation of the SMC was “a government-backed attempt to create a state-friendly version of Islam at a time when representative organisations were heavily criticising Labour over the illegal and deadly invasion and occupation of Iraq”.

The SMC adopted the language of government for which it was financially rewarded with £392,000 of Prevent funds to establish itself as a community leader.

However, the organisation was never accepted by Britain’s Muslim communities, not only because of its sectarian character, but also because of the figures associated with the organisation. Haris Rafiq served on the Government’s Muslim taskforce to tackle Islamic radicalisation after the 7/7 bombings and has been identified as a discredited figure by the MCB.

Furthermore, the SMC’s links to UK and US neoconservatives have also been revealed and their support for Western and Israeli foreign policy in the Muslim world questioned.

The previous Labour government backed the creation of a “moderate Muslim” organisation it hoped would become representative of Britain’s Muslim communities.

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However, in showing favour for a particular theological strand, that was not representative of Britain’s Muslim diversity – Labour had not talked to Muslim communities to understand what it was they wanted and needed. The SMC failed to gain the trust and respect of Muslim communities and was officially closed in 2020.

Other Muslim organisations also emerged that were supportive of government policy, earning them political favour and funds. The British Muslim Forum (BMF) was set up in 2008 as a representative of mosques and Muslim organisations in the UK.

The BMF and its associates have supported the Government’s counter-extremism policies, receiving £194,000 in Prevent funding in the year that it was established.

In 2008, they supported the Government’s proposal to extend the pre-charge detention period for terror suspects. Khurshid Ahmed, chair of BMF, was part of the Downing Street delegation who agreed to set up a Muslim task force to root out “extremism” in Muslim communities in 2005. He also proposed a campaign targeting Pakistani men at risk of radicalisation which was backed by a £520,000 government grant.

Perhaps the organisation most distrusted by Muslim communities was the Quilliam Foundation, which was heavily funded by, and had close ties to, both the previous Labour and Conservative governments.

Quilliam was launched in 2008 with £674,608 of Home Office funding and was co-founded by Majid Nawaz, Ed Husain and Rashad Zaman Ali.

Like the SMC, it was seen by the government as a “moderate Muslim” organisation whose counter-extremism message aligned with its own but went further to influence such policies. Its founders have worked with organisations and individuals that promote anti-Muslim opinions.

Quilliam’s views on terrorism aligned with and appealed to the Labour government after 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which it was rewarded financially with more than £2.7 million from the UK Government.

An investigation revealed that the organisation was established by the Government itself, more specifically the Office for Security and Counterterrorism.

Nafeez Ahmed has argued that the decline of Quilliam was because it was never what it claimed to be, “starting life as an instrument of the British state” and pushed forward to legitimise intrusive and discriminatory counter-extremism policy approaches by which it could not gain traction among Muslim communities.

The creation of entities to serve government interests in order to influence Muslim communities can never genuinely engage with nor represent them.

Each of these organisations no longer exist because they were only created to serve their political masters and not the Muslim community. News of Quilliam’s closure in 2021 was welcomed by British Muslims.

With the introduction of discriminatory counter-terror laws and foreign policy in the Middle East, Labour were losing the trust and support of British Muslim communities. To tackle this while pushing their own agenda, the Government affirmed support for some Muslim groups at the exclusion of those that held opposing views.

Through a fixation on giving a platform to “moderate” Muslims and “authentic” Muslim voices, the past Labour government sought to refashion British Islam and Muslims into something that was acceptable and in line with their views. In doing so, they dismissed voices that were actually representative of British Muslims and failed to achieve any meaningful engagement with Muslim communities which led to a rejection of these groups.

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Government interference in Muslim community leadership did not end with the Labour government but continued as the Conservatives came to power and followed a similar trajectory. The Conservative government continued to engage with and support Quilliam who accused Muslim groups of extremism and supported draconian counter-terrorism policies.

LIKE the Labour government, the Tories dismissed organisations representative of Britain’s Muslim communities in favour of their own.

Tell Mama was set up with government backing and was launched in 2012 by Eric Pickles. Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government. Its founder, Fiyaz Mughal, was an adviser on preventing radicalisation and extremism.

Though the organisation works to monitor anti-Muslim hate crime, it has not been trusted by British Muslims because of its links to the Community Security Trust, while both Mughal and Tell Mama have attacked representative Muslim organisations. Though it has received £7m in funding from the government since 2012, its transparency and governance has attracted scrutiny.

The Conservative government also sought to mobilise a national coalition to challenge and speak out against extremism as part of its counter-extremism strategy and gave discredited figures among the Muslim community key government positions.

The appointment of Sara Khan as Commissioner for the Commission on Countering Extremism in 2018 and her review on threats to social cohesion and democratic resilience in 2024 has been heavily criticised, as was the proposed appointment of Mughal as anti-Muslim hatred advisor due to their support for government policies discriminatory towards Muslims.

Labour are repeating the same mistakes in creating an organisation that is not representative of Muslim communities but rather in agreement with government views.

(Image: Joe Giddens)

A draft document revealed by Middle East Eye claims that the Government is unable to access and seek advice from diverse British Muslim communities. However, the reality is that Labour are not engaging with these communities but rather following in the footsteps of their predecessors in creating a group to avoid doing so.

In the creation of the Muslim Leadership Council, we can see a number of parallels with previous Labour mistakes which indicate its likely failure.

The Muslim Leadership Council is being fostered by the Good Faith Partnership and is being modelled on the Jewish Leadership Council, which both work closely with the government, raising questions about its authenticity as a voice for British Muslims.

Like the organisations of the Blair government, figures that have been criticised and not accepted by British Muslims as representative of their communities have been appointed including former army imam Asim Hafiz, raising questions about its credibility.

As in the creation of the SMC, the Muslim Leadership Council is being set up due to the perception of a “vacuum of leadership within the Muslim community” after October 7, 2023, despite the existence of organisations like the MCB.

Like the previous Labour government, Starmer’s government is deciding which Muslims are acceptable for engagement. This project is more about creating an organisation that is friendly to government opinion rather than representing the Muslim community for which it will only be rejected.

As the previous Labour government lost the support of Muslims due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Labour’s position on Gaza has led to wide distrust among British Muslims. Labour’s position on Gaza not only cost the party major seats to independents and slashed their majority in many constituencies but has highlighted the disconnect between the party and Muslim communities.

As human rights experts, government lawyers and international courts have raised concerns over Israeli war crimes and genocide, Labour have yet to show any contrition for their long refusal to back a ceasefire and denial of human rights abuses.

However, we can acknowledge that there has been some movement in the right direction as the Labour government has restored funding to the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA and dropped the challenge to the International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. The Muslim Vote and the anti-genocide movement have made a real impact on voters, which contributed to Labour’s losses which they cannot ignore.

The creation of another government-backed Muslim organisation will only lead to further distrust and exacerbate the loss of Muslim support if they do not engage directly with Britain’s diverse Muslim communities and credible organisations that are truly representative of and have the confidence of British Muslims.

If these proposals materialise, it shows that Labour are simply not taking the needs of the Muslim community seriously and have learned nothing from the election.