by Melanie Phillips, The Times
It’s highly concerning if government is concealing the involvement of extremist Islamist groups
When a government department starts shredding the evidence behind its decisions, it’s a fair bet that it has something to hide from the public.
In March, the government introduced a non-statutory definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” as a way of weaponising the charge of “Islamophobia” without being seen to do so. Islamophobia is a term introduced by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood to silence all criticism of Islam or the Muslim world under the guise of outlawing prejudice.
The government set up a working group which invited people to make submissions aimed at defining Islamophobia. This provoked horror from critics who claimed it would create a blasphemy law by the back door for Islam.
The group eventually scrapped the term “Islamophobia” in favour of “anti-Muslim hostility” in an effort to head off such opposition. The government adopted this definition and is encouraging public, private and charitable bodies to act on it.
Critics claim, however, that this Islamophobia-lite is so vague and subjective that it will still have a chilling effect on free speech. One of those critics, the Conservative Party justice spokesman Nick Timothy, has now discovered through freedom of information requests that Angela Rayner’s communities department has deleted all the submissions made to the working group.
So, public bodies will be deciding whether to take action against “anti-Muslim hostility” by using a slippery definition for which the reasoning has been concealed. Timothy has drawn the reasonable conclusion that the submissions were destroyed to hide the influence by Islamist extremists over the definition’s wording.