United Kingdom
Freelance writer
In July 2018, Goodhart claimed, in a Policy Exchange Paper , that despite the Windrush scandal, Britain's border was far more "fit for purpose" than it was a decade ago. In the same month, Goodhart went a step further by arguing in a that the Windrush scandal should not lead to "a radical watering-down of the so-called 'hostile environment'".
During the Conservative Party leadership election in June 2019, Boris Johnson committed to commissioning an independent investigation into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, an issue that we as Muslims had been pleading with the government to address for years would be taken seriously.
Chronic underfunding of public services, and years of cuts have left working-class communities more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. We cannot afford a repeat of austerity, we need an alternative, writes Taj Ali. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely damaged the British economy, with the UK's GDP predicted to shrink by over 10% by the end of the year.
Today, France's leading politicians including Macron and his interior minister are seeking to instrumentalise the tragedy to further entrench Islamophobia in France. And by holding Muslims collectively responsible for the actions of Islamist extremists, another fringe group - the far-right - is emboldened.
The government's recent announcement of a tier-3 lockdown in the Greater Manchester region without adequate financial support has been met with fury from the region's mayor, Andy Burnham . Boris Johnson has now acquiesced to offer Greater Manchester councils £60m.
For many British Muslims, the news that 57 per cent of Conservative Party members have a negative view of Muslims and nearly half believe that Islam is a threat to the British way of life came as no surprise.
Labour's rebrand seeks to win back former labour voters in the so-called "red-wall" constituencies lost in 2019, but Labour may risk losing ethnic minority voters if it regurgitates right-wing nationalist rhetoric. Patriotism. Family. Opportunity. The Labour Party's attempt to woo socially conservative voters in former "red wall" constituencies is far from subtle.
President Emmanuel Macron's latest dog-whistle Islamophobia is a testimony to the fact that 'liberal' and 'far-right' rhetoric surrounding Islam and Muslims is not that dissimilar, writes Taj Ali. Last week, Macron singled out Islam as "a religion that is in crisis all over the world today" in a speech to unveil his proposed law to [...]
When it comes to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world - Yemen - the UK has opted for death and destruction over any remotely meaningful attempt at peace, writes Taj Ali. Right now, we are witnessing the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen. More than 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian [...]
Western governments, namely the UK and the US, seem to ignore their own institutional Islamophobia while hypocritically opposing China's persecution of Uyghur Muslims, writes Taj Ali. As we hear of the horrors of the Uyghur Muslims suffering in concentration camps, we are reminded of the very real consequences of Islamophobic rhetoric.