Election hustings with Muslim residents in Ilford North

The Ilford Recorder covers the election hustings organised by mend, Redbridge Islamic Centre and FORMO (Federation of Redbridge Muslim Organisations) in the parliamentary constituency on Ilford North of Saturday 11 April.

The event, chaired by Islam Channel presenter Sajid Varda, was attended by Ilford North’s Labour candidate Wes Streeting, the Liberal Democrat candidate, Richard Clare and Cllr Paul Canal, a local Conservative councillor who stood in for the incumbent MP, Lee Scott.

Scott was advertised to attend the hustings but “declined the invitation citing security issues”, according to the local paper. The paper gives no further details of the security concerns expressed by Scott. The event itself was held at a local library and it is difficult to surmise what concerns might have caused the present MP from answering questions from local residents about his campaign for re-election.

The paper notes questions put to prospective candidates and the Conservative councillor during the two hour hustings noting that themes “ranged from Islamophobia, the media’s role in encouraging xenophobia, religious discrimination, and access to employment for Muslim women, to name just a few.”

On the subject of media portrayals of Islam and Muslims, the chair invited panellists to name “a single positive news story centred on Muslims.”

“Mr Streeting offered the rise of British-born Muslim Sadiq Khan, the shadow minister for London, onto the political stage.

“While Mr Clare, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, suggested the increase of Muslim candidates put forward by parties for the general election.

“Cllr Canal mentioned the success story of England cricketer Moeen Ali following his breakthrough into the international set-up.”

Sadiq Khan has been a front bench politician for a number of years now while the number of Muslim candidates put forward by political parties in this election is still far below the percentage of Muslims in the wider population (4.8%).

The paper further reports that “The coalition government’s counter-terrorism strategy – Prevent – was fiercely criticised by all the panel.”

The panel was asked by member of the audience why “Why is Cage frozen out of talking about terrorism issues?”

The chair noted that “Cage is an organisation that is very well respected across the community,” but panellists refused to be drawn on the subject citing a lack of knowledge about the organisation.

With the amount of media coverage and political bluster that have engulfed Cage since the American authorities disclosed the identity of ‘Jihadi John’ as British Muslim citizen, Mohammed Emwazi, it is somewhat surprising that the panel were not better informed about the controversy sparked by the disclosure: the alleged role of the security services in contributing to the radicalisation of young Muslims.

All panellists impressed on Muslims the importance of voting on 7 May.

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And for further details of mend election hustings events, check the Events Diary on our website for information.