UK: Labour suspends rights campaigner over Islamophobia

LONDON

Britain’s Labour Party on Monday suspended Trevor Phillips, former head of the country’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, for Islamophobia as the commission investigates the party for anti-Semitism.

Phillips, 66, is a veteran anti-racism campaigner and Labour member, but also has a track record of controversial remarks about Muslims.

Having been suspended, he will now be investigated by the party and possibly expelled.

A party spokeswoman said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints about Islamophobia extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

The decision was based on comments made by Phillips over a number of years rather than anything immediate.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Monday, he said: “They say I am accusing Muslims of being different. Well actually, that’s true. The point is Muslims are different. And in many ways I think that’s admirable.”

One of the specific reasons behind the suspension seems to be a 2016 pamphlet in which he argued that Muslims were becoming a "nation within a nation" and that an inability to speak about Muslims freely led to crimes going unreported for fear of being called racist. His views have been echoed by far-right leaders such as Tommy Robinson.

“There are all sorts of differences in our society, and the central point of my pamphlet was to say we cannot continue simply to say that differences won’t matter,” he said. “You keep saying that I make these generalisations. But the truth is, if you do belong to a group, whether it is a church, or a football club, you identify with a particular set of values, and you stand for it. And frankly you are judged by that.”

Baroness Sayed Warsi, a former Conservative Party chair and outspoken campaigner against Islamophobia, said: “If you take a negative characteristic of an individual and impose on a whole community that’s racism.”

Phillips has opposed an extended definition of Islamophobia made by a cross-parliamentary group of MPs. He is involved with various free speech initiatives.

Last year, he was one of 24 public figures to sign a public letter saying they would not vote Labour in the election over its inability to tackle anti-Semitism within the party. The letter said that party leader Jeremy Corbyn had “a long record of embracing anti-Semites as comrades.”

Speaking in a radio interview on Monday, Phillips said: "It is an attempt to scare the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is conducting an inquiry in to how the Labour Party has handled allegations of anti-Semitism amongst its members. It may be an attempt to scare the EHRC into going soft on the party. I genuinely and sincerely hope that doesn't happen and that the EHRC does its job diligently and honestly."

Commenting on the case, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain said: “Mr Phillips has made incendiary statements about Muslims that would be unacceptable for any other minority. Many of these sweeping generalisations are unfounded, wildly exaggerated, and are familiar tropes taken up by the far right.

“He has claimed Muslims do not report terrorism, despite the poll he cited showing Muslims report terrorism more than the general public. He likened placing a Christian girl into a foster care with a Muslim family as akin to 'child abuse'; and further propagates the othering of Muslims, claiming Muslims are 'not like us', 'see the world differently' and are a 'nation within a nation'.”

“The impact of Mr Phillips claims from a privileged vantage point is dangerous, providing licence to far-right ideologues such as Tommy Robinson who have seized upon these remarks.

“Mr Phillips would have us believe that he is a martyr for free speech and tolerance. But the fact remains that the deployment of these sweeping generalisations and tropes would not be acceptable for any other community.