Two very prominent and high—ranking members of the U.K.'s Labour Party have turned to peddling anti—Semitism to the 4 million Muslim voters in Britain. According to the U.K. Telegraph, Mike O'Brien, Energy Minister in Tony Blair's cabinet, attacked the Jewish head of the Conservative Party in terms chosen to incite religious bigotry. O'Brien launched an attempt to win back Muslim voters to Labour by questioning what would happen to them if Mr. Michael Howard, head of the Conservative Party, were prime minister.

"What will Michael Howard do for British Muslims?" he said. "Will his foreign policy aim to help Palestine? Will he promote legislation to protect you from religious hatred and discrimination? Will he give you the choice of sending your children to a faith school? Will he stand up for the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab? Will he really fight for Turkey, a Muslim country, to join the EU? The last thing we want is to vote in anger and repent at leisure as Michael Howard, with a big smile on his face, walks through the door of Number 10."

Howard demanded an apology, and got this in response from O'Brien:

"In an article in Muslim Weekly I attacked Michael Howard as Leader of the Conservative Party and not personally," said Mr O'Brien. 

The response is risible. The Conservative Party has gone out of its way to appeal to Muslim voters, and has supported private schooling, has not attacked wearing religious garb, and is not taking the positions attributed to it by O'Brien. Which is exactly why Labour is desperate to regain Muslim votes, and is resorting to fear—mongering with reference to the Jewish leader of the party.

It is clear that senior members of Labour are more than willing to use anti—Semitism as a tool to win Muslim votes. Even more egregious is the case of the Chairman of the Labour Party, Ian McCartney:

Mr McCartney called Oliver Letwin, another prominent Jewish member of the shadow cabinet, a "21st—century Fagan" in a speech to the Scottish Labour conference last year.

Unfortunately, as the number of Muslim voters continues to rise in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Holland, and all over Western Europe, the remnants of Europe's Jewish community can expect to be thrown over the side, and become the objects of scorn, persecution, and worse. The future looks very grim indeed, for Europe's Jews.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky and Richard Baehr

Thomas Lifson  1 10 04