Islamophobia definition will silence moderate Muslims, says imam
A FEMALE imam has claimed that “reasonable” criticism of Islam would be banned under MPs’ proposals for a new definition of Islamophobia.
Seyran Ateş is urging ministers to reject calls for a legally binding description of anti-Muslim prejudice that could be used to prosecute those found guilty of Islamophobia or impose sanctions on workers or members of political parties.
Ms Ateş, who was the first female imam to open a mosque in Germany, claimed the proposals would “capture many moderate and liberal Muslims’ criticism of the ‘Muslimness’ followed by their brothers and sisters in other denominations and movements” and encourage the “radicalising doctrines” of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
She made the intervention after a cross-party group of MPs, led by Anna Soubry, the former Tory minister, and Wes Streeting, a Labour backbencher, issued a report in December last year stating that state and private organisations should formally adopt a definition describing Islamophobia as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.
The group said that adopting the definition would ensure that public and private sector organisations could addresses cases of Islamophobia and help victims “to more clearly substantiate the basis of a complaint”.
In May the Government stated that the wording needed “further careful consideration” and had “not been broadly accepted”. It has been accepted by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservatives.
Sir John Jenkins, a former government adviser on the Muslim Brotherhood, has warned that the group failed to offer “any example of the type of criticism of Islam, or Muslims, or especially, Islamists, that might fall outside
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the definition of ‘Islamophobia’ that they urge the Government and others to accept”.
Ms Ateş told The Sunday Telegraph: “I believe the proposed definition of ‘Islamophobia’ is not appropriate and ... the UK Government must reject calls for this definition or a similar definition to be enacted in UK law. Ms Ateş added: “It is deeply troubling that it will capture so much reasonable and well-intentioned criticism of certain aspects of Islamic teaching and so it raises questions on the motivations of its advocates and whether this issue has been hijacked for political purposes.”
The all-party parliamentary group for British Muslims had claimed that the absence of a formal definition of Islamophobia “would allow for the continued denial of Islamophobia”.
Its report, the foreword to which was written by Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, insisted its aim was not to “curtail free speech or criticism of Islam as a religion”.