In Search of the Muslim Vote

April 18, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7354227.stm

The UK's Muslim leaders have been campaigning to get their community to vote. And [political] parties are reaching out as never before to Muslims, particularly in London. In the past, Muslims tended to vote Labour but, as Paul Moss from Radio 4's World Tonight programme discovered, all that has changed.

They seemed pleased with the turnout.

On a cold, rainy Sunday evening, dozens of people crowded into a small mosque in Hendon, north London, to hear a talk from a visiting sheikh.

Suliman Gani quoted from the Koran, from other reported remarks of the Prophet Mohammed and he also cited fatwas from leading Islamic scholars through the ages.

All this to argue one crucial point: that Muslims should take part in elections.