Ed Miliband's Scottish Muslim Misadventure

Poor Ed Miliband. He is not having a very good day. There he was thinking that a little light aping of George Galloway's antics would secure him the Muslim bloc vote in Glasgow's forthcoming local elections, but his "dhimmitude lite" approach seems to have left resident Muslims - one wealthy Muslim in particular - unimpressed. Muslim millionaire Mohammad Ramzan has switched his backing from Labour to the SNP. Embarrassingly for Miliband, Ramzan is both brother of ex-Labour MPMohammed Sarwar as well as the uncle of Anas Sarwar who happens to be Scottish Labour's deputy leader.

Labour's allure in its Glaswegian heartland is beginning to fade, and its power to crumble, Michael Crick noting that the party lost control of Glasgow Council a few weeks ago and that the SNP is exerting a strong appeal to traditional Labour voters. It has taken a while for indigenous Labour supporters to notice that "their party" is theirs no longer, and is instead a party obsessed with courting ethnic minority votes and bestowing privileges upon members of ethnic minorities. In Scotland at least, it would appear that what is now a misplaced age-old Labout tribalism is finally disintegrating. What is equally interesting is how Labour's automatic assumption that it can secure the Muslim vote is dissolving, with Ramzan's move here, and Galloway's success in Bradford West, seeming to indicate that it can no longer be taken for granted. Still, these changing political realities do not seem to have awakened Miliband to the folly of Labour's policy of non-indigenous ethnic preference, and its recent destructive embrace of "faith" as a valid facet of identity and basis for policy. Balkanisation proceeds apace.

Into this post-industrial and post-ideological (in terms of the big three parties in Britain) age, the new sectarian divide in Glasgow is not between Protestant and Catholic, but between Muslim and non-Muslim as in so many other cities across Britain. Some might term the distinctive sense of Muslim identity "vibrant" and "assertive", whereas others might perceive many of its characteristics to be alien and aggressively domineering. Nonetheless, Labour's love of multiculturalism will not suffer the party's members to entertain any apprehensions about the overwhelmingly positive and cuddly contribution of minorities to life in this country, hence Miliband's craven courting of the Muslim bloc vote which has this evening led him to a Glasgow mosque. There he will be inaugurating a new group named Muslim Friends of Labour in Scotland. He will doubtless have warm words to lavish upon his Muslim hosts, but what thoughts will his audience harbour of him? How readily might they turn their coats and become Muslim Friends of the SNP?

If Labour support slumps in Scotland next week, how secure will Ed Miliband remain in his post as Labour leader? Ed Balls, amongst others, is probably feeling quite happy. 

Mohammad Ramzan

“By the grace of God” - Galloway’s Bradford West Victory

"By the Grace of God we have won the most sensational victory in British political history" tweeted Galloway upon winning the Bradford West by-election. The bizarre five-word opening of this tweet is not so much indicative of Galloway’s belief that he is some contemporary Cromwell, but of the fact that he fought a campaign in a non-English seat, dominated by the Muslim bloc vote.

Galloway’s win was undeniably dramatic, overturning a comfortable Labour majority and bagging just under 56% of the vote (55.89%). Not only did the Labour vote collapse, but so too did that of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, as illustrated by the following shares of the vote: Labour – 24.99% (-20.36%); Conservative – 8.37% (-22.78%) and Liberal Democrat – 4.59% (-7.08%). The other smaller parties had no cause for celebration either, for the Greens won only 1.47% (-0.85%) and the Democratic Nationalists 1.05% (a marginal fall on the 2010 result). The UKIP and Loony candidates were the only others to increase their share of the vote slightly, with UKIP taking 3.31% (+1.31%).

How and why did this happen? Quite clearly, we should not expect a repeat of such a result for Respect in other constituencies that are not of this type, for Galloway actually took votes from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, whose supporters would never normally dream of voting for Respect, a party that lies firmly to the Left of Labour. Unlike other candidates, he chose to concentrate upon the issue of Afghanistan and calling for the return of our troops (a policy that I happen to agree with) but this would not resonate to such an extent elsewhere.

So, the question has to be asked: why did it resonate here? It did so for an obvious reason, but one which the BBC has not mentioned and would not wish to highlight: the Muslim bloc vote; Muslim voters possess a distinct collective identity and set of policy concerns that are at variance with those of the rest of society. Could Galloway’s victory yesterday represent the ‘maturation’ of a new Muslim confessional politics that sees Muslims willing to vote for a party that represents their specific interests rather than those of the wider society? Galloway may have stopped short of exclaiming “Allahu Akbar!” upon winning the seat, but his “By the grace of God” comment came perilously close.