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Muslim Representation In Parliament |
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Written by Team MPUK
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Monday, 23 May 2005 |
Muslim Representation In Parliament
When Labour took hold of
a third term on May 5th they were also the only party to welcome two
new Muslim faces to Parliament. Sadiq Khan and Shahid Malik join
Mohammed Sarwar and Khalid Mehmood.
Sadiq Khan is a Human Rights Solicitor and has been politically
active as a local Councillor since the age of 23. Elected to represent
Tooting, South London, he has already placed great emphasis on social
justice and equality of opportunities
Shahid Malik was the first ethnic member of Labour National
Executive Community while vice chairman of Unesco. Elected to represent
Dewsbury.
Mohammed Sarwar, was first elected as MP for Glasgow Govan in 1997
making him the first British Muslim MP. Although mainly concentrating
on constituency issues, Sarwar showed strong opposition to the conduct
of the War on terrorism.
Khalid Mehmood: Khalid Mehmood, was elected in 2001 to represent the Birmingham Perry Bar constituency.
Despite the remarkable 48 Muslim candidates chosen to represent the
three main political parties, many were sadly placed in unwinable
constituencies. Ali Miraj was the confident Conservatives hope to
become their first Muslim MP. Aiming to gain a 6 per cent swing from
Watford Labour MP Clare Ward, he was instead overtaken into third place
by the Liberal democrats who achieved a swing of 13 per cent. Although
generally a similar story for the Liberal Democrats Ayoub Khan led a
fierce campaign against the former International Development Secretary
MP Clare Short reducing her majority from 18,000 to 6,8001.
Arguably the most plausible performance came from Respect Party
candidate Salma Yacoob, standing in Birmingham's Sparkbrook and Small
Heath. Salma had sought to become the first hijab wearing MP.
Unrelentingly campaigning and strongly supported by the Muslim
Association of Britain. She was able to gain a 25% swing of 10,498
votes and significantly dented a strong labour majority of 16,000.
Overtaking challenges from both Conservative and Liberal Democrats
Muslim candidates.
The new total of four Muslim MPs is very much disproportionate to the
Muslim population in Britain which suggests there should be at least 20
Muslim Mps. Given the weight of expectation in these atomised times,
the issues surrounding decisive selection of Muslim candidates by main
political parties must be addressed, before future elections. Not only
to prevent a trend of under representation in parliament, but to treat
the common feelings of marginalisation, mistreatment and
misrepresentation that sets to create a inhabitable climate. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 23 May 2005 )
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