England’s first Muslim MP warns against controversial Islamophobia definition

Khalid Mahmood, who was the first Muslim elected to represent an English constituency, has warned the government against codifying a controversial definition of Islamophobia.

Mahmood’s intervention comes amid reports in the Daily Telegraph that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is considering setting up a 16-person advisory council that will help draw up guidelines on the handling of anti-Muslim bigotry.

The committee will reportedly be headed by former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who also served as Chair of the Citizens UK Commission on Islam, Participation and Public Life

Grieve wrote a foreword to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ report that produced a new definition of Islamophobia: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”

But former Labour MP Mahmood, who represented Birmingham Perry Barr from 2001 until last year when he was defeated by pro-Gaza independent Ayoub Khan, told the Telegraph: “I don’t agree with the 2018 APPG definition of Islamophobia and with Dominic Grieve as chair; this council seems to be set up simply to wave it through.”

He added: “If the government really wants to tackle discrimination, the council must look into the real issues that British Muslims face instead of just blindly accepting the 2018 APPG report.”

Other critics of the APPG definition have suggested that the codification of the definition could result in restrictions of freedom of speech.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick called the interpretation “a Trojan horse for a blasphemy law”.

Posting on X, he added: Why is it acceptable to mock Christianity but not Islam? Labour keep displaying an Orwellian disdain for free speech.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said in a statement: "No blasphemy laws will be introduced by this government.

“We are firmly committed to tackling all forms of hatred and division, including the unacceptable rise in anti-Muslim hatred. We will provide further updates on this in due course”.

The APPG’s report also cited the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and other examples “inspired much of the thinking of Parliamentarians engaged in this process of proposing a working definition of Islamophobia”.

“The explanatory notes provided under the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism could, in all fairness, be adopted in their entirety to Islamophobia”, the report concluded.

However, some opponents, including David Toube, the former director of policy at anti-extremism think tank Quilliam, have suggested that the APPG’s definition has serious flaws.

In a column for the JC at the time he wrote: “The authors of the report have taken the structure and content of IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as their starting point and, in many places, done little more than cross out ‘Jew’ and insert ‘Muslim’ in its place. Most forms of bigotry have some common characteristics but diverge significantly in their details and form.”