.png)
8 hours ago
10
The shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with his comments about public prayer.
British Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and expected action to be taken.
“I have known Nick for a long time and am deeply disappointed by his divisive comments. He needs to reflect carefully on his own words,” Lord Ahmad told the Guardian.
“If he is aspiring to be lord chancellor, he has to stand up for the principles of equality and justice before the law for all, that comes with that responsibility.”
The intervention by Ahmad, who served as a minister in three different departments in the governments of Theresa May and David Cameron and has been a party member for three decades, comes as Kemi Badenoch backed Timothy.
The shadow justice secretary singled out an event in Trafalgar Square where the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and others prayed as part of an iftar, and claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public were intimidating and un-British.
Nigel Farage has also commented, with Muslim leaders condemning the Reform UK leader’s call to ban public prayer by Muslims in the UK as bigoted, and warning of a “growing tide of hate” after Badenoch questioned whether the events fitted “within the norms of British culture”.
Ahmad said he had started to encounter anti-Muslim hostility on the streets, something that he had believed was consigned to the past.
“It’s ironic that Nick has sought to defend what he said by referring to British values, because it is exactly the values of choice, of standing up for inclusion and freedoms, that have attracted people like me to the Conservative party,” he said.
“Michael Howard was a great mentor to me and he said the party has been and should always be one for all Britons. That is something that we always need to reflect, not just in our policies but also how we present ourselves.”
Ahmad compared Timothy’s comments to previous remarks by Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman about diversity and multiculturalism when they were still in the party.
“Robert has now left and I remember having a debate with him. Indeed, even a run-in with him, and it takes a lot to get me going, when he made comments on how people should be arrested for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he said.
“Nick’s comments about the iftar, the call to prayer and Islam were ill informed and he, and others, need to educate themselves before they make pronouncements like he has.
“The call to prayer is not about domination. Nick should know this. I have known him for a long time when I was minister for countering extremism and he was a special adviser to Theresa May. No one should be trying to scapegoat any community in this way.
“We have had debates about policy and one of the biggest challenges we face is how do you define terms when dealing with issues such as those posed by extremism, whilst allowing for people to discuss things in an open and respectful way. But Nick singling out the act of public prayer by Muslims as being about domination, is, simply put, wrong. I think he is instilling fear. He is not just expressing an opinion.”
Timothy defended himself in an article in the Daily Telegraph, arguing that the Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square was a repudiation of other faiths.
“In a pluralistic society like ours, people are free to believe in the unique truth of Islam if they choose. They are free to proclaim it at home, in mosques, and in communities that gather for that purpose,” he said.
“But when such declarations are projected into shared civic spaces – including monuments of national history and identity such as Trafalgar Square – the line between freedom of religion and the imposition of religious rituals blurs.”
Ahmad, a businessman who first joined the Conservative party in 1994 and became a life peer in 2011, also spoke candidly, in a similar way to comments recently by the health minister Zubir Ahmed, of how everyday racism had again cropped up in his life.
“Recently, racial slurs have been directed at me in a way that I cannot remember having happened for a long time. It’s unacceptable and no community should live in fear of that,” he said.
Ahmad said he had raised his concerns, adding: “Ultimately, Kemi has been someone who has deep insights and experiences from her own background and she knows that any party which aspires to be of the mainstream needs to be inclusive of people of all faiths. We as a nation move forward by working with, and for all, our communities.”
