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VICTIMISED COUNCILLOR SAYS LABOUR “TURNED MUSLIMS TO TERRORISM”

26-11-2007

The former Birmingham Labour councillor who became a victim of his own party’s racism has been talking for the first time about his ten-year battle to clear his name. Raghib Ahsan says he’s still angry, and believes the discrimination he suffered may have pushed other Muslims towards terrorism.

Ahsan, who was elected for Labour in Sparkhill in 1991, was accused of buying votes within the Pakistani Muslim community by helping people jump the queue for housing grants.

There were also suggestions that he had found a way of manipulating the party’s membership system in his own interests, by packing meetings with supporters and friends.

Last week, the House of Lords laid to rest those allegations once and for all – but too late to save a political career which once looked destined to end in Westminster.

The false claims were part of the justification used to suspend four Labour constituency parties in the mid-1990’s, and in Ahsan’s case led to him being denied the chance to succeed Roy Hattersley as MP for Small Heath and Sparkbrook.

He recalls: “When I first became a councillor, many of my constituents came to me and said they were waiting years to get housing grants. I checked the law and found they were entitled to a decision within six months.

“I asked the [Labour] council why, and they told me it was because the residents were filling in the wrong forms. I discovered the reason for that was that the council was refusing to send out the right forms.”

Ahsan took the case to the Local Government Ombudsman, but his persistence didn’t go down well with officials at regional and national party level.

In 1995, articles appeared in the press accusing him of trying to bribe voters, and his ward was one of a dozen in inner city Birmingham suspended by Labour.

Although he always protested his innocence, the cloud of suspicion was sufficient for the party to deny Ahsan the chance to stand for nomination to the Sparkhill ward in 1997.  He was deselected and replaced by Ian Jamieson, a white man.

Party officials justified their decision by saying the electorate “perceived” there were problems within the Pakistani community – a view the Lords said was, “nothing more than the old plea that you have nothing against employing a black person but the customers would not like it.”

Although Ahsan served as a councillor until 1998, the row ensured that he would never be able to pursue his dream of becoming a Member of Parliament.  He wasn’t able to clear his name and finally prove discrimination and victimisation until last week, when the Law Lords unanimously backed his appeal against his old colleagues and upheld the original Employment Tribunal verdict – which had later been overturned by the Court of Appeal.

He said: “I’m really pleased, but I’m also angry. Around 1995/96 I was considered to be the leading black politician in Birmingham, but the suspension took my political career away”.

Despite his mistreatment, Ahsan stayed with Labour, trying to reform the party from within, until the second Gulf War in 2003 proved to be a betrayal too far and he quit in disgust.

He stood unsuccessfully for Respect in Handsworth in this year’s local council elections, and is now concentrating on community politics.

Although he insists he’s not bitter, he believes that Labour’s treatment of inner city wards in the mid-90’s, especially those with large Muslim populations, has had a devastating long term effect.

“Traditionally Muslims in these areas voted for Labour, and when Labour suspended all those wards, a lot of people were disenfranchised” he argues.

“They became disaffected with politics. I’m not saying it was a major factor in some people turning towards terrorism, but it was definitely a contributory cause.”

Should heads roll because of what happened to Raghib Ahsan?

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