A Jewish campaigner who has spent years highlighting the plight of Uyghur Muslims in China claims he has been blocked from being a Labour councillor over Islamophobia.
For more than two years Andrew, an Orthodox Jew who lives in north west London, has been protesting outside the Chinese Embassy over China’s concentration camps.
The campaigner, who has asked for his surname to be withheld for security reasons, is a Labour Party member who applied for selection as a council candidate in Barnet next year.
However he claims the party blocked the move on the grounds of Islamophobia after he tweeted an open letter leader to Keir Starmer questioning Labour’s use of the word.
The letter welcomes Labour’s pledge to “eliminate Muslim hatred from the Labour Party” as a “critical and important step”.
But it questions the use of the word “Islamophobia” as opposed to “anti-Muslim hatred”.
The letter argues that while Islam is a “wonderful religion of peace and dignity”, freedom of speech gives Labour members the right to question the religion, provided their views were neither discriminatory or dangerous.
The letter argues: “Islamophobia means ‘Fear of Islam’ - it immediately disallows criticism of the religion of Islam. We cannot allow such mind-controlling totalitarianism in our party. The term that should be used is anti-Muslim hatred, as it is always wrong …..to hate someone because of their religion or race.”
In his letter, Andrew goes onto say that while he respects and admires Islam, he is fearful of it because of the violence carried out by a tiny number of radical Islamists, believing they do so in the name of their religion.
Andrew was told that because he had tweeted this open letter he was no longer suitable to be a local councillor candidate and he lacked awareness of equality, ignoring his two year protests against China’s internment of Muslims.
Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in concentration camps in Xinjiang.
There is also evidence that Uyghurs are being used as forced labour and of women being forcibly sterilised.
China denies all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, claiming its system of camps is there to combat separatism and Islamist militancy in the region.
The Labour Party said: "Labour adopted the APPG definition of Islamophobia in 2019, and our NEC recently reaffirmed this by agreeing a new Islamophobia code of conduct - which allows for free expression.
"As a party, we believe it is for Muslim people to define the hate, prejudice and racism they face, including the terms used to describe them."
