It would be a cruel irony if Ariel Sharon's attacks on Palestinian territory were indirectly to boost the electoral success of anti-semitic far-right groups in Britain, following Jean-Marie Le Pen's shock success in the French presidential elections. There has been disenchantment in the British Muslim community, which has for decades been supportive of the Labour party, over government inaction on the Middle East.
Labour workers in areas contested by the BNP privately admit to concern about potential turnout among Muslim voters. Muslim organisations are encouraging Muslims to vote, but it is now an uphill struggle.
In its first term, the Labour government paid more attention to Muslim concerns than any previous administration. The recognition of the role of faith groups in regenerating poor neighbourhoods and the acceptance that it is iniquitous to have hundreds of church schools while denying state funding to Muslims and those of other faiths were widely welcomed.
The immediate government response to September 11 continued this positive trend. Tony Blair made a point of supporting British Muslims, emphasised the importance of ensuring justice for the disenfranchised millions worldwide and explicitly recognised the case of the Palestinians. There were still arson attacks on mosques, numerous death threats and occasional physical attacks, particularly on Muslim women wearing headscarves. But the Muslim community in Britain is used to physical attack. The difference was that it was now being attacked for its faith rather than ethnicity.
Despite a developing siege mentality, there remained some optimism within the community that foreign policy might become more ethical and the opinions of the Muslim electorate might be taken on board. The bombing of Afghanistan was overwhelmingly opposed by British Muslims but did at least lead Muslim groups to take part in the stop-the-war coalition. This is the most active role it has ever taken in an issue that was not "Muslim only".
Our community's involvement in wider coalitions encouraged a feeling that one does not give up one's Britishness by publicly disagreeing with government policy.
But two developments have had a disastrous impact on British Muslim sentiment in a way that No 10 appears to have underestimated. First, there was the government's deafening silence over the mass killings of Muslims in India. Second, the stance that Blair and Straw have taken over Palestine has crossed a line for the Muslim public. The continual equivocation of every condemnation of Israel with one of the Palestinians repudiates the history of Labour support for the oppressed. The repeated appeals from the home secretary that we should understand how Israel feels as the result of suicide bombings were never accompanied by pleas to understand how the Palestinians felt when Israel was killing three Palestinians for every Israeli death.
As Menzies Campbell said in the Commons: "[It would be wrong] to take refuge in a supposed moral equivalence when it is clear that one side has self-evidently been the aggressor; one side is self-evidently the more powerful; one side is self-evidently the more determined to breach international law." The accusation by government supporters that British Muslims can't face realpolitik and that stronger condemnation or even sanctions against Israel would somehow be counter-productive to the Palestinian cause is simply an acceptance of the rightwing orthodoxy that finds its home in the illegal Israelis settlements and its voice in the highest reaches of President Bush's circle of Christian fundamentalist advisers. British Muslims and all people of conscience have the right to expect the British government to implement its ethical foreign policy and support EU action against Israel's occupation, including an arms embargo and other sanctions. If this does not happen then the sense of disenfranchisement of the younger generation of Muslims from mainstream politics can only increase. The potential for Muslim engagement in civil society was demonstrated last week when as many as 75,000 people rallied in London to show solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinians. This was by far the largest event organised in Britain by a predominantly Muslim coalition and is an indication of the new single-issue activism among British Muslims sparked by September 11 and its aftermath.
With even "moderate" Muslims feeling betrayed by the government, we find ourselves reluctantly agreeing with Faisal Bodi's claim that many young Muslims feel they do not have "any social contract with the state worth honouring". Unless something is done to address this overwhelming feeling of disaffection among those of all faith and none, then we fear that a British Le Pen may beckon.
ยท Joe Ahmed-Dobson of the Muslim Council of Britain and Ajmal Masroor of the Islamic Society of Britain work jointly on a national project