{"id":1383,"date":"2012-05-01T14:57:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T14:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/2012\/05\/the-mayoral-race-should-be-about-uniting-communities-not-dividing-them\/"},"modified":"2020-07-16T13:49:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T12:49:31","slug":"the-mayoral-race-should-be-about-uniting-communities-not-dividing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=1383","title":{"rendered":"The Mayoral Race should be about uniting communities not dividing them"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mayuri Parmar
\nNational Hindu Students Forum (UK) Alumni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

UK election results in the past few years have increasingly been about galvanising the vote of smaller ethnic, religious or immigrant communities. The reason for this is quite simple. Most of these communities are grouped densely within particular constituencies and present an increasingly significant proportion of marginal votes. On this basis, I would expect the Mayoral candidates to reach out to as many communities within London to ensure that they get their voice heard. More importantly, I would expect them to reach out so that they can understand their electorate and be truly representative of this great city.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

During the Mayoral election campaign, however, I have witnessed faith communities being used as election tools. In a recent address to a congregation at Finsbury Park mosque, Ken Livingstone\u2019s pledge to make London a \u2018beacon\u2019 for the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed created quite a stir. He quoted a passage where the Prophet spoke against racial discrimination. This is, of course, a positive message. He then went on to say that he wanted to educate Londoners on the teachings of Islam.<\/p>\n

On the face of it, they seem like the words of a politician reaching out to the Muslim community in London for support- hardly surprising considering that the community makes up a significant proportion of the London electorate. I would normally regard this to be a harmless and routine part of an election campaign. Despite this, on learning more about his tactics, I have come to realise that something far more underhand is going on. There is a clear distinction between a) reaching out to many of the diverse communities in London to demonstrate your competence and willingness to represent them, and b) using someone\u2019s personal religion to specifically target and favour a group of individuals (financially and otherwise), simply for electoral gain. It is poor politics and dangerous in a city like London.<\/p>\n

It is clear that Ken Livingstone is doing the latter. He persisted in visiting mosques throughout his election campaign- without affording other faith groups the same chance to learn about his policies. As far as I am aware, other candidates have not employed this level of targeted campaigning. Not too long after his address at Finsbury Park mosque, Ken claimed that \u2018Jews were too rich to vote for him\u2019. The use of such language against a religious group is astonishing when taking into account how tight the race is between Ken and Boris. Why alienate and offend a community at this late stage? Surely, all votes are good votes? Perhaps the 700,000 potential Muslim votes count more towards an election victory? The apparent use of divide and rule tactics to this extent- playing so blatantly on existing religious divides- is morally abhorrent.<\/p>\n

The persistence of Ken Livingstone to lobby just one faith community makes me question his objectivity as the potential Mayor of the world\u2019s most diverse and cosmopolitan city. Let me make clear that lobbying ANY sole religious group in this way is wrong. I find his misuse of holy text (quoting the final sermon without context for political means), and reckless leverage of faith both offensive and divisive. The message he is sending undermines the unique identity that London holds as a tolerant city which aims to create pluralistic environments with all kinds of people, from all walks of life. Far from educating Londoners on Islam, which is absolutely vital, he is stoking a fire of discontent by alienating other groups, and apparently catering for the needs of one faith group above others.<\/p>\n

It also raises an important point about the Mayor\u2019s role. The Mayor is supposed to represent the entirety of the city, not select parts. As a born and bred Londoner, I do not want a Mayor governing this city if his or her interests, and ultimately taxpayers\u2019 money, are being directed towards just one community (no matter what that community is), without raising the bar of fellow Londoners that deserve it just as much.<\/p>\n

The Mayoral race is frequently quoted as one that is about individual personalities. If that is the case, I would think twice before voting for a candidate that does not display an understanding and sensitivity of all faith groups in the city. The winning candidate for Mayor must strike a delicate balance to ensure that faith groups are given a voice and feel assured that they are being heard- and I\u2019m not convinced that Ken Livingstone is the candidate that will do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mayuri Parmar National Hindu Students Forum (UK) Alumni UK election results in the past few years have increasingly been about galvanising the vote of smaller ethnic, religious or immigrant communities. The reason for this is quite simple. Most of these communities are grouped densely within particular constituencies and present an increasingly significant proportion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}