A STATE-backed definition of “Islamophobia” would undermine Britain’s counterterrorism and immigration laws, a new report claims.
The Policy Exchange think tank slammed Labour’s plan to formally define anti-Islamic hate, warning it would create a “two-tier policy” that shields Muslims but leaves other faiths exposed.
Ministers are currently weighing up recommendations from a secretive government-appointed working group on the issue.
Policy Exchange said that Mend, an Islamist group at the campaign’s forefront, admits the definition is a tool to challenge so-called “policy failures”—including claims that Muslims face unfair scrutiny under anti-terror laws.
A staggering 94 per cent of all terrorist-related deaths in Great Britain over the past quarter century were the result of Islamist attacks.
Khalid Mahmood, Policy Exchange Senior Fellow and Britain’s longest-serving Labour Muslim MP, said: “Opposition to an official Islamophobia definition has, until now, largely focused on its risk to free speech. But there is an even more dangerous threat, much less well understood – including by ministers themselves.
“The only safe answer is to have no official definition at all. It is not too late to step back.”
Authors Andrew Gilligan and Paul Stott add: “There already is a definition of ‘anti-Muslim hate’ – the one provided by the law, which applies equally to hatred against people of all faiths.
“Unless the definition literally no more than copies the exact words of the law (in which case the whole exercise is pointless) any new definition of ‘anti-Muslim hate’ will be an explicit act of two-tier policy.”
It came as yesterday a senior Tory MP warned that Britain faces a growing threat of Islamist extremists encroaching on public institutions, including the government and the NHS, to impose their way of life.
Nick Timothy said that politicians, the police and civil servants are increasingly kowtowing to the sectarian demands of sexist, anti-Western and antisemitic Muslim extremists.
Speaking at Policy Exchange, the MP said that far more must be done to stop sectarianism encroaching on Britain’s liberal democracy and way of life.
He argued there should be a “national conversation” on banning the burqa and having tighter control over the influence of hard-line Islamic schools and mosques.
