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A decision by the Islamic Party of Britain to suspend its activities
until further notice brings to an end almost 15 years of
independent British Muslim political involvement. The party was
founded in 1989 amidst the “Rushdie Affair”, and party leader
David Musa Pidcock’s book “Satanic Voices” remains one of the
most comprehensive rebuttals of what the party perceived to be a
concerted effort to discredit Islam. The party first contested
council elections in 1990 and a by-election in Bradford in the
same year, but it never managed to gain the undivided support of
Muslims in those constituencies. When it became increasingly
clear that the chances of electoral success remained slim, the
party developed into more of a think tank, contributing analysis
and alternative policies through its quarterly publication
“Common Sense” edited by its general secretary Dr Sahib
Mustaqim Bleher.
The decision to suspend active political campaigning was taken
on the basis of an assessment that whilst the party had succeeded
in kick-starting a political debate amongst Muslims in Britain,
shifting the focus of the Muslim community from cultural and
minority issues to dealing with the social and political realities of
modern Britain, the British Muslim community remained too
divided to present a united political challenge to the existing
political establishment. Whilst strategic and tactical voting might
have assisted in changing the political landscape at the time of
the party’s foundation, the patronising nanny state of new
Labour, brought into power with the support of the majority of
Muslims in the UK, holds little such promise for the foreseeable
future.
“Muslims who complain about Islamophobia and demonstrate
against the present government’s anti-Muslim policies, including
the war on Afghanistan and Iraq, need to examine their own
complicity”, said Dr Bleher. “British Muslims were too busy
competing with each other for acceptance by the establishment to
realise the increasingly totalitarian nature of all-pervasive
government.” “The open hostility of our current government
against Islam, the hysteria against asylum seekers and would-be
terrorists, coupled with the ongoing allegiance of major Muslim
organisations to Muslim movements abroad, has resulted in a
community made up of intolerant and frustrated extremists on the
one hand, career-opportunistic stooges on the other, and an ever
growing political apathy and cynicism amongst the greater
majority of Muslims living in the UK”, he added.
The party will retain its internet presence at
www.islamicparty.com for the time being and does not rule out a
come-back, should the political climate change substantially.
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Dr.
Sahib Mustaqim Bleher |
David
Musa Pidcock |
General
Secretary |
Party
Leader |
Islamic
Party of Britain |
Islamic
Party of Britain |
info@islamicparty.com |
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