We are celebrating the fact that the Muslim month of Ramadan has coincided with the Christian season of Lent. But not everyone is happy. The Guardian reported on Nigel Farage’s call to ban public prayers in the UK by Muslims, comments that Muslim leaders have condemned as bigoted.
Nigel Farage was speaking at the launch of Reform UK’s manifesto for the Scottish parliament elections. He described as “a wake up call and a warning to everybody” an event taking place earlier this month in Trafalgar Square, when hundreds of Muslims and people of other faiths prayed together, before the celebration of Eid. The event, organised by the Ramadan Tent Project and attended by London mayor, Sadiq Khan, was, he said, “an open, deliberate, wilful attempt, not at the private observance of a different religion, but the attempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.
Former first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, said: “Nigel Farage seems to have no issues with Christian prayer, Hannukah, Vaisakhi or Diwali all being celebrated in Trafalgar Square. He only has a problem with Muslims praying. There is a word for that, bigotry….While I have come to expect nothing less from a charlatan like Nigel Farage, I am angry and disappointed that such rhetoric has been mainstreamed from the likes of Nick Timothy MP, a member of His Majesty’s opposition.”
Nick Timothy is a Conservative shadow justice secretary, who claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public were unBritish, and was backed in this comment by Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch. Asked if she agreed with him, Kemi Badenoch said: “This debate which Nick is having is not about freedom of religion. It is about how religion is expressed in a shared public space, and whether those expressions fit within the norms of a British culture.”
Richard Hermer, the UK’s Attorney General and one of its most prominent Jewish politicians, has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public. “The Conservative Party, like Reform and Tommy Robinson, is seeking to divide Britain. Instead, they should be celebrating our brilliantly welcoming and diverse country”, he said.
Read the story in the Guardian here. Read about the Ramadan Tent Project here.