Rishi Sunak Accused Of Using ‘Islamophobic Trope’ To Dismiss Muslim Labour MP
Labour MP Zarah Sultana accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Tory MP Andrew Percy of employing an “Islamophobic trope” in Commons, after Sultana to urge Hamas and the Houthis to “de-escalate the situation.”
The exchange happened as Sultana, MP for Coventry South, criticised the government’s strikes on Houthi rebels last week, warning of the dangers of escalating tensions and calling for more focus on Israel’s “horrifying assault on Gaza,” urging Sunak to seek a ceasefire instead of sanctioning Israel’s actions.
Sultana said: “Past mistakes in the Middle East should have taught this House that military interventions starting out as limited can quickly escalate, risking a sequence of events far larger and more terrible and risk even dragging us into war. It is for this reason, according to reports in The Times, that Foreign Office officials were, and I quote, ‘incredibly nervous’ about last week’s military assault in Yemen. Driving the region’s instability is Israel’s horrifying assault on Gaza, which has now lasted more than 100 days.”
She continued: “So rather than giving Israel the green light to continue its brutal bombardment on Gaza and risking a wider conflict, will the Prime Minister seek to de-escalate the situation and call for an immediate ceasefire?”
Rising Sunak responded: “Perhaps the honourable lady would do well to call on Hamas and the Houthis to de-escalate the situation.”
Sultana could be heard shouting: “Shame on you.”
The incident intensified when Tory MP Percy stood to accuse “many people” of supporting terrorists: “Too many people give a free pass to the terrorists who perpetrated the worst murder of Jews and we’ve just seen an example of that, just as we saw examples of that on our streets this weekend where people screamed ‘Yemen, Yemen turn another ship around’ – completely unacceptable.”
Later, Sultana refuted Percy’s insinuation, which she interpreted as linking her Muslim faith with support for Hamas, as “grotesquely untrue” and a “racist trope.”
Labour’s Bradford West MP Naz Shah joined to condemn the response to Sultana’s speech as an Islamophobic stereotyping.
Shah said: “It really has been a new low, and a new painful blow today for the Prime Minister to have said to a British Muslim in this House… that she should tell Hamas and Houthis to stop doing what they’re doing. That is an Islamophobic trope, maybe the Prime Minister will reflect, withdraw and take the opportunity to show leadership and apologise.”
Sunak, however, defended his stance saying that members should “not to conflate these conflicts and when they are calling on the UK to de-escalate tensions to recognise, the people who are causing these situations in the first place, is the Hamas terrorist organisation and the Houthis.”
