بريطانيا: سياسي مسلم ينتقد تصريحات كاميرون المعادية للإسلام

وجّه "مراد قرشي" - عضو مجلس مدينة "لندن" المسلم البنجالي الأصل - انتقادات حادة لتصريحات "ديفيد كاميرون" - رئيس الوزراء البريطاني - الذي توعد الإسلاميين الرافضين للقيم الغربية وأكد فشل التعددية الثقافية، مشيرًا إلى أن "كاميرون" لم يتوجه بعبارات مماثلة تجاه اليمين المتطرف في "بريطانيا".

وقد أشار "قرشي" إلى أن "كاميرون" قد أفرد الأقلية المسلمة بالذكر في حواره مع "أنجيلا ميركل" دون سائر المجموعات الدينية؛ استجابةً لاعتبارات عالمية.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

An influential voice of the Bangladeshi Diaspora has weighed in against British and German governments move rejecting multiculturalism.

Murad Qureshi, since 2004 a powerful London-wide elected Assembly Member in the capital's City Hall, was responding to the British prime minister David Cameron's assertion last week that multiculturalism was a failed policy.

He appeared to be echoing similar remarks made by German chancellor Angela Merkel last October in which she said Germany's attempts to form a multicultural society have utterly failed. Cameron's speech at the Munich Security Conference on Feb 5 focused on the challenges posed to the UK by 'home-grown', British Islamic extremism and radicalisation.

Bangladeshi-born Qureshi, in his second term as a Labour politician at City Hall, was scathing about Cameron's statement. He pointed out that while Merkel was at pains to underline that 'Islam is part of Germany', the British leader did not offer any such qualification in his comments.

Qureshi says: "We did not hear a similar condemnation of right-wing extremism from the PM. All this while many thousands of Londoners celebrated with the Chinese community the beginning of their new year in Central London. We did not hear him talking about this aspect of multiculturalism, its cultural and linguistic form but just its recent religious manifestation, largely in response to world affairs. In his attempt to curry favour with Merkel, he picked on the Muslim communities of the UK".

Qureshi also launched a broadside at apparent divisions within the Conservative Party about Islam and multiculturalism. On January 20, the party's Muslim co-chairman Baroness Warsi expressed her views that it had become socially acceptable to be prejudiced against Muslims. Her fellow cabinet member, the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, is meanwhile on record as saying: "Islamism [is] a totalitarian ideology [which turns to] hellish violence and oppression'".

Qureshi said: "So clearly in the cabinet, Gove has won the debate and got the ear of the PM and not Warsi."

Cameron's speech in Germany coincided with a demonstration in Luton in the UK by the newly-emergent far-right street protest group the English Defence League.

An exasperated Qureshi stated: "The final insult is that the EDL supporters were quoting him as justification for their march".

Qureshi has himself not held back in his criticism of so-called 'radical' or 'extremist' elements within British and specifically London Muslim communities.

In 2004, his comments drawing parallels between the [since-banned] Al-Muhajiroun Islamist group and the far-right British National Party were widely reported and gained him much respect across party and faith lines.

In his capacity as a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, the executive management board of London's police service, until 2008 Qureshi had formal authority to be present at interviews of suspected terrorists.

He is also seen as a strong supporter of an integrationist approach to cultural diversity as opposed to one associated with ethnic populations keeping distinct identities.

An intervention such as this by a London and Muslim politician of Qureshi's credibility has the potential to cause a little disquiet amongst ruling Conservative Party members at City Hall, if not in the prime minister's office.

Qureshi's track record until now had been to work by consensus in the combustible debate about Islam and British identity; his tacit cooperation may no longer be something the Conservatives can count on.