Recent polls carried out for Hope Not Hate by YouGov found that 60% of Conservative Party members believe Islam “is generally a threat to western civilization”, and 54% hold Islam to be “generally a threat to the British way of life”. Two-thirds believe in the falsehood that that parts of Britain are under sharia law and 40% want to limit Britain’s Muslim population. [1,2] The polls coincide with the party’s leadership election, where the favorite candidate is Boris Johnson who compared Muslim women to “bank robbers” and “letterboxes”. [3]
Comment:
To some these figures may seem alarming; however, the reality is that second to the crusades, Britain’s Conservative Party (Tory Party) is the oldest enemy of Islam. The party formed in the 1830s consisted of the wealthy capitalists and the gentry—often marked by royal titles— and spearheaded immense efforts to subordinate the Islamic world to the British Empire.
The party presided over some of the most turbulent periods of British rule across the Muslim world. The Tories went to great lengths under leadership of Edward George (14th Earl of Derby) to stamp out India’s war of independence in 1857. The Conservatives worked tirelessly to sow seeds of dissension throughout the Ottoman state, which under the Tory leadership of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin culminated in the destruction of the Caliphate in 1924. A few years earlier, the ex-conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour along with Walter Rothschild published the notorious Balfour Declaration that laid the basis for the illegal establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. These are just some of the crimes perpetrated by the grandfathers of present British conservatives.
The modern day Tory descendants under the leadership of Thatcher, Major, Cameron and May have been equal in their bigotry and vitriol towards Islam. The party has avidly supported crusader wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and doggedly defends Western surrogates throughout the Muslim world. Prime Minister Cameron actively stood against the Arab Spring by supporting autocrats and monarchs throughout the region. Under the leadership of May, the Tories paid lip service to the spilling of Muslim blood in Syria and Yemen, and ensured that the Assad and Saudis would get necessary weapons to thwart the popular revolutions in these countries. [4,5]
The litany of crimes committed against the Muslim world sheds light as to why the vast majority of Tories despise Islam. Just as if a leopard cannot change its spots, the Conservative Party’s hatred of Islam cannot be expunged because it is deep seated and inherited from the crusades. Allah (swt) says: قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ “Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs, if you will use reason.” [3:118].
Western politicians who rush to emulate the Conservative Party’s outright demagoguery against Islam should recall how the Caliphate in the past upended such parties of hatred amongst the Romans, Persians, Mongols and the crusades. The coming Caliphate will extinguish their hatred. Allah (swt) says: يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّـهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّـهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ “They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.” [61:8]
Abdul Majeed Bhatti
References:
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48912065
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/10/islamophobia-tory-party-britain
[3] ibid.
[4] https://aoav.org.uk/2018/uk-arms-sales-to-syria/
[5] https://www.dw.com/en/uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-declared-unlawful-by-court-of-appeal/a-49275933