Minister who left Muslim wedding attacked
Labour peer says criticism of segregation was 'cowardly'
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Independent Minds
A Labour peer has demanded an apology from Jim Fitzpatrick, the Farming minister, after Mr Fitzpatrick publicly criticised the segregation of men and women at Muslim weddings.
Lord Patel of Blackburn, a senior figure in Britain's Muslim community, accused Mr Fitzpatrick of launching a "cowardly attack" on Muslims who opted for a segregated wedding, accusing him of pandering to "anti-Muslim sentiment" within his constituency.
Mr Fitzpatrick angered many Muslims in his east London constituency when he walked out of a ceremony at the London Muslim Centre last week in protest at being split up from his wife. He also gave interviews suggesting that the custom showed a "degree of intolerance" towards guests who may be offended.
But in a scathing attack on his party colleague, Lord Patel said that Mr Fitzpatrick's stance was merely an attempt to gain votes.
"I suspect Mr Fitzpatrick has one eye on the general election and has mistakenly used this event for political gain," he said. "He is playing to a section of the voters with whom anti-Muslim sentiment is appealing. This is underhand and dangerous."
He warned that Mr Fitzpatrick risked creating "alienation and distrust" within his own community by implying that all Muslims in the area must assimilate for reasons of social cohesion.
The bridegroom has also asked for an apology from Mr Fitzpatrick for "hijacking" the ceremony for political gain. Bodrul Islam said he had been "amazed and shocked" by Mr Fitzpatrick's protest.
The minister blamed the decision to segregate men and women at the ceremony on the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), a conservative group with an office at the East London Mosque next door to the wedding venue. However, Mr Islam denied that he or his wife had come under any pressure to separate their guests.
Mr Fitzpatrick yesterday said he had been seeking to highlight the growing influence of the IFE, rather than criticise the wishes of the families involved.
"There was nothing cowardly about the attack on the IFE. It was very direct and very open," he said.
"The IFE are intolerant, not the community. The community is a very generous and open one. My beef is that the IFE is starting to influence the social and political life of the Bangladeshi and Muslim community.
"I have apologised on camera to the families and to the community for any offence that I may have caused. That was not what I was trying to do."
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Comments
Erm what's the alternative? A ghetto?
No thanks. If assimilation into the UK population is such a bad thing - why come here?
You twat they didnt come here they were BORN HERE !!
Why should they be forced to dress the way you do or follow your 'culture' (of binge drinking, pornography, sex & havings kids outside of marriage etc etc)
If he was earlier aware of the proposed arrangements and found them not to his liking then he could have politely decined the invitation.
I was always taught to respect your hosts customs. If not to your liking then don't go.
Pretty simple, pretty basic and don't make a total pratt of yourself by seeking to make cheap political capital.
If they don't respect our customs perhaps they should leave the UK?
Pretty simple, pretty basic, no?
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
Storming out of the ceremony and making a scene about it was just very bad manners and Mr Fitzpatrick has opened himself to all the criticism that has been thrown in his direction. I feel sorry for the young couple on their big day. Weddings are stressful at the best of times when you are the centre of attention, and this is the last thing they needed.
Muslim weddings and culture are different from our traditions. But if that's how they want to conduct their lives, then who is it hurting? A bit of live and let live, please.
Pathetic.
Are you a closet misogynist as well, or are you a full on fairy tale believer?
Be careful what you argue for - encourage governments to prescribe and proscribe, and you may find them curtailing rights and liberties that are important to you. It might feel different then!
If this guy has Muslim constituents, shouln't he be sent on a course on a) getting to know other cultures / religions and b) manners.
This is an issue across the whole of Western Europe. I was just only holiday in Spain and it was a big conversational topic.
Seriously, you new labour liberals can keep on doing whatever you like not to offend immigrants and their medieval ways, but the populace across the continent are becoming seriously fed up with this.
The Labour MP concerned is more in tune with the electorate than 'Lord Patel'
This is the most tolerant state in the World and we have had enough of being told what to think and do by those who remain closeted behind a small world in which women are told what to do and what to think by men. Go to any political meeting in a Moslem community and see for yourself.
The hosts have been in Britain long enough to know that the British value gender equality. I was always taught to respect the values of the country I am in. Pretty simple, pretty basic, really.
Unless, of course, the host were deliberately intending to insult the values of the country they live in and of all of the British guests they invited. Or perhaps they were merely trying to get some headlines by inviting an MP to a ceremony that ignored or insulted local values.
Anyway, you are reversing the whole episode. Usually, in everyday life, when an spoiled brat goes to a party and throws a tantrum because the host doesn't do what he wants, he doesn't deserve anything but contempt, some laughter and jokes at his expenses in most cases. But as this was a MUSLIM wedding (attended by a majority of Muslims who adhere to the rules and customs practiced in Muslims weddings normally), then the blame is not of the guest, but of the host! UNBELIEVABLE. Bad manners of the guest are rewarded in this case, because of the anti Muslim bias. So, because ONE non Muslim guest wanted that Muslims changed their arrangements to suit him better, we have that the Muslims are in the wrong, not the bad mannered, spoiled brat of this MP? Well, this only proves what I said before. Britons, and Europeans in general are intolerant, racist bigots. It's their way, or their highway. Even in our own countries that are invaded when we don't do as they want... As I said before, Europeans are a plague.
Diastrophism USAGE:
"There is even a mosque across the street from the hotel, but most people here believe it was spirits, not volcanic diastrophism, that sent deadly vapors roiling up from Lake Nios, killing the villagers who lived over the hills." Jonathan Broder; Spirits in Lake, Bottle Haunt Cameroon; The Chicago Tribune; Sep 2, 1986.
Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
I do think it would've been wise for Mr Fitzpatrick to accept the custom and remain at the wedding though, whilst he may not agree with the practices, as others have pointed out on here many religions and cultures have them and it's good manners to accept them. It's not as if he was asked to flog a woman for wearing trousers.
On the wider subject of gender discrimination in Islam I am far from an expert but I believe in equal rights for women and men and feel any faiths, customs or beliefs that advocate otherwise to be morally wrong and their being put into practice should have no place in this country. The right to choose your faith, food and way of life yes but where these clash with moral standards, such as this equality of men and women, then the latter takes precendence. I would be interested to hear how many Muslims agree with this last point?
Usually it's Jack Straw who does somersaults to impress his muslim constituents in Blackburn. New Labour doesn't seem to know whether it's coming or going.
when I used the womans changing room at our local swimming pool to protest against segregation.I was thrown out by an angry mob before I could even get my pants off.
I think this was a legitimate protest.
they had no right to smash my video camera and should have let me get dressed before chasing me down the street
they never did return my anorak
On the other hand Farmer Jim needs to get out more among the Asian folks in his community... it could be said he cannot best serve their interests with so little knowledge of their ways.
Marlinspike. You and I assume from the quote, Fitzpatrick, are both confusing integration with assimilation. You can become integrated into the UK population without becoming assimilated.
Segregating social events due to gender is backward, medieval, and misogynist and has no place in the United Kingdom.
Next we'll be saying female circumcision is OK as we don't want to offend those who practice it.
It's sick - the suffragettes must be turning in their graves to see the British people laid prostrate before yet another backward, male-dominated fairy story.
I would have been greatly offended if I were invited to a wedding or whatever event and told I would be segregated with my gender group. I recall as long as 25 years ago in England when my husband and I were invited to dinner at the home of an old friend of mine. As soon as dinner was over, the men went off into one room to drink, smoke cigars, fart and tell course jokes while the women were herded into another room where we received a lecture on wrapping Christmas presents. Both my husband and I felt extremely uncomfortable but we were dignified and stayed out the experience for long enough to make it legitimate to wish our hosts Good Bye. We did not stay in touch and I remember feeling quite mortified. Whenever the thought crosses my mind, it makes me shiver.
I believe Lord Patel would do well to stop to reflect that in 2009 - certainly in Britain and in all Western countries, the segregation of men and women, socially, civicly or domestically is quite beyond the pale. Different cultures have different traditions - they are no more than traditions, disputed even among themselves but to impose them on the host nation, in your face, in pretence of religious mores, is quite unacceptable.
As muslim I find your interventions on this discussion boards embarassing. You maybe be a nice guy, and full off enthusiams but you never stick to the topic and make arguments that are frankly meaningless. If this was Star Wars you'd be Jar Jar Binks.
I'm sorry for whacking you like this but I've been watching for a while. Whenever I see your name I end up cringing. Stop it mate OR practice discursive writing - one of the two, at the moment you make no sense -ever
"Ex-pat Brits" are not my own culture. If I were Spanish for example, I would have exactly the same opinions about these Britsh living in Spain who refuse to integrate.
I do not have one rule for British people, and one for another.
However, tabloid newspapers and rumbles in the boozer are also part of Spanish culture, although I will concede that Baked Beans are a peculiarity. It's not like introducing misogyny, female circumcision, forced marriage or burning heathens (although again, historical Spain had as good a record as historical Britain on this front).