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Shahid Malik.
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that four Muslim leaders would show up in Parliament, they face a list
of demands made by the minority, topped by the request for less
discrimination.
“They were running elections in constituencies which have a
large number of Muslims. So, they have to take Muslim issues to the House
of Commons,” Ahmed cheikh, a leading Muslim activist, told IOL.
Cheikh
said Muslims, four percent of the overall population, played a key
role in returning Labour to Government only with a reduced majority
and a substantially reduced share of the votes in punishment for
invading Iraq and lackluster response to Muslim causes.
Before
the invasion, the Labour controlled all 40 parliamentary seats in
districts where Muslims accounted for 10 percent or more of the
population, according to data from the MCB, the main representative
Muslim body in the UK.
But
it stressed this year’s vote came at a difficult time when there is
clearly a lot of disaffection among “British Muslims about the Iraq
invasion, the application of draconian anti-terror laws and the manner
in which sections of the media have used sensationalism to stigmatize
our entire community”.
Muslim
activists agreed that the number of Muslim winners is less than it
should be, since 18 candidates have to be MPs according to the size of
the minority.
The
Liberal Democrats fielded the most, 20 candidates, the Tories 13 candidates and the Labour has only eight on its election
list. The
nascent Respect party also selected nine Muslims out of a total of 26
candidates.
However,
Sacranie and Cheikh hoped the failure of more Muslim to make it to
Parliament was counterbalanced by the fact that the Muslim vote affected either
the outcome of the polls or the share thereof in numerous
constituencies.
They
said that is a first step to show that no single party can
any longer take the Muslim minority’s votes for granted.
Press
reports say it was absolutely clear that the Muslim minority decided
to utilise their numbers in several dozen constituencies to bring
about a recognition of the issues of concern to them, particularly the
anti-terror laws and the Iraq invasion.
“The
Muslim electorate has become more discerning and aware their vote does
count,” said Sacranie.
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