‘SCOTLAND WON’T VOTE FOR A BROWN MUSLIM PAKI’
MSP Sarwar lays bare ingrained racism
A LABOUR councillor told Anas Sarwar he couldn’t vote for him because Scotland wasn’t ready for a “brown, Muslim Paki”.
The MSP revealed the
shameful slur from a serving Labour council group leader to highlight what he insists is “institutional racism” blighting Scottish society.
Glasgow MSP Sarwar said the incident happened as he campaigned to be Scottish Labour leader last summer and the councillor told him why he could not support his bid. And it wasn’t the only such insult. Another senior Labour member told Sarwar she had been planning to back him for leader until she saw a picture of his wife wearing a hijab – the traditional Islamic headscarf.
The revelations will raise troubling questions about the attitudes towards Muslims within the Labour Party and wider Scottish public life.
Sarwar told the Record: “What I am hoping to do by talking about this is to call out these incidents so we hold ourselves to a higher standard and we start talking about racism and Islamophobia in the same way we do about other forms of prejudice.”
Sarwar, 34, lost out to Richard Leonard in the leadership contest, which was sparked by Kezia Dugdale’s resignation.
And while he doesn’t believe his ethnic background cost him victory, the experience left him determined to do more to tackle racism in society.
Sarwar – the son of the UK’s first Muslim MP Mohammad Sarwar – will tomorrow launch the Scottish Parliament’s first cross-party group on tackling Islamophobia.
“We rightly talk about everyday sexism, we rightly talk about everyday homophobia, we don’t talk about everyday racism, we don’t talk about everyday Islamophobia,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is that Islamophobia is on the rise in Scotland, across the UK and, indeed, right across the world.
“What I am hoping to do through the cross-party group on Islamophobia is provide a platform for us to talk about it and to allow people to voice their concerns and look at the legislative framework.” Sarwar revealed the details of two shocking incidents of racism he suffered on the campaign trail to illustrate the scale of the problem.
The first came when the father of three was calling senior Labour figures to canvas support.
The ex-deputy leader told how a Labour group chief on a Scots council explicitly cited his race when explaining why he could not back him.
Sarwar – who declined to name the councillor involved – told the Record: “A leader of a Labour council group told me very clearly the reason that he couldn’t support me in the leadership election was that, in his words, Scotland wasn’t ready for a ‘brown, Muslim
He later apologised, saying, in his words, he had got caught up in ‘pub banter’ SARWAR
Paki’. When I challenged him on that, saying it was a racist, Islamophobic comment, he said that wasn’t his opinion, it was his fear about what his constituents believe.
“He later apologised saying, in his words, that he got caught up in ‘pub banter’. To which I said, ‘I don’t know what pubs you are hanging around in but you need to get a different circle of friends.”
Sarwar also revealed that a picture of his wife Furheen wearing a headscarf cost him the support of a long-standing and prominent Labour member.
He said: “My wife wears a hijab and she said, based on the picture she saw of my wife, she couldn’t vote for me in the leadership election. The point I would make about my wife is she was born in Scotland, she was raised in Scotland, she studied at Glasgow University, she is a dentist by profession, she works in the NHS.
“She is a normal, passionate, hard-working Scot who is just as mad as anybody else when she needs to be, just as funny as anybody else when she needs to be.
“She is a Scot in every way possible and her identity is way more than what she chooses to wear on her head.
“What right do I have to dictate to any woman, far less my wife, about what she should and shouldn’t wear? What a woman chooses to wear, how she chooses to express herself, how she chooses to present herself – either in public or private – is the right of that individual woman.
“And anyone who believes in gender equality should respect that, regardless of what religion the person happens to come from. That is a fundamental Labour principle.”
Sarwar believes terrorist incidents have fuelled Islamophobia around the world, with the problem particularly prominent online. Recorded hate crimes towards Muslims in Scotland almost doubled between 2015 and 2016.
He added: “I get comments on social media all the time about Pakistan. I wasn’t born in Pakistan, I was born in
Scotland and I’m just as Scottish as anybody else. I get comments about racism and saying I want to impose Sharia law.
“The number of posts I saw during the leadership election saying we can’t allow a Muslim leader because he’ll impose Sharia law on the country was unbelievable. I support Scots law, not Sharia law.”
But Sarwar stressed he does not believe this abuse is typical of the Scottish public at large. He said: “I think Scottish society has shown that, in general, they see past people’s colour, faith and people’s country of origin and see what people can offer to their communities.
“But what we have to challenge here is institutional racism, institutional Islamophobia, institutional sexism and homophobia. It is those institutions that need to be challenged directly.”
He insisted it was not just an issue for the Labour Party, adding: “Political parties are representative of wider society in different ways.
“So if you accept we have an issue in wider society with sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, then it is natural that in political parties they will have those same issues as well.
“I think we should hold ourselves to a higher standard in the Labour Party, as the party of equality, and call out any acts of prejudice or hate speak in any form. This isn’t just about me, it is about people of all backgrounds and faiths being able to find a voice to talk about this.”
Religious background didn’t play much of a public role in the leadership contest, which was largely dominated by questions about Sarwar’s wealth and his family’s business practices. He said: “I didn’t want race to be an issue in the leadership contest because I was standing because I wanted to represent all parts of Scotland.
“I didn’t raise it straight afterwards either because I am not trying to use this as some sort of explanation or excuse.
“The reason I am telling it now is because this is my story. But my story pales in significance to lots of stories you will hear from, in particular, women about the challenges they face in their everyday lives.
“I think we have to give those people a platform to voice their concerns and get change.”
This is about people of all faiths and backgrounds being able to find a voice SARWAR