This article is about the British organization. For the U.S. organization, see Muslim Public Affairs Council

Muslim Public Affairs Council

The Muslim Public Affairs Council is a national American Muslim advocacy and public policy organization headquartered in Los Angeles and with offices in Washington D.C...

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK) is a not-for-profit British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 organization set up to address a perceived under-representation of Muslims in British politics. The group campaigns on issues affecting Britain's Muslim population primarily through electoral campaigns and media appearances.

Aims and policies

MPACUK encourages Muslims to participate in tactical voting

Tactical voting

In voting systems, tactical voting occurs, in elections with more than two viable candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.It has been shown by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem that any voting method which is...

 against MPs

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 who support policies which it considers not to be in Muslims' interest. This can extend both to national issues such as civil liberties

Civil liberties

Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...

, Islamophobia

Islamophobia

Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....

 and anti-terror legislation; and to foreign policy, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq

2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

, Israel-Palestine conflict

Israeli-occupied territories

The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...

 and the Lebanon.

2011

In June 2011, MPACUK launched a Stop Islamophobia Week

Stop Islamophobia Week

Stop Islamophobia Week is a project intended to raise awareness and mobilise both Muslims and non-Muslims to combat Islamophobia. It was initiated by the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK in 2011 and coincides with the anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre in the second week of July.- Background...

 campaign due to the rise in anti-muslim hate crimes.

In the same year, a campaign to encourage Muslims to YES in the UK was also launched Alternative Vote

Instant-runoff voting

Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...

 referendum.

2010

MPACUK was involved in campaigning to unseat 6 MPs in England. This included campaigning against Phil Woolas

Phil Woolas

Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...

 for alleged anti-Muslim bias. The campaign resulted in Phil Woolas winning a majority by 103 votes. However, after an eventual court-case resulted in suspension as an MP and ban from holding public office for three years for "knowingly making false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent" Elwyn Watkins

Elwyn Watkins

Robert Elwyn James Watkins, born in Rochdale, is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He narrowly lost to Labour Party candidate Phil Woolas for the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in the 2010 general election, but the result was overturned by an election court, which found that Woolas had...

, by alleging in his campaign literature that Watkins attempted to get support from Muslim extremists who advocated violence against Woolas. MPACUK was active in the Oldham campaign, and according to the BBC, "urged Muslim voters to help unseat Phil Woolas, and targeted several other Labour MPs, who MPAC judged to have pro-Israeli positions and who supported the war in Iraq." Woolas stated "There was vehement anti-semitism going on in the area, canvassing amongst the Asian population in the area saying: don't vote for the Jew. As it happens, I'm not Jewish but the fact my son's Christian name is a Jewish name was used against me." MPACUK denied responsibility for the rumours.

MPACUK campaigned to remove Andrew Dismore

Andrew Dismore

Andrew Hartley Dismore is a British Labour Party politician and a Vice-Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group who was the Member of Parliament for Hendon from 1997 until 2010 when he was beaten by Conservative Party candidate Matthew Offord.-Early life:Dismore was born in Bridlington,...

 from office, stating he was someone "who backed the Iraq war and has a long record of Islamophobia", and claimed responsibility for his defeat.

2005

Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP Lorna Fitzsimons

Lorna Fitzsimons

Lorna Fitzsimons is a British politician. A member of the Labour Party, she served as a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Rochdale from 1997 to 2005.-Early life:...

 became the target of an MPACUK campaign when she stood for re-election at the 2005 General Election in the constituency of Rochdale

Rochdale

Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...

, which has a significant Muslim population. The All-Party Parliamentary Report noted with concern MPACUK's campaign against Lorna Fitzsimons and that leaflets had been printed by MPACUK, which claimed that Fitzsimons had done nothing to help the Palestinians because she was a Jewish member of the Labour Friends of Israel

Labour Friends of Israel

Labour Friends of Israel is a lobby group promoting support within the British Labour Party for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel. It also seeks to strengthen ties between the British and the Israeli Labour party...

. Fitzsimons, who was a member of the Labour Friends of Israel, is not in fact Jewish. MPACUK later apologised for the inaccurate description.

MPACUK was described by Jack Straw

Jack Straw

Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...

 as "most egregious" after it actively campaigned for Muslims in his Blackburn constituency to vote tactically

Tactical voting

In voting systems, tactical voting occurs, in elections with more than two viable candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.It has been shown by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem that any voting method which is...

 against him in the 2005 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2005

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

.

Allegations of Antisemitism

In 2004, MPACUK was the subject of a no-platform order by the National Union of Students, because of its alleged publication of antisemitic conspiracy theories and inciteful racist material, and further material on its website encouraging activists to break the law.

After Lorna Fitzsimons's defeat, in 2006, CST

Community Security Trust

The Community Security Trust is a British charity established in 1994 to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community in the UK. It follows a history of Jewish defence organisations in the United Kingdom dating back to the 1930s...

accused MPACUK of antisemitism. An All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-semitism observed that MPACUK was criticised by the CST for promoting the idea of a worldwide Zionist conspiracy and using material taken from neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and Holocaust denial websites. The report also noted CST's assertion that "use of ‘Zionist’ as a replacement for ‘Jewish’ is common on the MPACUK website" and that MPACUK has articulated antisemitic conspiracy theories through the language of anti-Zionism.

MPACUK denies being anti-semitic and state that "it is worth noting that the labels of anti-Semitism and holocaust denial are being placed upon anyone that is critical of Israel by some Zionists".