The shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been criticised by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister for creating fear among Muslims through his comments on public prayer.
According to Tariq Ahmad, British Muslims were openly discussing leaving the Conservative Party, and he had raised the issue with party leaders, expecting a response.
He said: “I have known Nick for a long time and am deeply disappointed by his divisive comments. He needs to reflect carefully on his own words.
“If he is aspiring to be lord chancellor, he has to stand up for the principles of equality and justice before the law for all that come with that responsibility.”
His statement comes after Kemi Badenoch backed Timothy.
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Ahmad noted he had started facing anti-Muslim hostility in public, which he had believed had ended.
“It’s ironic that Nick has sought to defend what he said by referring to British values, because it is exactly the values of choice, of standing up for inclusion and freedoms, that have attracted people like me to the Conservative Party,” he said.
“Michael Howard was a great mentor to me, and he said the party has been and should always be one for all Britons. That is something that we always need to reflect, not just in our policies but also in how we present ourselves.
“Nick’s comments about the iftar, the call to prayer and Islam were ill-informed, and he, and others, need to educate themselves before they make pronouncements like he has,” he added.
Meanwhile, Timothy, through an article in the Daily Telegraph, defended himself, arguing that Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square was a rejection of other faiths.
He said: “In a pluralistic society like ours, people are free to believe in the unique truth of Islam if they choose. They are free to proclaim it at home, in mosques, and in communities that gather for that purpose.
“But when such declarations are projected into shared civic spaces – including monuments of national history and identity such as Trafalgar Square – the line between freedom of religion and the imposition of religious rituals blurs,” he added.
Nigel Farage also commented, as Muslim leaders criticised the Reform UK leader’s proposal to ban public Muslim prayer in the UK as bigoted and warned of a “growing tide of hate,” following comments by Kemi Badenoch about whether such events fit “within the norms of British culture.”
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