An attempt by the Conservatives to "smear" Sadiq Khan during the London mayoral election campaign has increased the chance of terrrorist attacks on the UK and could radicalise more young British Muslims, one of the UK’s most prominent Tory Muslims has said.
Mohammed Amin, chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum – an organisation established to attract more Muslims to the party – wrote on the Conservative Home website that he was “disgusted” by Zac Goldsmith's "risible" campaign, which repeatedly tried to paint Mr Khan as a security risk and even a friend of terrorist sympathisers.
One such alleged 'sympathiser' was Suliman Gani, an imam, who was accused by David Cameron of being a supporter of Isis, comments later reinforced by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. Mr Gani has now said he is planning to take legal action against Mr Fallon and is seeking a "public retraction" of his comments.
Speaking as he celebrated becoming the new Mayor of London, Mr Khan said he had met many people from ethnic minorities who had told him they were discouraging their children from going into politics because of the tenor of the Tory campaign.
But Mr Amin went much further.
“Zac’s attempts to smear Khan have probably increased our risks of suffering terrorism. Isis are perpetually seeking to radicalise and recruit young British Muslims to their cause," he said.
“At the margin, I believe there is a risk that young impressionable British Muslims who witnessed Khan being smeared in this manner will thereby be made more vulnerable to radicalisation than they were before.”
He continued: “If Zac had won, for the next four years of his Mayoralty it would have rankled with most British Muslims that he won by smearing an upstanding loyal British Parliamentarian who happens to be Muslim.”
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Amin said he was “not in a position” to comment on the driving force behind the controversial campaign amid speculation that its strategy was imposed on Mr Goldsmith by more powerful figures within the party.
Mr Amin said he had met Mr Goldsmith only briefly, so was also unable to say if the campaign was an accurate reflection of his attitudes.
But he added: “The party does have ways of discouraging campaigns it does not like…this was not enforced during the Goldsmith campaign.”
In his article, Mr Amin said that even as a Conservative member of over 30 years, he was so “disgusted with the tone” of the Goldsmith campaign and his "repeated, and risible, attempts to smear Sadiq Khan” meant that he stopped canvassing for the Tory candidate after January 2016.
“We were meant to understand that Khan kept bad company with extremist Muslims and could not be trusted with the safety of London,” Mr Amin wrote.
“On top of that, leaflets were targeted specifically at London Hindus and Sikhs, superficially about Khan’s tax policies, but clearly seeking to divide Londoners along religious and ethnic lines.”
The work done by David Cameron to “detoxify” the brand of the Conservative party had also been “imperilled” by the Goldsmith campaign, Mr Amin wrote.
“If we want to avoid the likely fate of the US Republican Party, we have to appeal to Britons of all ethnicities and of all religions and none," he added.
Mr Khan said that during the course of the campaign “dozens and dozens and dozens” of parents had told him that they had advised their children against entering politics after witnessing the attacks on Mr Khan's record.
“I’ve spent my entire life fighting extremism and radicalisation, encouraging minority communities to get involved in mainstream politics and civic society and I’ve managed to do that,” Mr Khan told Sky News.
‘But in the last few weeks I’ve had dozens and dozens and dozens of parents, uncles and aunties, grandparents, saying: ‘You know what, our son or daughter was thinking about getting into politics, our nephew or niece was thinking about getting into politics, but after seeing what’s happened to you we’re advising against that.’”
He declined to call for David Cameron to apologise for the campaign, saying that was a matter for the Prime Minister to decide, but said he wanted to work with the Government to combat radicalisation in Muslim communities.
The Conservative Party declined to comment on Mr Amin's article, saying "you will need to go to Zac's campaign for that". The campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
