Muslim vote (the group, not people generally)

[Noicant]

I was looking at the list of 18 demands from Muslim Vote to Labour and on that list they had

18. Remove the archaic 'spiritual influence' offence from statute.'

I’m not being funny but they want clergy to be able to direct how people vote. Please tell me Labour are going to just ignore this, I’m not sure that many people want their Imam telling them how to vote either, I know if I were Muslim I’d just ignore him.

I have no particular strong feelings about the Israel stuff, it’s to be expected from the group but that one surprised me a bit.

Would it help you to know that the Catholic church regularly tells people how to vote on issues? It's certainly a big thing in Ireland where the church has openly told everyone in sermons and published materials on how to vote in 3 recent constitutional amendments (written constitution here so we have referendums for changes). Some people see it as important that the organisation providing their spiritual or moral guidance guides them on how to look at the laws governing their country - just like political parties or unions might provide guidance.

Or perhaps they asked for it because they feel the law curtails the freedom of expression of imams and other people in a position of spiritual influence. IDK, but I certainly don't see any reason, other than a kind of knee-jerk fear of Islam, to leap to any 'chillling' conclusion.

I'm a Muslim and I've never heard of this website/movement before.

Some Muslims don't go to a mosque regularly enough to be "influenced" by the imam.

I think KS knows he can afford to ignore them. There are 3 million Muslims. Take out those ineligible to vote, those who don't agree with this group and spread them around several constituencies and they have little influence. Most of the councillors who were elected were elected by a tiny group of people, and as a result of voter apathy. The ' demands are ridiculous. There is no point in Labour trying so hard to get rid of the Hard Left from Labour if they are going to pander to the Hard Right and religious fundamentalists.

These are self-appointed voices who incorrectly presume to speak for other people. The 'other' people should challenge their presumption. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to happen as often as it should.

The one thing this country doesn't need is sectarian political factions.

Honestly? I can't believe it's legal to do that in Ireland!

Yeah .... You might also enjoy learning our constitution was actually written in conjunction with the church, so quite a lot of clauses would give you pause for thought! It needs a good rework but we are having a lot of referendums over next few years to work it out and erase that a little bit. We did get rid of blasphemy there recently though!it is ridiculous

Wow! Mind you at least you guys are on a very progressive and forward thinking path and it's good that it's happening through referendums so the electorate is involved in the process :-)

we are getting dizzy by being on the roundabout for far too long. someone please send us some betahistine

"Religion has no place whatsoever in the laws and governance of a civilised society"

I totally agree with this. And yet Bishops from the Anglican Church sit in the House of Lords...

I read that checklist the other day and it terrified me. I also followed a link to the dailyfail ( yes I know) and it was telling that there was more reaction and concern regarding what MM does, says, eats than anything to do with British politics...its weird. I also read a statistic that 70% of people didn't even vote. I'm hoping someone will come and correct me on that front though.

I’m not a Labour voter or a Labour fan in general. However I’d like to hope even the woke left have more backbone than that. If not we’re all screwed.

No, the turnout was something like 33%. It always is horrendously low for local council elections. This guy won by about 300 votes. TBH, he is best ignored, so I'm glad not that many people are bothered with him. The Greens used to be my regular protest vote for local elections, but I stopped voting for them because they have gone so far away from their roots in environmentalism and massively Hard Left. The Greens are welcome to become a safe haven for crackpots and bigots if it likes. It will soon learn that tolerance of intolerance always ends badly- for them hopefully.

A turnout of about one third is normal for UK local elections. Not that many people take a big interest in who their local councillors are.

General election turnout should be closer to 70%

I would say ignore at your own peril. I want to come back to this thread in a few years time.

Dooooooommmmmmmmeddddd we're all doooooooommmmmmmed!!!!!!!

This is wrong. They want to repeal the law that prevents priests, etc telling worshippers how to vote.

Bishops need to be removed from the upper house.

Yup, do you know what ISIS did to Christians? Do you know what the Koran says about non-believers? Maybe educate yourself before commenting.

It’s fascinating how focused the demands are on Israel. Nothing about the Chinese genocide of Uighur Muslims, the persecution of the Rohingya, the appalling human rights abuses of Muslim women in Afghanistan and Iran. Nothing. only when Jews oppress Muslims does it give rise to demands about foreign policy.

East London is full of flyers advertising their events…I for one have heard of them…it’s like saying no one has heard of ukip

Labour made very clear they don’t give a damn about the muslim (the actual people) vote so I doubt they’ll even blink at this!

This isn't the first time that I've Voting Numbers interesting on a "controversial" thread.

If we didn't have access to them and only had the posts to go on, we might be forgiven for thinking that the majority of posters disagree with the OP.

In fact, the majority of those voting-but not posting- overwhelmingly agree with the OP.

The silent majority agree with OP but the most vocal-those who post-make it look as if the opposite is true.

Thank goodness we can see the voting statistics.

And nor should they. They need to devise policies for everyone. If Muslims decide to vote on those policies, then fine. If they don't, also fine. Can you imagine if churches had demanded for that spirituality clause to be repealed, or for special treatment? The Greens, the Left etc would have been outraged at the very thought.