This Is How British Muslims Will Be Affected by the Arrival of a Hindu Prime Minister

Following the resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss on October 20, 2022, after only 44 days in power, her position in the leadership of the Conservative Party and the government was taken by her former rival, Hindu Rishi Sunak.

The party's leader and the new prime minister is the first British Hindu of Asian and Indian descent to rule the United Kingdom.

However, this shift could enhance the suffering of Muslims there, as Sunak, 42, maintains, in his personality, the Islamophobia of the ruling Conservative Party and Hindu hostility to Muslims.

 

First Hindu

After India was a British colony and under the rule of the English, the United Kingdom is now ruled by a Prime Minister of Indian and Hindu origin.

Britain occupied India from 1858 until 1947, and Sunak's grandparents immigrated from India first to East Africa, and then his parents immigrated in the 1960s to England.

Before receiving this position, Sunak, who previously worked as a banker, financial advisor, and treasury minister, was on the economy wing when the British were suffering from bad economic conditions, exacerbated by the failed economic plan of the resigned Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Sunak expressed this in a tweet he wrote to the British before voting to elect him, saying: "The United Kingdom is a great country, but we face a profound economic crisis. That's why I am standing to be the leader of the Conservative Party and your next Prime Minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our Party and deliver for our country."

Sunak received a divided and low-popular party that appointed 4 prime ministers in several years, and he will lead a country going through the most severe economic crisis in decades, which began with the referendum to leave the European Union in 2016.

The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, commented on Sunak's victory as prime minister, questioning his success by saying that the concerned British families did not hear anything from Rishi Sunak to reassure them.

Labour Party aide Angela Rayner wrote on Twitter that the Conservatives handed Sunak the keys to the country without him having said a word about how it would be governed and added that no one voted on this.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party stressed that the deteriorating economic situation will not change with Sunak, and general elections must be held as soon as possible, according to the France Press Agency on October 24.

Sunak must calm the turbulent markets since the announcement of the Truss government's plan at the end of September 2022, as well as citizens who are groaning about high prices with inflation exceeding 10 percent.

He should also unite the party, which has been divided for years, just two years before the 2024 legislative elections.

 

Hindu Joy

India's newspapers welcomed Sunak as Britain's prime minister, and the Times of India described him on October 24 as a proud Hindu, noting that he was the first Hindu prime minister in the UK.

It said that he is the first person of Indian origin who believes in Hinduism to lead Britain.

The newspaper noted that Sunak had previously said publicly that despite being a British citizen, he remains a proud Hindu and that he swore to the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu holy book) after winning the 2017 elections.

The head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana also welcomed the election of Sunak as British Prime Minister, stressing that it means more strength for India in international affairs.

The Guardian described him on October 24 as the first Hindu of color who adheres to the teachings of his religion to head the British government.

The Times had revealed on July 22, 2022, that Sunak, when he was Minister of Finance, lit candles on the occasion of a Hindu holiday called Diwali on the threshold of Door No. 11 in the Prime Minister's Residence, Downing Street, despite the restrictions of Corona at the time.

Sunak himself told the BBC in 2019 that this identity is important to him and confirmed that he goes to the temple on the weekends.

It was noteworthy that the "Friends of Israel Group" in the United Kingdom, which seeks to move the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, won Sunak's victory, as he is a "loyal friend of Israel and the Jewish community."

 

Anti-Muslim

In addition to his Hindu anti-Islam ideas, Rishi Sunak is one of the most important British Conservative Party officials who focus on the issue of extremism.

Sunak pledged in his election campaign two months ago to eliminate organizations that promote extremism in the United Kingdom and revive a government program that addresses extremism, particularly "the Islamic."

Sunak said he will do whatever it takes to redouble efforts to counter Islamic extremism.

During the party's elections, Sunak vowed to clamp down on what he called "Islamic extremists" without specifying who he meant, and ignoring Muslims' demand to condemn Islamophobia.

Sunak refused to respond to a letter submitted to him by civil activists and parliamentarians regarding his plan to combat Islamophobia, which is afflicting British Muslims' lives.

The Ready4Rishi campaign team released details of what it called "ambitious plans" to tackle Islamic extremism and protect the UK from terrorism, noting that it would also separate Muslim terrorists from the rest of the prison population.

Although he is of Indian origin immigrating to Britain, Sunak stood firmly with immigration and refugee laws, and was always a supporter of any law that reduces the number of immigrants to the country, and gets tough on the issue of receiving refugees, including Muslims from India, Pakistan and Arab countries.

During his leadership of the treasury, which is the second most important ministry after the prime minister, he gave a lot of funding to all efforts to prevent the arrival of refugees to Britain by sea.

Sunak promised to identify those eligible for asylum and set an "annual cap" on the number of refugees entering Britain, describing Britain's immigration policy as "chaotic."

 

Conservative Islamophobia

The Conservative Party received many accusations of being "unfriendly" to Muslims in Britain.

For years, Muslims have been warning of the rise of what they call conservative Islamophobia, where hatred escalates unusually within the ruling party in exchange for sympathy with the Zionist entity.

On May 25, 2021, a report prepared by Conservative member Swaran Singh found that the party had registered 1,400 complaints about 727 incidents of discrimination between 2015 and 2020, two-thirds of which were discrimination against Muslims (Islamophobia), according to The Independent.

The results of an opinion poll showed that 7 out of 10 Muslims in Britain, at a rate of 44%, are exposed to Islamophobia practices in their workplaces. In contrast, the results of the same opinion poll indicated an increase in the integration of Muslims into British society.

The survey was conducted by the Hyphen website, which focuses on Muslim issues in Britain and Europe, between April 22 and May 10, 2022, with 1503 Muslims participating, 700 of whom are between 18 and 24 years old.

In recent years, the ruling Conservative Party has faced criticism over the involvement of an increasing number of its officials in incidents related to the phenomenon of Islamophobia.

When former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned, the Muslim Council of Britain hoped on July 7, 2022, through its Secretary General, Zara Muhammad, that his successor would be less hostile to Islam and end the state of hatred against Muslims among nearly half of the party's members.

In an article by the Guardian on August 3, 2022, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, Miqdaad Versi, criticized Sunak's policy in this matter.

He accused him of intending "to punish the wrong person" by broadening the definition of extremism, and only ordinary British Muslims would be victims of this new policy.

Before he became prime minister, Johnson mocked Muslim women, which caused an upsurge in anti-Islam attacks. However, the Conservative Party chose him as the leader, confirming the spread of Islamophobia within the party and in British politics in general.

During his rule, the British Muslim minister, Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani, complained about her dismissal as Minister of State for Transport because she was Muslim, claiming that her colleagues felt uncomfortable, according to The Independent.

The National News reported on July 27, 2022, that more than half of Conservative Party members believe that Islam is a threat to British values.

Numerous reports and statistics over recent years have indicated that Johnson and his party have greatly contributed to making Islamophobia a socially acceptable phenomenon.

Over the past years, the Conservative Muslim Forum has called for an independent investigation into manifestations of Islamophobia and intolerance against Muslims in the Conservative Party, but nothing has worked.