War in Iraq was a mistake, Anas Sarwar, MP

War in Iraq was a mistake, MP Anas Sarwar

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The decision to go to war in Iraq is a mistake. Some politicians realised as early as 2003 that the war in Iraq is not a proper decision. “No people are perfect; no political party is perfect; and no government is perfect. Human beings make mistakes; political parties make mistakes; government makes mistakes. And I would say there is no bigger mistake by our previous Labour government than the war in Iraq. I opposed at that time; I protested at that time and I was against the war in Iraq and I disagreed on the decision of going to war in Iraq,” observed Anas Sarwar, in an exclusive interview with me.

Election on the Labour Party Leadership will be held very soon. Sarwar said, “I think by recognising that mistake we must make sure that we learn from that mistakes and we must make sure that it must not happen again. I think all our candidates should agree on that it was a wrong decision as I always said it was and that if we are going to move on as a political party and as a country everybody should accept that mistake and make sure that we learn the lesson that it should not happen in future.”

At around half-passed two in the afternoon of Monday, the 24th of May, 2010, some of the newly elected Members of the House of Commons took oath of allegiance to the Queen. Among them, there were Anas Sarwar, MP from the Glasgow Central, Shabana Mahmood, MP from the Birmingham Ladywood and Rushanara Ali, MP from the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency. They took oath on the Qur’an. MP Anas Sarwar made it a point to place his right hand on the Qur’an Shareef and started with saying Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim.

In front of MP Anas Sarwar were two extremely talented newly elected MPs, Shabana Mahmood from Birmingham Ladywood and Rushanara Ali of Bethnal Green and Bow. “One of the most proudest thing I would say that seeing too extremely talented sisters with headscarves and taking an oath on the Qur’an I must say it was incredibly happy moment for me and a pride moment for our country,” told me newly elected MP Anas Sarwar in an interview at the Portcullis House, Westminster, after the oath-taking ceremony.

Joyous and difficult moments
Sarwar won the elections from the Glasgow Central constituency. He not only increased the majority from 10,000 but also increased the turnout by 8 per cent. Speaking about his reaction after hearing his victory at the elections, Sarwar said, “There was personal joy and obviously joy for my hard team work which gave this result at Glasgow. It is also joyous seeing Shabana, Rushanara Sadiq, Khalid being elected and re-elected but at the same time there was some difficult moment that we knew that it was not going to be a very best of night for the Labour Party and we were sad to lose very talented people like Shahid Malik.”

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The world peace is the lost cow of humanity. Every political leader consciously or unconsciously realise that peace cannot be achieved in this world without peace in the Middle East. I wanted to know what newly elected Member of Parliament thinks about Palestine. “I first visited Palestine when I was just 12 years of age and I again visited in 2008 and I actually spent days in Gaza Strip. The situation is simply unacceptable. You have humanitarian crisis; you have economic crisis and you have political crisis. The humanitarian crisis is: 70% of the population are unemployed; 80% of the population is eating purely on UN Food programmes and two-third of the essential medicines that is sent by the World Health Organisations for the people of Gaza,” said Sarwar about the situation in Palestine. The urgent need of the humanity is not political rhetoric but “the end of the sieze and to open the tunnel to the Gaza Strip”, he said.

Destruction of infrastructure
People are talking about an independent Palestinian state. But an independent Palestinian state will only be viable when economic crisis will be solved. Every infrastructure of the Palestinians has been destroyed. Sarwar said, “Every infrastructure of the Palestinians whether it is the water lines, sewerage lines, electricity lines, phone lines are simply destroyed by the Israeli government and its forces. And if we are serious about making independent Palestinian state we must make investment, on the infrastructure but at the same time investing on the infrastructure; and we need to take young people forward to the next generation.”

Commitment for an Independent Palestinian state
Anas Sarwar said that he himself has been committed. He also mentioned that he is delighted that the former Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who emphasized about this commitment. David Miliband said that we want an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital with the right of return for the refugees and has to have on the pre-1967 borders, mentioned MP Sarwar.

“My promise to the people is: I will campaign tirelessly along with Muslim MPs and non-Muslim MPs and more importantly with the people of this country to recognise the justice is happening in the region and to make sure we can make that full independence a reality,” said Sarwar and added, “Until we have got justice in that region we could not get peace. And that is my commitment, my faith of just resolution for Palestinians.”

Sarwar on Afghanistan
Recently, the Foreign Secretary William Hague has visited Afghanistan and both the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, was talking about Afghanistan. I wanted to know what his comment on the British troops in Afghanistan is. Sarwar was in favour of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan “as soon as practical and possible”. “We have to make sure that we are helping to rebuild Afghanistan and make Afghanistan a prosperous state and not play a negative role there. I would not say that we should immediately withdraw troops from Afghanistan. I would say as soon as practically possible leaving the Afghans to determine their own future exactly the same way as we are calling for the self-determination of the Palestinian people; exactly we are calling for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir. We also should recognise that it is up to the Afghan people to determine their own future.”

About Pakistan
Anas Sarwar was born and bred in Glasgow. He mentioned himself as a “Glasgow boy”; and he is “proud to be British”. But at the same time he said that I love Pakistan and I am proud that my mother country is Pakistan and I am proud that Pakistan where my heritage lies. The biggest power that the Pakistan has is its people; ex-Pakistanis never forgot Pakistan; they never lost of love for Pakistan and that is emphasized through charity and through links that are maintained with Pakistan.”

But at the same time Sarwar mentioned that we have to recognise that there are challenges for Pakistan. “In Pakistan, unfortunately, rich becomes richer and poor becomes poorer. This is simply unacceptable in the 21st century. Anybody in any country to be queuing for sugar, flour, wheat, bread or anything else; it is simply unacceptable,” said Sarwar.

Expatriate Pakistanis or the people of Pakistani heritage are leading in science, medicine, technology, IT and in every sector of life, mentioned Sarwar and said, “I think we need to put our heads together and we need to be working together . And what we can do here together obviously continue in the international world make sure investing in health, education programme and in Pakistan and make sure health to promote, better business links between the Pakistanis and British communities and making sure holding respect both for people of Pakistan and also Britain respect Pakistan and the best way of doing that is to as a Pakistanis because make no mistake; no government in this country would dare doing mischief in Pakistan. British do still have love for Pakistan.”

Glasgow City Council
Sarwar also mentioned about his own city. He said, “I am proud of my own city, the Glasgow City Council, which is under Labour administration, introduces and helps to double one double two service and in Pakistan emergency service.”

As I was conducting the interview with him, Parliamentarian Sarwar mentioned about “a delegation went from the Glasgow City Council to Pakistan looking at a recycling project, looking at a sewerage project, looking at infrastructure project, and looking at projects fast travel. We have to support public transport. I think we have lot of things to learn. British people have lot to learn from Pakistan and Pakistan will learn lots from Britain and we have to strengthen this relationship over the time and that is something which I promise I would to do.”

Faith School
Speaking about faith schools, Sarwar said, “I have no opposition to faith schools. I think it is acceptable if you have Catholic schools in UK, if you have Jewish schools in UK; then you have every right to have Muslim schools in the UK also. It is less significant what the title the school has; it is less about the faith the school comes from; what is more important is what the schools are teaching to the kids. Because the less our children have education, we can’t break those statistics or those cycles of underachievement I mentioned.”

Speaking about spending cuts and imposition of new tax, Sarwar mentioned that we have accepted that some cuts have to be made. I think we have to wait and see what happens with this current government. We, in the Labour benches, we will give the strong opposition to make sure that the investment in education and health and other key frontline services will continue.”

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the facebook
Sarwar said, “It is, first of all, completely unacceptable that anybody’s faith to be discredited or ridiculed in any way and I think the defamation and denigration of our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) is unacceptable. But at the same time, it is for the Muslims not only in this country but in the entire world to stop to be reactive. Those people who instigate Islamophobia want us to be hyper-proactive reaction. We have every right to be sensitive, but we should be reactive with sense and measured manner and we have to ensure that we are above reactionary. I think our approach should be measured approach, should be organisational approach.”

Ban on Burkha and headscarves
Europe wants to ban burkha, hijab and headscarves. Britain is the only country which protected the women’s rights to wear Hijab. “We are proud of UK. We have protected the Hijab,” said Sarwar and mentioned about those countries which want to ban, “They think Muslims are threat to them. I think it is important that we should show that actually we are not threat to Europe, we are not threat to the West; Muslims are friends of Europe, friends of West and we are going to make friends. I think the best advice I will say to the people who are most worried is to engage in the system; engage in the process and through democratic means.”

We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, says David Miliband

We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders
with Jerusalem as its capital, says David Miliband

Dr. Mozammel Haque

“We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, with the final settlement of refugees; we also say that Palestine will exist and recognise and celebrate the country of Israel next door to it within secure borders as well,” said the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MP, as a guest speaker and keynote speaker at the annual function of the Muslim Friends for Labour, at the Kensington Town Hall, on 19th of January 2010 and added, “Because the truth is that we will not find justice for one ethnic group or one religious group unless we recognise the co-existence; the only basis for real existence. We should be the people for willing to stand up against injustice wherever it exists but also celebrate those who are campaigning against injustice wherever that exists as well.”

Earlier, while delivering the opening speech, the pioneer of the Muslim parliamentarians in the Labour Party, Mohammad Sarwar, requested the audience to stand up to observe one minute of silence to pay respect to the victims of earthquake in Haiti. After the silence, MP Sarwar, as a chair of the Muslim Friends of Labour, requested his fellow parliamentarians, Minister Sadiq Khan, Minister Shahid Malik, Khaled Mahmood MP, and Lord Ahmed, to join him at the stage while he would be speaking. All these parliamentarians wanted to listen the prospective future parliamentarians.

Parliamentarian Mohammed Sarwar
As chair of Muslim Friends of Labour, Mohammed Sarwar felt proud and excited at the function. “Excited because as we celebrate the contribution of the Muslims in this Labour Party tonight; we also look forward to the future of this relationship. All I can remember as a young man born in Faisalabad Pakistan moving to this country to join my fiancé, that time, my wife Parveen to UK and at that time I had no intention, whatsoever, to entering politics. All I wanted to do was to create a better life for myself and my family. So you can imagine how much tremendous honour it was for me to be elected as Britain’s first Muslim Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom,” said Mr. Sarwar.

Parliamentarian Sarwar also felt proud because now there are so many talented parliamentarians in the country. “Extremely proud to have so many other talented parliamentarians around me. Lord Ahmed, I am sure all of you know, the first Muslim Member of the House of Lords, who has been a great campaigner for peace and human rights in Palestine and Kashmir; in fact, he has just returned yesterday of having witness first hand suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. He does a tremendous job,” Sarwar added.

Mr. Sarwar also mentioned “Our rising star, Rt. Hon. Sadiq Khan MP, is the first Muslim Privy Counsellor and the first Muslim to sit in the Cabinet. We are proud of that. Shahid Malik, as you know, first he was International Development Minister, Justice Minister, then Home Office Minister and now Community Minister and he was the first Muslim to be member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. And most importantly my younger brother Khaled Mahmood MP, who has taken the lead on tackling terrorism and who despite his ill-health is with us tonight.” He also recognised the fantastic job of hundreds of Labour Councillors, Mayors, deputy Mayors, throughout the country.

Parliamentarian Sarwar also introduced the five new prospective Parliamentary candidates (PPCs). “Today’s event is the future. I am delighted to introduce five of our new PPCs joining us this evening. Four of them are talented British Muslim women and we will be hearing from them all very shortly,” said Sarwar and added, “In my opinion it is the most important general elections of our time. We face a clear choice between two features: we can come together and fight for the values and principles we believe in and build upon the achievements we have made or we can take Britain backward if Tories come to power.”

Parliamentarian Sarwar also mentioned, “I am not for one minute going to pretend that Labour Party has got everything right but we have achieved some great developments for the Muslims here in Britain and abroad. We have protected Muslim values and protected their rights in the society. No political party in the United Kingdom or across Europe has fought harder against racism, fascism and discrimination than our Labour Party. I can say from my heart.”

Two-state solution
As regards Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sarwar said, “The Labour Party is the first mainstream political party to have a manifesto commitment to a Two-State solution in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This policy has been reaffirmed by our current Foreign Secretary David Miliband who has taken that we should believe that this should be based on pre-1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital. However, we will work hard with our international partners to implement this policy and turn it into a reality. And I have no doubt in my mind that God willing, we will have an independent Palestinian state and we will have Palestinian ambassador in the United Kingdom in London.”

“I can assure you, brothers and sisters, we will continuously campaign vigorously for the creation of an independent Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders,” emphasized Sarwar and added, “I generally believe with your continued support and with hard work and firm determination we can win the historic four-time victory for the Labour government.”

After his opening speech, the five aspiring Parliamentary candidates came to address from the stage.

Yasmin Qureshi
“Over the years there may be a time when we may disagree with perhaps on certain issues that our party has pursued but there are many many issues that we agree on and in particular in economic, social welfare and the form of justices which we carried out which no one can disagree,” said Yasmin Qureshi, representing as a Labour candidate from Bolton Southeast and thanked the people from Bolton Southeast for selecting her as a Labour candidate.

She also thanked Sarwar sahib and Lord Nazir. Mentioning about Lord Nazir, Yasmin mentioned, “certainly one of the persons who pursued me to be one of the candidates with the Labour Party for long time. He has always been there as somebody I can turn for advice and assistance. So I really like to thank him.”

“Please continue to give your support; we need your support particularly now there is a general election coming and the choice is very starchy,” she said.

Roshenara Ali
“I know that today is the very precious occasion for all of us, parliamentary candidates and for parliamentarians within the Muslim community because it has been a very great struggle I know too well having grown up in the midst of east end of London, the heart of the British Muslim Bangladeshi community. The struggle and the hard work and the determination that have given someone like me and many others the opportunity to hope for a task to stand as a woman in Parliament after the next general election,” said Roshenara Ali, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow in east end of London. .

She was selected in 2007. “That has been a long selection, a contest if you like; in an open shortlist in Bethnal Green and Bow where part of membership is Bangladeshi Muslim background. Nobody told them to vote for a woman; they did it out of choice because they felt it is the right things to do,” said Roshenara and added, “I want to remind media and everybody in this room that within our own community there is a great sense of optimism over the need of representation in politics, woman and man of Muslim background.”

After thanking all “for the constant encouragement and support,” Roshenara said, “Why we are doing this; we know more than ever before just how important for us it is to be the centre of thing, in the mainstream as the British Muslim community and to pave the way for new generation to enter politics and public life. That will change the face of Britain and that is how to make sure the interest of the whole community including the Muslim community as represented in British politics. That is our concern, that is at the heart of the Government and that is national politics.”

Maryam Khan
“I am proud of being British Pakistani. The current situation in Pakistan shows that it needs persistent friends and supporters and I intend insha Allah to be one of those; neither I ignore the plight of Kashmiri and Palestinian people either and I will always support their struggle for freedom,” said sister Maryam Khan, a prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bury north.

Maryam also said, “I would continue to campaign as a committed member of Labour Party for social justice, continuing to believe in combating poverty, prejudice and inequality.”

Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood first took a minute to reflect on the four prospective parliamentary candidates who are women. Shabana said, “I am so pleased that all the Muslim men on the campaign trail have been nothing but welcoming and wanting to hear what I have to offer, challenging me and asking me the questions while I am on the campaign.”

Shabana also said, “I am delighted that four of us are women. It is really important because so many Muslim men were instrumental in my own selection followed by non-Muslim men and women. Same for Roshanara, Yasmin and for Maryam. The fact that four of us are women it is incredibly a very powerful thing about Muslim community in this country. Things are changing every single day.”

Shabana concluded by saying, “The Labour party is a great movement for change. It always has been and it always will be. Because I know it delivers truly amazing international institutions such as National Health Service which is not only competent socialist values, labour values and, might be, Muslim values too. Whatever the past issues may have with the party, absolutely it is the best movement for change that we have.”

Anas Sarwar
Another parliamentarian candidate, Anas Sarwar, a parliamentary candidate from his own constituency in Glasgow Central, where he was born and brought up and thanked those who have “made so many contributions to this country and there has been such great inspiration and role models to me and my generations.”

“Most of all, you are giving the young people the confident, the confidence to stand and be confident to be as both Muslims and British. I hope with your support we can continue your hard work and make a generation that follows us as far we are all of you,” said Anas.

Anas also said, “We must recognise the challenges that we have to face. We must recognise the inequalities in health, education and housing at home. We have still too many living in poverty, living in injustice and living in conflict abroad.”

Speaking about conflict abroad, Anas wanted to raise one issue “that have been passionate from my very young age, the Palestinian conflict which has been mentioned before,” said Anas and added, “I visited Palestine for the first time when I was just 12 years old, the issue is still with me ever since. The situation, I can show you, only got worse; 70% of the population unemployed; 80% of the population eating purely on UN Food programme and two-thirds of the essential medicines under the World Health organisations unable to gather. That is simply unacceptable in our 21st century world.”

“This issue is never religion,” said Anas and maintained, “We must double our efforts and show by giving the people of Gaza and Palestine the freedom and the democracy that they deserve and also peace and freedom for both sides. I am sure that I can speak for the rest of our candidates, my fellow parliamentarians that we will continue our fight until we do achieve peace and justice not only in Kashmir but in Palestine as well.”

Anas concluded his speech by saying about the relationship between the Labour Party and the Muslim community. “We had good times and bad times; we had times we agree and times we disagree. But what keeps us together, what unites us is our beliefs, values and shared principles, what we call, justice and our commitment to eradicate poverty both at home and abroad. And together, brothers and sisters, we can face challenges head on and together we can deliver equality and justice for all,” concluded Anas.

Guest Speaker and Keynote Speaker
Rt.Hon. David Miliband, Foreign Secretary
“There has been going on a big change in our society and that change is represented by many of the people in this room,” said British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband and mentioned, “Now I feel of coming of age in the Muslim community of Britain where I see five new candidates have been selected and they are also optimistic about the future of Britain and the future of the Labour Party; because they represent a new wave of change.”

“There is a time of binding together; there is a time of mutual support and then there is a time of branching out to the wider community to represent people, not just of your own religion or of your own ethnic groups, but represent the whole community,” said Miliband and expressed his “great confidence that the five new candidates that we selected, that you selected, was not the great representatives of Britain’s Muslim communities; they will be great representatives of the Labour Party but they will be great representatives of every single person in their communities in their constituencies.”

“And the reason for that they have been selected not for the colour of the skin, not for the religion that they worship, they are being selected for content of their character, of their ethics, their beliefs and their commitments for fair and just society. And that is the basis on which we achieve change. Because we always remember whatever our religion, whatever our race that unite us than divide us and the message that go out of the five new candidates is that the Labour party is determined to represent every race, every religion and every ethnicity,” said Foreign Secretary.

The British Foreign Secretary emphasized on three things tonight. First, he said, “This coming of age of the Muslim community of Britain is a tribute to you and it is a tribute to those people who are pioneers in politics, business, in arts, in sports, in diplomacy.” Miliband also mentioned about the first British Bangladeshi High Commissioner who recently completed his tenure as High Commissioner in Bangladesh.

“It is a tribute to you but it also says something about our country: That this is increasingly a country which is an open society; increasingly a country where people get on by their put in; increasingly a country that is more respectful and tolerant of the diversity and differences. So this meeting is an opportunity to celebrate what is great about our country as well as the great about our party,” mentioned Miliband.

The second thing that the Foreign Secretary said was his role as Foreign Secretary. “Britain is a mirror to the world,” said Miliband and mentioned that one of the great challenges is “to bring people together to coalition for change. And I think if we look for the future issues of the world, whether economic challenges, whether climate change, whether national and international security they depend on the coalition of the countries of the Muslim majority countries and countries which are not.”

“How do we build that coalition?” asked the question and immediately said, “First of all, we build that coalition by recognising and respecting the differences between Muslim majority countries; the diversity within the Muslim world is striking as the similarities within. Secondly, we have to recognise that there are big processes of reform going on in the Muslim world.”