The politics of common purpose

Page 14
Q-News, Issue 361
March 2005

British Muslims are more diverse and have a broader range of interests and concerns than some like to give them credit for. Labour party chairman Ian McCartney argues that, more than just a historic bond, Labour and the Muslim community have shared values and a common political purpose.

As I have travelled up and down the country in the role of Labour Party Chair, it has become clear to me that British Muslims are more diverse and have a much broader range of interests and concerns than some political parties and commentators give them credit for.

I believe that Labour has always been and always will be the party which best represents these interests. However there is a bond between the Labour Party and Muslim communities which is much stronger than any coalition maintained on an issue by issue basis.

The largest migration of Muslim communities began in the 1950s, coming mainly from rural areas of South Asia, in particular the Indian subcontinent. Muslim migrants arrived in the UK primarily to aid the shortfall in the workforce following the Second World War and settled in the inner city areas of London, the industrial towns of the Midlands, and the textile towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland. It was in areas like these that the Muslim campaigns against poverty and for better access to education quickly developed a strong bond with the Labour party. Many Muslims became active trade unionists and local Labour councillors working closely with the Labour party nationally.

There are many obvious economic and social reasons why largely working class, inner city communities would have best seen their interests protected and represented by the Labour party. Since 1997, it is under a Labour government that state funded Muslim schools have been established, the primary purpose rule which affected ethnic minorities, particularly Muslim communities, was abolished and assistance given has been given to pilgrims undertaking the Hajj to Mecca and a raft of race relations legislation benefiting Muslims and other communities has been introduced. It is also in the Labour party that Muslims have found their voice- with Labour having more Muslim Peers and councillors than the other two parties combined. We are also the only Party with Muslim MPs and, with the support of local communities, we are set to double the number of Muslim Labour MPs at the next election.

For Muslim voters the policy appeal of Labour has always been based on a common struggle to ensure equality of opportunity and a level playing field. British Muslims have voted for Labour, because it is the only party that understands that Muslims want only fairness not favours. But the relationship between Labour and Muslims goes much deeper than just policy and legislative considerations. In truth it is based on shared values and shared principles.

Like all the great faiths, the concepts of community, social justice and peace are integral to Islam. These are the values which inspired working men and women to come together from the fields and the factories to create the Labour Party.  The chief duty prescribed by Islam for believers in the faith is the creation of a just community in which all members, even the weakest and most vulnerable, are treated with absolute respect.

Muslims are rightly proud of key values in Islam that focus on traditions of community (ummah) and of decision-making through consultation (shura) and through consensus (ijma). These traditions underline the compatibility between Islamic values and the democratic values and practices found in the UK and elsewhere in the West.
The global Islamic community of believers is predicated upon a common understanding of equality, compassion and shared social responsibility. Indeed, social responsibility and justice has been one of the guiding objectives of Islam, providing the framework for this sense of community. Fundamental to Islam’s teachings on social responsibility, is the notion of justice.

The practice of annual charitable donations, zakah is a demonstrable example of social responsibility in practice. These charitable donations or taxes were used to form a sort of welfare state to care for the poor and as a form of redistribution of wealth, during the Prophet Muhammad’s time and thereafter. Protection of the poor was also behind the Islamic ban on exploitative loans - an early example of a policy designed to protect the most vulnerable in a society. It is striking that Islam not only sympathises with the plight of the poor and disadvantaged but that it stipulates such clear remedies to address the needs of the poor.

There is another uniquely British aspect to the relationship.  In many parts of Europe the Left was militantly anti-religious for long periods of its history.  In the Spanish Civil War and the French revolution, attacks on churches and priests were commonplace.  France’s rigorously secular order stems from those historical roots.  Later the influence of Marxism would strengthen an already existing anti-religious streak in many European left wing movements.

By contrast the traditions of British social democracy that led to the founding of the Labour Party were different.  The influence of Marxism was weaker in Britain than in any other European country while the influence of religion was strong.  The Reformation and, much later, the growth of Non Conformism had already by the nineteenth century given rise to a richly diverse civil society.  Whereas European social democracy was often constructed in opposition to religious faith, by sharp contrast faith played a strong role in the rise of the British Labour Party.

Traditions of Christian Socialism were very strong in the late 19th/early 20th centuries and fed directly into the growth of the Labour Party.  One of the first pamphlets of the Fabian Society, one of the groups which helped found the Labour Party, was a tract on Christian Socialism. 

These are, I believe, more than simply academic points for British Muslims. The Labour party has always embraced people of faith who believe that politics has a moral purpose.  While we can claim no monopoly on turning faith into political action, ours is a movement which has always welcomed those whose faith moves them to take on the injustice and suffering faced by others.

Today in 21st Century Britain, Muslims are a key part of communities up and down the country. Muslims sit on health boards or as school governors, they are entrepreneurs and community leaders and crucially they are Labour MPs and Labour Councillors. But there are major challenges for the British Muslim community as well as the Labour Party.  It is self-evident there have been strains in a close relationship which has traditionally bolstered the strength of the Labour Party. But one constant which remains unchanged are our shared values.

I believe this makes the Labour Party the only choice for British Muslims, a choice based not only on policies, but a choice based on shared values and principles.

Ian McCartney is Chairman of the Labour Party and a Minister Without Portfolio.