Today’s Telegraph splash could have been designed in a laboratory to trigger Tory tempers. After months of deliberation, the paper reports that Angela Rayner’s department now plans to create a council on Islamophobia. This will draw up an official government definition for anti-Muslim discrimination and provide advice to ministers on how best to tackle it. The person chosen to head the 16-strong council? Dominic Grieve, the uber-Remainer and former Attorney-General.
Grieve wrote the foreword to the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims report in 2018 that set out the definition of Islamophobia which the Labour party subsequently adopted. It stated that ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.’ Ministers have yet to say whether they will adopt this definition of Islamophobia or an alternative. However, Grieve believes that it is clear that ‘perfectly law-abiding Muslims’ are currently ‘suffering discrimination and abuse.
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