Rushanara Ali-First British Bangladesh-born Muslim MP

Rushanara Ali First British
Bangladesh born Muslim MP

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Rushanara Ali, British Bangladesh-born Muslim woman, becomes the first Member of the British Parliament (House of Common). The dream of British-Bangladeshi fulfilled. The dream comes true. 6th of May 2010 will remain the historic golden day in the life of the British Bangladeshi when Rushanara Ali was declared the Member of the Parliament (House of Common).

British-Bangladeshi in Britain
British-Bangladeshi is proud of her. Bangladeshis have been living in this country for a long time. It is their dream, desire, aspiration and target to be a Member of Parliament. Bengalis had been present in Britain as early as the 19th century. Throughout the 17th to early 20th centuries, the British East India Company brought over thousands of South Asian scholars, lashkars or seamen and workers, who were mainly Bengali Muslims to Britain. Naval cook also came, many of them from Sylhet, the north-eastern part of what is now Bangladesh. There are also records that people from Sylhet went onboard the sea-faring ships bound for the British Isles. Some of them jumped off ship in UK ended up settling in London, Liverpool and Bristol. These Sylheti seamen are identified as pioneer migrants of Bengal.

One of the most famous early Bengali Muslim migrants to Britain was sake Dean Mahomet (Shaikh Dean Mohammad), a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded London’s first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. There are other records of Sylheti working in London restaurants since at least 1873. By the time World War 1 began, there were 51,616 South Asian Lashkars living in Britain, the majority of whom were of Bengali descent.

The early migrants came to find work; they were not educated and found their jobs as labourers in different industries. Most of these early migrants settled down and took local white British wives.

Large numbers of Bangladeshi men immigrated to London to search for employment during the 1950s and the 1960s. The majority of these people settled in Tower Hamlets, particularly around Spitalfields and Brick Lane. Many of them came from the Sylhet region. By the late 1970s the Brick Lane area had become predominantly Bengali, replacing the former Jewish community which had declined.

According to 2001 Census, 283,063 Bangladeshis lived in the UK, i.e. 0.5% of the total population. 54% of the Bangladeshi population lived in the Greater London area and a high proportion of these London inhabitants were located within the inner boroughs. Indeed, the ‘heartland’ of the London Bangladeshi community is to be found in Tower Hamlets, which contained 65,553 Bangladeshi residents or 22.8% of the UK Bangladeshi population.

The third generation of Tower Hamlets’ Bangladeshi population – those ‘born and bred’ in the area - constitutes approximately half of the community. Tower Hamlets can be seen as part of an inner ring of London boroughs running from Westminster, Islington and Camden round to Hackney, Newham and Southwark. In 2001, 118,346 Bangladeshis - 41.8% of the British Bangladeshi population - lived in this inner London ring.

The largest Bangladeshi population outside London is located in Oldham – 9,817 in 2001 or 4.5% of the city’s population, while 20,836 are scattered across Birmingham (2% of the city’s population), 7,642 in Luton (4%) and 4,967 in Bradford (1%). It is a very English urban population - very few live in Scotland or Wales.

Most of the British-Bangladeshi population, believe in one religion, Islam. Nearly all Bangladeshis in the UK are Sunni Muslims and mostly from Sylhet. Around 80% of “Indian Restaurants” in the UK are actually more accurately Bangladeshi restaurants – Bangladeshi owned, and selling food based on what’s eaten in the region.

Dream of Bangladeshi MP
Peter Shore was MP of the Bethnal Green & Stepney constituency during the period from 1964 to 1997. British-Bangladeshi was so much happy and satisfied that they did not think of any other person, not even from their own community, to represent them as Member of Parliament, because Peter Shore was their friend. But Peter Shore stood down from Parliament at the 1997 General Elections and took a life peerage as Baron Shore of Stepney. In the same year, this constituency was renamed Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency. British-Bangladeshi realised now that they should have their MP from their own community.

Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency
Bethnal Green & Bow constituency is one of the poorest constituencies in London, and also one of the most ethnically diverse with a large minority being Bangladeshi. Within this constituency, there is Tower Hamlets which has a proud history of taking in different people over the years. Huguenots, Irish, Jews, Bengalis and, more recently, Somalis have all found a welcome in the East End of London. Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived borough in the country, with 50% of children receiving free school meals, and it is the Bangladeshi community that experiences this most keenly.

Bangladeshis are more than 40% of the local population. As mentioned earlier, traditionally, throughout history, particularly, the last two/three decades, this area was Labour supporting area. The majority of Bangladeshis are what could be termed “natural Labour supporters.” But an unusual result took place in 1997 general election when there was a swing of 5% to the Conservative Party. This was happened over the decision of Labour Party to “parachute” in Oona King to take the seat after Peter Shore retired. Many in the local area would have preferred a candidate from a Bangladeshi background.

The loyalty of Bangladeshis was again tested by the British participation in the invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War, an action deeply unpopular with the Muslim community in the constituency but supported by Oona King. The former Labour MP, George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party for his strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq, won Bethnal Green & Bow seat for Respect in the May 2005 General Election, beating the Labour black Jewish MP Oana King by a small majority of 823 votes. He received strong support from the constituency’s more than 39 per cent Muslim population, mostly from Bangladesh.

George Galloway promised that if elected, he will serve only one term and publicly pledged to put forward a Muslim candidate of Bangladeshi heritage to stand on the Respect platform next time round. Galloway kept his promise by selecting Abjol Miah as Respect candidate for the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency while himself stood as a Respect candidate for the newly created constituency, Poplar and Limehouse constituency. The other mainstream parties failed for so many years to nominate Bangladeshi candidates. We are aware the Conservative Party previously put up a Bangladeshi candidate.

British-Bangladeshi Candidates
In the 2010 General Elections, George Galloway selected, Abjol Miah, British Muslim of Bangladeshi origin, as a candidate for Respect Party and indirectly forced all other parties to put a candidate from the Bengali Muslim community. All the main political parties selected Bangladeshi Muslim candidates, and the largest Bengali population in the country was hoping finally to have a voice in Parliament.

There were seven candidates from different parties for the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency and all of them were British-Bangladeshi Muslim: Rushanara Ali from Labour, Zakir Khan from Conservative, Ajmal Masroor from the Liberal Democrat, Abjol Miah from Respect, Hasib Hikmat from the United Voice, Farid Bakht from the Green Party and Barrister Ahmed Malik as an Independent.

Rushanara becomes first British-Bangladeshi MP
All the Parliamentary candidates in this constituency were from the British-Bangladeshi background and there was a tough three-prong contest between Labour candidate, Rushanara Ali, Respect Party candidate, Abjol Miah and Liberal Democrat candidate, Ajmal Masroor. Labour Party not only selected Rushanara Ali as its candidate but had given serious political support to regain the Labour seat in Bethnal Green & Bow constituency. Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband attended her campaign launch as well as campaign trail.

Roushanara won the election defeating Abjol Miah of the Respect Party by a majority of 11,000 votes. Rushanara, born in Bangladesh in 1975, moved to the East End of London, United Kingdom with her family at the age of 7 and attended Mulberry School and Tower Hamlets College, is a British politician of Bangladeshi origin. Though a daughter of a manual worker, she is the first in her family to go to university. She is graduate of Oxford University studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford.

Rushanara Ali is the Trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and Member of the Tate Britain Council and also Member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. She was a Member of the Home Office Working Group on Preventing Extremism established after the 7/7 London bombings. Currently working as an Associate Director at the Young Foundation, Ali has a strong provenance in Labour politics, having worked for Lord (Michael) Young, the author of Labour’s 1945 manifesto.

An ambitious young Labour activist who was listed by The Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain, Rushanara Ali claimed back the once Labour stronghold of Bethnal Green & Bow at the election. Congratulation to Rushanara Ali for winning a Membership of the British Parliament as a British-Bangladeshi representative.

Poverty, unemployment and racial tensions are some of the key constituency issues in Bethnal Green and Bow. There are officially 23,000 on the council’s housing waiting list and officially over 15,500 families in overcrowded conditions and yet less than one in five homes being built in the largest building programme in London are earmarked to address this housing scandal. It is hoped that Rushanara’s experience will be useful to tackle these problems.

Elections 201 0 - A Milestone in Britain's Muslim Politics

UK’s 2010 elections – A milestone
in Britain’s Muslim Politics

Dr. Mozammel Haque

UK’s 2010 General elections is a milestone in Britain’s Muslim politics. A number of histories is made in this election. Firstly, British Muslim Members of the House of Commons has been doubled after the 2010 General Elections; first-ever British Muslim woman is elected to the British Parliament; the Conservatives have gained Muslim to be elected in this election and first-ever British-Bangladeshi is elected to enter the House of Commons.

Firstly, the number of British Muslim Members of the House of Commons has been doubled. Eight Muslims are elected to the British Parliament in this 2010 election – six from the Labour Party and two from the Conservatives. Out of the six Labour MPs, there are three males and three females. Sadiq Khan, the former Minister of Transport, is re-elected as Labour candidate from the Tooting Constituency with a majority of 2,524 votes and Khalid Mahmood is re-elected as Labour candidate from Birmingham Perry Bar for the second time, increasing his majority to more than 11,908 votes. In Glasgow Central, Anas Sarwar won the election by increasing Labour’s majority to almost 16,000. He replaced his father, Mohammad Sarwar, who stepped down at this election. Mohammad Sarwar was the Britain’s first Muslim MP in 1979.

Secondly, for the first-time British Muslim woman is elected to the House of Commons in this election. Three Muslim women are elected - Yasmin Qureshi, Shabana Mahmood and Rushanara Ali. Barrister Yasmin Qureshi (47) is elected from Bolton South East where Labour had a comfortable majority of over 10,000 votes from retiring MP Brian Iddon, but by a reduced majority of more than 8,600. She was born in Gujarat, moved to Britain in 1972 when she was nine and qualified as a Barrister in 1985. She has worked in the Government Legal Services and the Crown Prosecution Service. She was the Head of the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and later the Director of the Department of Judicial Administration in Kosovo.

Barrister Shabana Mahmood (29) is elected from Birmingham Ladywood. She increased the majority of outgoing former International Development Secretary Clare Short from under 7,000 votes to more than 10,000 in Birmingham Ladywood in Central England. Shabana’s father, Mahmood Ahmed, is chairman of Birmingham Labour Party. Birmingham Ladywood has a Muslim population of nearly 30 per cent.

Rushanara Ali, 35-year old Oxford University graduate, won with a huge majority of 11,000 votes defeating Abjol Miah of Respect Party to the third place in Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency. Ajmal Masroor from the Liberal Democrats in second place. Ali, born in Bangladesh in 1975, moved to the East End of London, United Kingdom with her family at the age of 7 and attended Mulberry School and Tower Hamlets College.

Thirdly, for the first time the Conservatives have gained their Muslim MP entered into the House of Commons. The First Muslim Conservatives to be elected was Sajid Javid who retained Bromsgrove with an increased majority of more than 11,000 in Bromsgrove, Central England. Another Conservatives Rehman Chisti won by more than 8,500 votes in newly-created Gillingham and Rainham in south-east England. Nadhim Zahawi, the chief executive of online market research agency, YouGov, also became the first Iraqi Kurd to become UK MP by successfully defeating the Conservatives’ 10,000-plus majority in Strafford, Central England.

Fourthly, for the first time British-Bangladeshi is elected to the House of Commons. Rushanara Ali, born in Bangladesh, regained the Labour seat in Bethnal Green & Bow constituency. All the Parliamentary candidates in this constituency were from the British-Bangladeshi background and there was a tough three-prong contest between Labour candidate, Rushanara Ali, Respect Party candidate, Abjol Miah and Liberal Democrat candidate, Ajmal Masroor. Ali won the election defeating Abjol Miah of the Respect Party by a majority of 11,000 votes. Though a daughter of a manual worker, she is the first in her family to go to university. She is graduate of Oxford University studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford. An ambitious young Labour activist who was listed by The Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain, Rushanara Ali claimed back the once Labour stronghold of Bethnal Green & Bow at the election.

May 6 elections were marked by a swing from Labour to the Conservatives which resulted in one of the two Muslim ministers, Shahid Malik losing his parliamentary seat for Dewsbury in northern England by just over 1,500 votes.

In 2010 UK General election, there were 89 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) of Asian origin compared with 68 in 2005. More than 80 Muslim candidates stood in Britain’s general elections out of which 16 were Muslim female candidates. These 16 Muslim female candidates were selected by different political parties. Labour has four Muslim female candidates; Conservatives six and Liberal Democrats four Muslim female candidates. Only one Muslim female contest election outside these three main parties is Salma Yaqoob who represented the anti-war Respect Party.

Muslim has made a great progression in political participation in Britain. In 1992 General Elections, there were 11 Muslim PPCs, 4 from the Conservatives, 1 from Liberal Democrats and 6 from Other but none was elected. In 1997, there were 24 Muslim PPCs, 3 from Labour, 6 from the Conservatives, 4 from Liberal Democrats and 11 from Other but only 1 was elected from Labour, the first Muslim male, Mohammad Sarwar from Glasgow Central, elected into British Parliament in 1997 election as Labour MP. In 2001 general elections, there were 53 Muslim PPCs, 7 from Labour, 8 from the Conservatives, 11 from Liberal Democrats and 27 from Other but only 2 were elected from Labour; Mohammad Sarwar was re-elected and Khalid Mahmood was elected from Birmingham Perry Bar in 2001 election. In 2005 General Elections, there were 79 Muslim PPCs, 13 from Labour, 16 from the Conservatives, 21 from Liberal Democrats and 29 from Other but 4 were elected from Labour. Mohammad Sarwar re-elected, Khalid Mahmood re-elected, Shahid Malik from Dewsbury and Sadiq Khan from Tooting were elected as Labour MPs in 2005 election.

Another feature of this election is that all the candidates of the anti-war Party, Respect Party - George Galloway, Abjol Miah and Salma Yaqoob, failed to win the election from the constituency - Poplar & Limehouse, Bethnal Green & Bow and Birmingham Hall Green respectively.

Another feature of this election is that the far-right political party, British Nationalist Party (BNP), suffered a humiliating defeat in Barking as Labour stormed to victory with an increased vote. Labour MP Margaret Hodge fought off the far-Right party’s leader Nick Griffin, in what she described as the “toughest battle of my life”. Mrs. Hodge held on to her seat with 24,628 votes and the BNP in third place with 6,623 votes.

The 2010 General Election ended with the first hung parliament in 36 years. The Conservatives needed 326 seats for an overall majority but aim to govern as a minority government. Labour suffered a heavy defeat, losing at least 86 seats including big names, such as Jacqui Smith and Charles Clarke. But Labour fared less badly in the capital than nationally.

Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency -Constituents, Candidates & Concerns

Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency:
Constituents, Candidates and Concerns

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The British-Bangladeshi community is going to make history on May 6. No matter who wins the race in Bethnal Green & Bow constituency, the elected Member will be the first British-Bangladeshi Muslim Member of the House of Commons. The simple reason is this that all the main political parties have selected the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates from the British-Bangladeshi background.

Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency
Bethnal Green & Bow constituency is one of the poorest constituencies in London, and also one of the most ethnically diverse with a large minority being Bangladesh. Within this constituency, there is Tower Hamlets which has a proud history of taking in different people over the years. Huguenots, Irish, Jews, Bengalis and, more recently, Somalis have all found a welcome in the East End of London. Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived borough in the country, with 50% of children receiving free school meals, and it is the Bangladeshi community that experiences this most keenly.

Bangladeshis are more than 40% of the local population. Traditionally, throughout history, particularly, the last two/three decades, this area was Labour supporting area. The majority of Bangladeshis are what could be termed “natural Labour supporters.” But an unusual result took place in 1997 general election when there was a swing of 5% to the Conservative Party. This was happened over the selection of a Labour Party’s decision to “parachute” in Oona King to take the seat after Peter Shore retired. Many in the local area would have preferred a candidate from a Bangladeshi background.

The loyalty of Bangladeshis was again tested by the British participation in the invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War, an action deeply unpopular with the Muslim community in the constituency but supported by Oona King. The former Labour MP, George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party for his strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq, won Bethnal Green & Bow seat for Respect in the May 2005 general election, beating the Labour black Jewish MP Oana King by a small majority of 823 votes. He received strong support from the constituency’s more than 39 per cent Muslim population, mostly from Bangladesh.

George Galloway promised that if elected, he will serve only one term and publicly pledged to put forward a Muslim candidate of Bangladeshi heritage to stand on the Respect platform next time round. Galloway kept his promise by selecting Abjol Miah as Respect candidate for the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency while himself is standing as a Respect candidate for the newly created constituency, Poplar and Limehouse constituency. He said I kept my promise by nominating a Bangladeshi candidate and now you keep your promise by electing him. The other mainstream parties failed for so many years to nominate Bangladeshi candidates. We are aware the Conservative Party previously put up a Bangladeshi candidate.

British-Bangladeshi Candidates
In the 2010 general election, George Galloway has selected a long-time youth worker and community activist, Abjol Miah, British Muslim of Bangladeshi origin, as a candidate for Respect Party and indirectly forced all the parties to put a candidate from the Bengali Muslim community. All the main political parties have selected Bangladeshi Muslim candidates, and the largest Bengali population in the country will finally have a voice in Parliament, and hopefully, one of those candidates will become the first British-Bangladeshi Member of Parliament.

The sitting MP George Galloway of the Respect Party has stepped aside to allow Respect councillor of Tower Hamlets, Abjol Miah to stand. The Conservative has chosen Zakir Khan, who has earned praise for his work on issues as poverty and the environment. The Conservatives have made concerted efforts to gain support in the local Bengali community by fielding a candidate from the Bangladeshi community in previous elections. Labour has selected Rushanara Ali as its candidate and she has been given serious political support by her party which arranged former leader Neil Kinnock and the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to attend her campaign launch.

So, there are seven candidates from different parties for the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency and all of them are British-Bangladeshi Muslim. It is not unusual to find Muslims standing against each other as candidates for different parties. A striking example is the East London constituency of Bethnal Green & Bow where seven Muslim candidates are standing: Rushanara Ali from Labour, Zakir Khan from Conservative, Ajmal Masroor from the Liberal Democrat, Abjol Miah from Respect, Hasib Hikmat from the United Voice, Farid Bakht from the Green Party and Barrister Ahmed Malik as an Independent.

Rushanara Ali, born in Bangladesh in 1975, moved to the East End of London, United Kingdom with her family at the age of 7 and attended Mulberry School and Tower Hamlets College, is a British politician of Bangladeshi origin. Though a daughter of a manual worker, she is the first in her family to go to university. She is graduate of Oxford University studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford.

Rushanara Ali is the Trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and Member of the Tate Britain Council and also Member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. She was a Member of the Home Office Working Group on Preventing Extremism established after the 7/7 London bombings. She said, ‘Monday night’s ‘Dispatches’ programme emphasized the challenge that exists in uniting the community – but working together to tackle our common problems is what the people of Tower Hamlets truly want and desperately need. That is what my campaign for Parliament is all about.”

Currently working as an Associate Director at the Young Foundation, Ali has a strong provenance in Labour politics, having worked for Lord (Michael) Young, the author of Labour’s 1945 manifesto.

An ambitious young Labour activist who was listed by The Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain, Rushanara Ali aims to claim back the once Labour stronghold of Bethnal Green & Bow at the election.

Her opponent, again Bangladeshi, Respect Party candidate, Abjol Miah, an anti-war campaigner, seeks people’s votes in Bethnal Green and Bow Parliamentary election. Abjol Miah, born in Sylhet, Bangladesh in 1971, moved with his family to Tower Hamlets when he was six months old, studied at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he received his degree in Social Anthropology and Sociology. At the age of 23, he represented Britain at the 1994 World Stick Fighting Championships in the Philippines and he is a UK Silver medallist in the sport, as well as a black belt in Taekwondo.

Abjol has worked as a drug prevention education officer and at the Drug Action Team. He has long standing roles in voluntary sector community organisations in Bethnal Green and Bow. Abjol Miah has been a Councillor for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets since 2006; and from that time has led the Respect Opposition Group. Councillor Abjol was the founding chair of the Tower Hamlets Muslim Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police Borough Commander. He is one of those first members of Respect Party as a British-Bangladeshi.

Her Liberal Democrat counterpart, Ajmal Masroor, a British imam, politician and television presenter, is perhaps the best known of the candidates – a large part of that is due to his being television presenter on political discussions and appearances on national and community television channels.

Ajmal Masroor, born in Bangladesh in 1970, came to Britain with his parents at the age of one, moved back to Bangladesh at the age of nine years and returned to East End of London again at the age of 13. He was brought up in Shadwell, attended the Bluegate Fields School on Cable Street and studied Politics and Arabic at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, after his GCSEs and A Levels. He was very active in student unions and Islamic Societies.

At the age of 19, Ajmal challenged his father who attempted to force him into a marriage in Bangladesh, saying forced marriage is not acceptable in Islam. He then married a Hungarian, Henrietta Szovati (who had converted to Islam) and they now have two children.

Ajmal is well-known activist, associated with a variety of associations such as the Islamic Society of Britain, the Muslim Council of Britain and the ‘Forward Thinking’ network. His appearances on Islam Channel have also made him a Muslim household name. Ajmal is a local imam, who only leads Friday prayers weekly at four different mosques in London: Goodge Street Mosque, Palmsers Green Mosque, Weasr Easling Mosque and Wightman Road Mosque in Haringey.

Zakir Khan has been selected as Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow constituency. He has worked for Canary Wharf Group PLC in the Public Affairs Department for the past ten years and established and maintained a strong productive network of individuals and organisations both in the statutory and voluntary sectors.

There are other candidates in the Bethnal Green & Bow Constituency, Farid Bakht of the Green Party and Barrister Ahmed Malik, who is standing as an independent. They are also British Muslims of Bangladeshi heritage.

Barrister Ahmed Malik, Independent Candidate, “I am very disappointed that the Muslims along with other mainstream party candidates in this general election are very shy to talk about the problems faced by the British Muslims,” said Barrister Ahmed A. Malik, Chairman of the Muslim Weekly newspaper, who announced his candidacy as an Independent Member of Parliament for London’s Bethnal Green and Bow constituency. He pledges to raise your voice against Islamophobia, Anti-Muslim hatred and Discrimination and vows to fight for better housing, education, healthcare and reducing crime.

At a press conference recently, Mr. Malik said, “Islamophobia is still on the rise with BNP and English Defence League gaining popularity in various part of the country. There have been numerous attacks on Muslims on the street, in their businesses, women wearing hijab are frequently being abused, harassed, arson attacks and vandalisms are regular occurrences on the Mosques, Muslim graveyards. There are continuous discrimination against Muslims and other minority communities in areas like employment, education and housing.”

Constituents’ concerns and candidates
British-Bangladeshi Muslims are divisive across the secular versus religious, Sylheti versus non-Sylheti and above all, they are very much influenced by the back home politics, Awami League versus Jamaat-BNP. The major political parties of Bangladesh have their branches and supporters among the British-Bangladeshi community living in this constituency. Many people are articulating the concern voiced by many constituents, of other faiths and backgrounds that the intricacies of Bengali community politics – intimately connected as these are with the politics of Sylhet, the north-eastern region of Bangladesh from where the majority of Britain’s Bengali community originate.

The election contest in this constituency will be three-pronged between Labour, Respect and Liberal Democrat; it is essentially between the three candidates, Rushanara Ali from Labour, Abjol Miah from the Respect Party and Ajmal Masroor from the Liberal Democrats.

The British-Bangladeshi community is very much sensitive about the issues such as war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Palestine issue, Islamophobia and civil liberties. Poverty, unemployment and racial tensions are some of the key constituency issues in Bethnal Green & Bow which all candidates will have to engage with during the election. There are officially 23,000 on the council’s housing waiting list and officially over 15,500 families in overcrowded conditions in the area. So the key issues which need to be addressed in this constituency are the housing estates including crime and anti-social behaviour and other issues such as health, education, transport, community safety, housing, preventing extremism and the environment and creating jobs for local people.

There was a lively YouElect Hustings recently chaired by The Guardian’s Jonathan Steele and took place at Wapping’s Ensign Youth Centre where there were moments of controversy throughout the night. The husting revealed some key policy differences between the candidates: Ajmal Masroor called for a negotiated withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, while Abjol Miah called for an immediate withdrawal. Disagreement also emerged surrounding the sensitive issue of Palestine. While Abjol Miah was clear about his intention to pursue George Galloway’s policy of placing Palestine at the forefront of his agenda.

The feeling on the ground is that what Bethnal Green & Bow needs a man or woman prepared to take courageous stands and reflect the constituency’s views and aspirations.

16 British Muslim Female PPCs for 2010 elections

16 British Muslim Female Prospective Parliamentary

Candidates for 2010 General Elections

Dr. Mozammel Haque

UK 2010 General election will make history on May 6 when the first-ever British Muslim female will be elected to the British Parliament. Major political parties have fielded Muslim female candidates in safe winnable seats and there may be a handful of women politicians from the Muslim community in the House of Commons by the summer.

A record 22 Asian women are running to become Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs in England and Scotland in 2010 election. It must be pointed out that the first Asian male MP was elected in 1892, when Dadabhai Naoroji, an Indian, took the seat of Finsbury, Central London, for the Liberals. Almost 120 years later nine Asian male MPs have been elected, but still no Asian woman.

The first Muslim male, Mohammad Sarwar from Glasgow Central, elected into British Parliament in 1997 election as Labour MP followed by second Muslim Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood from Birmingham Perry Bar in 2001 election and Shahid Malik from Dewsbury and Sadiq Khan from Tooting also elected as Labour MPs in 2005 election; but no Muslim female as yet.

In 2010 UK General election, there are 89 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) of Asian origin compared with 68 in 2005. More than 70 Muslim candidates are standing in Britain’s general elections next month out of which 16 are Muslim female candidates.

These 16 Muslim female candidates have been selected by the different political parties to contest in this election. Labour has selected four Muslim female candidates; Conservatives six and Liberal Democrats four Muslim female candidates. Only one Muslim female who is contesting election outside these three main parties is Salma Yaqoob who is representing the anti-war Respect Party.

Labour has three Muslim women standing in safe seats at this election. Labour has selected three Muslim female candidates – Yasmin Qureshi, Shabana Mahmood and Maryam Khan, to defend Labour seats respectively in Bolton South East, Birmingham Ladywood and Bury North. Barrister Yasmin Qureshi (47) is almost certain to be elected in Bolton South East where Labour had 57 per cent of the vote in 2005. She is inheriting a comfortable majority of over 10,000 votes from retiring MP Brian Iddon. She was born in Gujarat, moved to Britain in 1972 when she was nine and qualified as a Barrister in 1985. She has worked in the Government Legal Services and the Crown Prosecution Service. She was the Head of the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and later the Director of the Department of Judicial Administration in Kosovo.

Barrister Shabana Mahmood (29) is standing in safe constituency - Birmingham Ladywood - where former International Development Secretary Clare Short was re-elected as Labour MP for the constituency in 2005 with nearly 52 per cent of the vote, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 31.5 percent. Shabana’s father, Mahmood Ahmed, is chairman of Birmingham Labour Party. Birmingham Ladywood has a Muslim population of nearly 30 per cent.

Maryam Khan (27) is representing Bury North. She will replace the current Labour MP David Chaytor who is stepping down. Maryam became Manchester’s youngest councillor in 2006. Her father, Afzal Khan, was the first Asian and first Muslim Pakistani Lord Mayor of Manchester from 2005 to 2006. If elected, the 27-year old solicitor will not only become the first Pakistani Muslim female MP, but also the youngest in Greater Manchester.

Besides those three safe constituencies, Labour has selected 35-year old Oxford University graduate, Rushanara Ali, who was born in Bangladesh, to try to regain Labour seat in Bethnal Green and Bow where George Galloway MP, the darling of the anti-war movement and outspoken champion for dispossessed Palestinians, won against Labour black Jewish MP Oona King by a small majority of 823 votes in 2005 election. Keeping his “one term only” promise, George Galloway, the sitting MP of the Respect Party, is standing down in Bethnal Green & Bow to stand as Respect candidate in the newly created constituency of Poplar and Limehouse constituency against Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick. Rushanara Ali is a local Tower Hamlets resident and a reputed brainbox with an Oxford PPE. She is currently a director at the Young Foundation.

Another potential Muslim female candidate is Salma Yaqoob who is contesting outside the main three political parties from the Respect Party, set up in 2004 as an anti-war party. Salma Yaqoob, born in Bradford but raised in Birmingham, scored an impressive result in the 2005 election when she came second with a total of 10,498 votes in Birmingham’s Sparkbrook & Small Heath constituency, the population of which was nearly 49 per cent Muslim. She came second to Labour with 27 per cent of the vote, and slashed the majority of the Labour MP Roger Godsiff from 16,000 to just over 3,000. In May 2006 she was elected councillor for the Sparkbrook ward in Birmingham.

Salma Yaqoob has addressed numerous demonstrations and meetings all protesting against the war in Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She has continued to fight for civil liberties in Britain and against all policies that target those freedoms and liberties. In the new constituency of Birmingham Hall Green which is 35.7 per cent Muslim, Salma Yaqoob, a prominent anti-war activist and Respect’s co-founder member and vice-chair, is standing as a candidate for the tiny and fractured Respect party, again against Godsiff.

Under the caption entitled, “A small revolution: the British Muslim who could make history,” Madeleine Bunting, a Guardian columnist and its associate editor, wrote in The Guardian, Salma Yaqoob could become Britain’s first Muslim woman MP.

Professor Anwar notes that at least Labour has selected three Muslim women for safe seats at the 2010 general election but that the other parties have not selected Muslims for safe seats.

Among the Muslim male candidates, Labour has four sitting Muslim MPs, three of them, Sadiq Khan, Shahid Malik and Khalid Mahmood are seeking re-election, while in Glasgow Central, Anas Sarwar is seeking to replace his father, Mohammad Sarwar, who is stepping down.

The Conservatives have selected two Muslim candidates – Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahawi in safe constituencies. The Liberal Democrats have 17 Muslim candidates, including four women.

Whatever happens, one thing is certain: this election is likely to see an increase on the current 4 Muslim MPs and the election of the first Muslim women MPs with candidates such as Yasmin Qureshi standing in a safe seat in Bolton. (If parliament reflected the British population there would be 19 Muslim MPs.)

Sir Iqbal Sacranie is of opinion that Yasmin Qureshi would be the first-ever Muslim Female MP in the British Parliament after the election. Sir Iqbal thinks we will get a sort of five or six Muslim MPs maximum. “If seats reflected the make-up of the population as a whole, there would be more than 60 ethnic minority MPs and 70 peers, rather than the present 15 in the Commons and around 30 in the Lords,” Professor Anwar said.

Sir Iqbal said, “If you look at the percentage of the Muslim community, the number of candidates still less than 25%. We are 3% of the total population.”