Labour’s Lyn Brown MP still has Problems with the Muslim Community in Newham.
A letter, purporting to represent a large number of Muslim organisations in the borough has been written to Lyn Brown MP. Brown, readers will recall, chose not to vote for the SNP cease-fire motion.
It seems that Muslim residents have been anxious to meet with her to discuss their concerns over Gaza.
Such a meeting sounds like a lose-lose for Brown, doing too little, too late to appease her constituents, either because she differs in her analysis or because of pressures from the party leadership.
It may also be that she has concerns about the nature of any conversation. The group members appear to still believe that the Al Ahli Hospital “bombing” was the result of the Israeli Air Force. Readers will recall that within minutes of the incident, Hamas had released a press release that went around the world asserting that the Israelis had bombed the hospital, destroyed part of it and that some 500 people, staff and patients, had been killed.
A little investigation, aided by a video shot live by Al Jazeera, discovered that
The hospital had not been hit
500 people inside the hospital had not been killed
A rocket had exploded in the car park
The rocket had been launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, (roughly 20% of all rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel fall into Gaza).
The number of deaths is disputed with estimates as low as 50 and numbers from Hamas being closer to 500.
The writers also talk of the “occupation”. We all sympathise with the “occupied”, and intuitively support the eviction of the “occupier”, who almost always, is oppressive. It is somewhat odd to find its use in terms of Gaza, at least prior to mid-October. This is a coded reference to the existence of Israel. Israel exists in this mindset on “occupied” land, the mere presence of Israel is evidence of “occupation”.
We can feel a degree of sympathy for Brown here. The writers appear to come from the position that the only way to peace in the middle east is to end the “occupation”, by which they mean, end the existence of Israel or in other words, cleanse the area of its Jews.
Which brings us to the final point asserted in the letter. The writers accuse Israel of genocide, we include the definition* below. Manifestly, it is not. But, in the spirit of the age, making increasingly outlandish accusations is the norm. One might offer the suggestion that there is a bit of psychological projection here. Those who want to rid the area of Jews have got their retaliation in first by accusing Israel of genocide.
So, all of this pose’s problems for Brown and for Labour.
She holds a meeting and it is acrimonious. She doesn’t hold a meeting and is accused of avoiding (or running from) residents.
She cannot give the group what they want, and we don’t know what the rest of the community feel about Gaza. The Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and atheists may or may not share either the outlook or the demands of the letter-writers. She is being pressured to respond to voices within one religious community while all of the others are silent.
This letter appears to be unconnected to the Independent Group on the council. However, it is the Independent Group which is likely to be the recipients of any electoral disillusionment with Labour. They certainly took some votes because of Gaza in Plaistow North.
As we have noted before, we should be wary in assuming, regardless of how broad it appears on paper, that any group represents all of the community. Gaza will not be the touchstone for many Muslims.
But in terms of organised political engagement, it appears that the wedge between Labour and the Muslim community in Newham is being driven in further.
Dear Lyn Brown MP,
We are writing as a group of representatives from mosques and Muslim community organisations in Newham, specifically from the West Ham constituency. We are writing to you today to express our disappointment with your continuous refusal to meet with us in Newham, despite our repeated requests.
Our representatives have written to you about meeting with leaders of some Muslim community organisations and mosques from Newham, specifically from your constituency several times.
We are releasing this as a public statement. We as leaders of Muslim community organisations and mosques in Newham have requested to meet you in Newham privately, in secure locations and without any publicity, to discuss the Labour party's stance on the brutal Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, the occupation of Palestine and the broken relationships of Labour with Muslim communities in Newham and across the country.
We note:
- We initially wrote to you to raise our concerns with the UK government when Israel bombed the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital on 17th October 2023. We did not receive any response to this letter.
- We then wrote to you before the first UK parliamentary vote for a ceasefire on 12th November 2023 asking to meet at your earliest convenience to discuss the issues.
- Asger responded on your behalf saying you would be happy to meet on 17th November 2023 and he would get back in touch in a few days with dates.
- We asked for an update on the 23rd November 2023 and received a response from Asger on 24th November 2023 offering a meeting with you in Westminster on 29th November 2023. We responded on the 24th November 2023 asking to meet in Newham.
- We did not receive any further communication and followed up on 7th December 2023 asking for an update.
- We received a response from Asger on 8th December 2023 saying that you would like to meet at Westminster due to security concerns. In the same letter Asger mentioned that you were concerned about the bomb threats on East London Mosque and the rise of Islamophobic hate speech.
- We responded on 11th December 2023 saying that there was broad consensus from around 15 leaders of Muslim community organisations and mosques that the meeting should take place in Newham. We also noted the historic issues of poor engagement with Muslim community organisations and mosques in Newham and offered to support to facilitate better engagement.
- On the 15th December 2023, Asger responded saying that the meeting should take place in Westminster and attached statements about Gaza that you have made in parliament.
We further note:
- We are offering to host a private meeting with you in Newham in a mosque or Muslim community centre.
- To this day, we have not received a personal response from you, but have been forced to communicate through an intermediary from your office. Your lack of direct engagement suggests that you are not too concerned about the sentiments of Muslim communities in Newham.
- We are dismayed at the Labour party's position on the genocide of the Palestinians and the blind support the Labour party has given the extremist far right Netanyahu government in committing this brutal campaign.
- We want to make it clear, this meeting is not just about the genocide in Gaza, but your role as our representative and the disingenuous reason of security concerns when you have failed to engage with our communities for years and years.
- Your repeated use of security concerns as an excuse for non-engagement is deeply offensive and reflects a dismissive attitude towards our concerns. Some have said that they feel it is offensive and an Islamophobic trope. We are willing to give the benefit of doubt and move forward to try and create better understanding.
- You have consistently declined our invitations, asking instead to meet with us in Westminster, a location that is alien to us, representing oppression and securitisation of our communities. We do not understand why you as the MP for the area cannot meet at any location in the constituency and if there is a genuine security concern, we are prepared to work with the relevant authorities to put in the appropriate security measures.
- We are again offering to host a meeting with you in Newham to discuss these issues in more detail. We believe that a face-to-face conversation can help to bridge the communication gap that has existed for far too long between you and our communities.
Again, we reiterate as we have in our previous correspondence, Gaza has shattered the illusions of the supremacy of the current US-led hegemony. We will all be haunted by the deaths of tens of thousands as well as the unimaginable destruction that the Israeli state has unleashed backed by our government and the Labour party.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Signed
Shaykh Abid Siddiqui. Newham Council of Mosques
Maulana Abdul Wahhab. Darul Atfal
Hafiz Jamil Ahmed. East End Islamic Centre
Imran Talati. Quwwatul Islam
Asim Uddin. Masjid Ibrahim
Mufti Shah Hamza. Motala Foundation
Abidah Uddin. Newham Peace and Dawah
Saffiyah Amejee. Wellbeing Community
Mohammad Nurruzaman. Darul Arqam
Johura Qureshi. Southern Road SRE
Shakira Begum. Sisters Circle
Mufti Shah Shuaib. Imam Motola Academy
Ali Akhter. Al Hira Masjid
Rozina Iqbal. Taqlis
Hajera Balaribi. Palm Leaf Counselling
Mufti Umair Zulfikar. Riverine Centre
Shafia Begum. Newham Sisters Connect
Husnaan Raza. Al Khayr
Zaheer Mumtaz. Green Street Masjid
Sharmina Banu. Sukoon Project
Umar Naveed. Minhajul Quran
Anas Khan. Newham Muslim Forum
*
From the Genocide Convention
