What's the deal with the Conservative Party and Islamophobia?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

Recently and in the past, high profile Tories have been Islamophobic. It is in the news atm because of Tory MP Lee Anderson's comments but it predates that, some of us will remember when Boris Johnson's comments led to a rise in the abuse of Muslim women.

The Tory cabinet ministers under PM Sunak are turning themselves inside out and making themselves look really foolish in interviews to avoid naming, nevermind addressing the issue.

Why? What's that about?

What's the deal with the Labour Party and antisemitism?

Antisemitism in the Labour Party is a far bigger issue - the current Islamophobia row is an attempt to divert from that as the war in the Middle East was highlighting the massive schism in Labour.

George Galloway is claiming he’s won in Rochdale… expect Labour to start massively pitching to the Muslim vote while ignoring the other issues.

Yes the Tory Party is full of Islamophobia, they will not acknowledge it is a problem, many of them think it will also attract the lowlife voters who share their views.
Check out what Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who has called out many of her party over the years, has said about this in recent days.

I can't believe the first two posts are whataboutery. Are Tories just sitting by their devices, hands hovering, waiting to go WHAT ABOUT LABOUR? After every post?

Just as a matter of good sense, a person can think the Tories are racist arseholes and still think Labour are twats too. There are more than two positions in life.

So please, posters 1 and 2, what about the racism in the Tory Party? What do you think about that?

@HeraSyndulla and @HappyEater this is a thread about Islamophobia in the current Government. If you want to discuss Antisemitism in the Opposition, please start your own thread.

What did Baroness Warsi say @SomethingUniqueThisTime ?

Can we have a definition of "Islamophobia" please ?

(Just so we are all on the same page)

Islamophobia in the Tory party is a huge problem. The stats in the article below show how widespread it is, and also that it is just getting worse.

I don't know if the party is now made up of ex BNP / UKIP types, or whether the party is using fearmongering about Muslims to attract votes, but it is disturbing either way.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/28/tories-islamophobic-conservative-party-members-hope-not-hate

We are still living with the consequences of 9/11 and the war on terror. A group of Islamist terrorists took it upon themselves to represent all Muslims and Western leaders found it advantageous to go along with that by suggesting the religion itself was the problem (the clash of civilizations) not the group of terrorists

Apparently respectable intellectuals pushed this nonsense and dehumanised Muslims. Right wing racists switched from hating Jews to Muslims (I suspect they still hate Jews but it's more advantagous to hate Muslims in public). And of course the terrorists kept killing people in the name of religion so it on it went.

So it's racist and opportunist. Does Zac Goldsmith hate Muslims or just have no morals when it comes to promoting himself? Hard to say but that's part of the normalisation that makes it ok for Anderson to attack the same mayor in the same way

Yes. Define Islamophobia please.

I don’t like religion in general. It’s taken secular countries millennia to escape from the controlling men of religion and I don’t like to see it creeping back in.

That's not relevant here, just like a comment about Islamophobia in the Tory party wouldn't be relevant on a thread about antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Do they hate Muslims or is it dog whistle politics and they'll do anything to stay in power? Despicable behaviour either way. I don't like religion but I don't hate people who choose to worship.

So it's racist and opportunist. Does Zac Goldsmith hate Muslims or just have no morals when it comes to promoting himself? Hard to say but that's part of the normalisation that makes it ok for Anderson to attack the same mayor in the same way

Zac is an odd one. He's Jewish. His sister was married to a Muslim. He has 2 nephews with a Muslim father. He could have been such great mayor of London, bringing people together yet instead his campaign was quite hateful and islamaphobic.
Perhaps for personal reasons. Who knows.

I think we need to differentiate between attacks on individual Muslims as people (which is bigotry) and attacks on an ideology, whether it be the Islam, Scientology or Christianity. The former should absolutely be condemned, but nobody should be condemned or silenced for criticising a belief system, otherwise we get medieval blasphemy laws which would be awful.

I feel like the term "Islamophobia" is used as a blanket term to stifle legitimate fears people have and not really an appropriate ter. A "phobia" is an irrational fear. It's not irrational to be worried about some of the tenets of Islam (for example the extreme homophobia, misogyny, hatred of non-Muslims etc). I don't hear people talking about "Christianophobia" when Christians are attacked (which happens daily both in real life and in the media). Surely Islam is a set of ideas and ideas should always be scrutinised and mocked if they are absurd.

And I agree with other posters that anti-Jewish hatred is far worse (and very prevalent) in the Labour (and other parties). There are over 4 million Muslims in the UK and approx 250,000 Jews so as the minority they are exposed to a lot more violence and racism than the larger group.

MPs : Anderson/Sunak/Suella/Tories etc are Islamaphobic!

Also MPs : We need bodyguards now!

Is that to protect them from militant Quakers or angry Baptists?

Surely it's the Quakers and their love of beheading.

The current Tory candidate for London mayor is also islamophobic. Are they deliberately trying to alienate the Muslim electorate or do they just not care?

@TooBigForMyBoots it makes me sad as most Muslims I come across are really hardworking and work in all sectors from driving taxis and buses to solicitors, dentists and consultants.
Just like everyone else.yet they're othered and demonised as if they all support grooming gangs and terrorists. No, they don't and want those people punished and wouldn't consider them as representative of Muslims.
Islamaphobia is a huge problem and shouldn't be minimised.

I'm sure you'd find a few angry Baptists in Northern Ireland. Christians are well known there for their terrorist acts.

What recent terrorist acts in the name of Christianity in Northern Ireland are you referring to? Please can you link to any news articles about them as I am unaware of any.

I think the previous poster was engaging in a bit of satire .

As Mr Meatloaf once said you took the words right out of my mouth.

Talk us through the most recent baptist/quaker terrorist attack on UK soil

Here's some cross community terrorism from the lads who fight "For God and Ulster", i can'tbe sure of the actual denomination. I'm not sure what that has to do with Islamophobia in the Conservative Party though.
https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/man-charged-with-attempted-murder-of-dci-john-caldwell/a235719711.html