Federal Election: Miracle win, devastating loss and future implications

By Shahjahan Khan

A political miracle delivered the victory to the ruling Coalition of Liberal and National Party (LNP) in the Federal elections of Australia in May 2019. Out of 151 seats in the House of Representatives, LNP has won 75 (projected 78), opposition Labor Party has won 65 (projected 67), Greens Party 1 and others 5. As a result, Mr Scott Morrison will remain the Prime Minister of Australia for the next three years to lead a majority government.

Regardless of the outcome of the Australian Federal election on Saturday 18 May 2019, Muslims in Australia have shown unprecedented interest in the election as the risk of electing racist bigots in the Parliament was too high.

In a democracy, voting is the citizen’s power to elect leaders of their choice. Abstaining from voting should not be an option. It will give politicians with an agenda of hate and division easy access to parliament.

The defeat of former Prime Minister, Mr Tony Abbott in his long-held seat was a reflection on how out of touch this arrogant politician was. It is another favour to Mr Scott Morrison that this trouble maker backbencher is out of the parliament.

In the last several years, Labor Party was leading all the opinion polls consistently and even at the eve of the election this party it was favoured to win the election. Many Australians are asking, what went wrong with this party?

The election results were decided based in Queensland and Western Australia, especially in northern Queensland. This is where the Labor party lost most of its seats and the election.

This party did not win any single seat north of Brisbane. Preferences from conservative parties improved LNP performance significantly.

The voters in Australia often decide their voting preferences based on the local issues that affect them directly, rather than national priorities, and to a lesser extent any political ideology.

The reasons behind Labor losing the election includes its unpopular policies such as changing negative gearing and seniors tax credit.

But more directly, the Andani Coal Mining factor had the most devastating effect on the Labor party. People in north Queensland live on mining because it provides them jobs and economic growth. This overwrites anything else including the climate change issue.

The vicious TV ad campaign of United Australia Party of Mr Clive Palmer attacking Labor and its leader had seriously impacted on the voters in Queensland and Western Australia. This party spent $80m to run a successful negative campaign against Labor and its leader. Mr Scott Morrison must be grateful to his newfound political ally regardless of any under the table deal or not.

Although Labor has been consistently above the Coalition in the opinion polls over the years, its leader Mr Bill Shorten was never as popular as his opponent at any time. The ‘faceless’ man may not have recovered from the background role he played in removing Mr Kevin Rudd as the Prime Minister. Voters did not forgive him, but ironically, they forgave Mr Scott Morrison when he did the same to Mr Malcolm Turnbull.

In the Senate election, 40 seats were for grab, 6 each from 6 states and 2 each from two territories. The other 36 senators were elected for 6 years in the previous election and will continue to serve for the next three years. In the new Senate, Coalition will have 33, Labor 26, Green 8, Centre Alliance 2, One Nation 1 (maybe another one), Australian Conservatives 1, and Jacqui Lambie will return.

Interestingly, in the Senate vote, One Nation party received 10.2% primary votes in Queensland compared to 3.2% nationally, in spite of all division and scandals in the party. In the House, this party received 8.7% primary votes in Queensland and 3.0% nationwide.

In the 72 seat senate, the government will have to get support from 37 senators to pass bills that means they will need the support of at least 4 crossbench senators to get their agenda through the parliament.

With long-serving opposition leader, Mr Bill Shorten has already stepped down from his position taking the responsibility of losing the election, and Labor is already in the process to elect its next leader most probably Anthony Albanese.

With Anthony Albanese as the new opposition leader there is every chance that Labor will change its unpopular policies and take pragmatic, rather than ideological approach and remain united they may return to power at the next election.

South African elections pose a challenge for Muslim’s political future

By Mahomed Faizal in Durban, South Africa

Since the advent of democracy in 1994, an avowedly Muslim party, will for the first time be represented in South Africa’s national Parliament. On May 8, the Al-Jama-ah Party, formed in 2007 by Cape Town-based Ganief Hendricks, secured a single seat in the country’s sixth national elections and will now represent the aspirations of a minority of Muslims in Parliament.

While the single seat in Parliament is unremarkable in itself, it points to a wider and more significant change in attitude amongst Muslims in exercising their vote and more broadly to issues of political participation.

During the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, where the African National Congress (ANC) under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, swept to victory with 62 per cent of the national vote, the overwhelming majority of the Black population voted for the liberation movement. Muslims of ethnic Indian and coloured backgrounds came out in support of the ANC as it was seen as a multiracial, multi-ethnic party that brought liberation to the country’s masses.

The prevalence of Muslims with struggle credentials within the senior ranks of the ANC was also a contributing factor in influencing the Muslim voting public to support the ANC.

Since the inaugural elections, there has been a steady decline in Muslim support for the ANC with a shift towards other parties, namely the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). Lack of service delivery, rampant corruption, together with voter apathy, marginalisation of minorities and general disillusion with politics has fractured the once strong ties that the Muslim communities enjoyed with the ruling party.

According to a pre-election survey of Muslim voting trends undertaken by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET), the majority of Muslims had shown a significant shift away from the ANC based on lack of service delivery and widespread corruption in the ruling party and Government. In areas with predominant working class Muslims, the vote went to the opposition DA.

This was very evident in the Western Cape, which has been governed by the DA since 2009. While 70 per cent of Muslims survey indicated that a party’s position regarding Israel and Palestine was important to them, the support for the pro-Israeli DA indicated that everyday issues were, nevertheless, the determining factor when casting their votes. The ANC victory in the predominantly Muslim majority district of the Bo-Kaap in Cape Town was attributed to the gentrification project by the DA-controlled Council of this historical Malay enclave.

The DA council had encouraged rapid economic development in the area which has led to the disintegration of the area’s distinctive character as wealthy foreigners and local investors snapped by the property at cut-rate prices. Prior to the elections, the national Minister of Arts and culture declared certain sites in the Bo Kaap as National heritage Sites offering protection and conservation of this unique cultural heritage. Many commentators attributed the ANC’s success in the district to this deft election ploy. Elsewhere in the country, ANC made small gains from the opposition through serious campaigning on the ground, however, the drift to other parties was significant.

Apathy and disengagement with politics were other contributing factors in Muslims staying away from the polls. While the characteristic calls to abstain from voting was made from a few marginal ultra-conservative Muslims groups, mainstream Ulama groups had urged Muslims to participate in the electoral process. The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa had urged Muslims to actively participating in the elections hereby becoming part of the political process in the future.

Secretary-General of JUSA, Moulana Ebrahim Bham, said that it was the responsibility of every South African irrespective of race or religion to register to vote. “Through the means of voting, we connect our self with our fellow citizens. We also safeguard the freedoms that we have which everyone cherishes in terms of our religious freedoms.”

According to the 2016 General Household Survey published by Stats SA figures show that South Africa is home to 892,685 Muslims, however current estimates put that number closer to a million. The majority of Muslims predominantly reside in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

While Muslims who were surveyed by SAMNET indicated their desire for a Muslim party, the voting patterns indicate that they are more inclined to give their vote to a mainstream party capable of addressing their day-to-day needs. The entrance of Al Jama-ah Party into Parliament is more of an exception than a decisive shift, as faced with a corrupt ANC and an unpalatable opposition, some Muslims took the easy route and gave their vote to the AJP. It was a case of less faith but more about dissatisfaction in the other political parties.

With the reduction in the number of Muslim ANC MPs in Parliament, South African Muslims find themselves at the crossroads of history once again. That the opposition DA will have an equal number of Muslim MPs, as the ANC is an indication that the party has incentivised that loyalty, while the ANC has shifted towards what analysts believe is an ‘Africanisation’ of the party. Lack of support for the party by Muslims has not gone unnoticed and as the ruling party embarks on a process of cleansing itself from the past excesses under President Cyril Ramaphosa, perhaps a period of serious reflection on future political realignment and re-engagement will serve the South African Muslim communities well.

MUSLIM NEWS UK

You are what you Eid: Ramadan for vegans

Muslims are coming to the end of a month of fasting, which in Britain often means evening meals featuring heaps of meat. But there is a plant-based option

he final days of Islam’s month of fasting are with us. And as Ramadan draws to a close, so does “Veganadan”, in which a growing number of Muslims adopt a plant-based diet for four weeks. I am keen to eat less meat in Ramadan, but it can be a challenge when you are invited to iftar, the meal with which Muslims break their day-long fast, and there is only meat on the table. After 18 hours without food (an extra 40 minutes if you are in Scotland), hosts like to lay on a generous banquet, and a typical iftar spread includes an array of lamb samosas, kebabs and roast chicken.

When I am at home, iftar tends to be a more vegan affair: a fresh fruit salad of mangoes, raspberries, blueberries and honeydew melon sprinkled with chopped dates, for example, along with a platter of peas fried lightly with cumin seeds, followed by yellow dal and aubergine curry.

The first Muslim community in seventh-century Arabia barely consumed meat. Muhammad lived largely on dates and barley. Ali, the prophet’s cousin, is said to have stated: “Do not make your stomach a graveyard of animals”, and the caliph Umar warned against the addictive nature of meat. Yet most of this seems to be lost on Muslims in Britain today, who, despite making up 4.6% of the population, consume more than 20% of lamb and mutton produced in the UK.

It is common for halal butchers to see a rise in meat sales in Ramadan – the most spiritual and supposedly most frugal month in the Muslim calendar. But a desire for a less indulgent lifestyle is one reason that veganism is gaining popularity. It is healthier, more ethical and, so we are told, more Islamic. As the Vegan Muslim Initiative (VMI), founded by two vegan Muslims from Canada and Australia, puts it: “If Muslims are going to be relevant and positive contributors to our planet’s future, then there must be a major paradigm shift in how we view and approach food.”

VMI member Anita Nayyar, 37, is a convert to both Islam and veganism. She went strictly vegan two and a half years ago, after hearing an account of Muhammad rebuking one of his companions for taking a baby chick from its distressed mother. “The prophet spoke of the bird in human terms and said that animals are communities like us,” she says. “I think about that when I consider how a dairy cow is separated from its calf and the mother cries for her baby – just so we humans can take its milk.” Nayyar says Muslims are neglecting the other condition for meat to be halal – not only must the animal be slaughtered in a certain way, but the meat must be tayyab (Arabic for pure and wholesome). “When we eat meat of an animal that has suffered, or lived its life in a tiny cage, we are consuming that trauma into our bodies,” she says. “We have to consider when we eat a chicken wing, we are most likely eating an animal that hasn’t seen daylight. How is that Islamic?

“Since going vegan, “I’m able to connect to my faith better and I feel lighter in my heart.”

She is also lighter in the stomach – Anita’s iftar often includes baba ganoush, hummus and a kidney bean curry spiced with paprika, chilli, onions, garlic and ginger, and fragranced with fresh coriander.

Next week, when Ramadan ends with the festival of Eid, Nayyar will host a tea party in her garden for Muslim converts who do not get to share festivities with their non-Muslim families. She normally bakes Nigella Lawson’s vegan chocolate cake, but this year will be trying a recipe from the blog One Arab Vegan – salted-caramel date cake, using all the leftover dates with which Muslims typically break their fast. I am tempted by another recipe from the same source: vanilla saffron doughnuts drizzled with rose-scented glaze and topped with pomegranate seeds and pistachios. With recipes like this, it is easy to understand the vegan appeal.

David Stelzer, a customer service professional in his 30s, originally from Singapore and now living in north London, decided to go part-time vegan last Ramadan but continued throughout the year and kept the habit this Ramadan. “I’ve lost weight, my gut feels lighter and I sleep better,” he says. His suhoor (pre-dawn meal) consists of porridge sprinkled with chopped dates, figs, nuts, banana and a dollop of peanut butter. During the week, his sunset meal tends to be an oriental dish of noodles and vegetables with tofu. While he went vegan for purely health reasons, Stelzer says, veganism also helps him to focus on prayers and meditation. I ask if he will be vegan for Eid. “It’s unlikely,” he says. “It will probably be one of my days off from the plant-based diet.”

Dawud Marsh, from east London, has not had a day off in 35 years. Along with his wife, he runs a project for adults with disabilities, and converted to Islam 11 years ago. He sees a natural fit between being vegan and being Muslim. “Meat production has a huge negative effect on the planet. Islam is all about transformation for the better, and that sat well with me when I became Muslim.”

s a veteran vegan, Marsh recalls having to make do with simple (boring) food such as brown rice and brown pasta – he even ground his own soya powder. This Eid, with so much more choice, he is looking forward to vegan biriyani, and his wife’s “gateau piment” or Mauritian chilli cakes – crunchy deep-fried balls of split peas and finely chopped onions and coriander, fired up with green or red chillies.

A more recent vegan convert is Mara Whyte, a 23-year-old student from Birmingham, who went vegan overnight in 2017 after watching What the Health, a Netflix documentary on food production. She now distributes leaflets about veganism – along with vegan cakes – every weekend in the city centre. As the only British Pakistani Muslim in a group of mainly white atheists, she attracts a more diverse crowd. “Muslims come up to me and are generally curious, but sometimes question why I’m so involved in animal rights when there are people dying from starvation in the world. But they don’t realise how it’s all connected and how the grain produced in developing countries for global meat consumption drains their resources and land, leaving billions hungry.” Her passion has even encouraged her 16-year-old brother to go vegan. For iftar, they enjoy a fresh fruit salad and chana chaat – a cool and refreshing chickpea and potato salad mixed with kidney beans and chopped onions.

For Eid, Whyte will visit family and friends, who always prepare a separate vegan curry for her – although one Eid, when she asked for vegan food, she was told to pick out the potatoes from the meat and aloo curry. That’s the sort of experience any vegan, Muslim or not, will be able to relate to. 

the  GUARDIAN

-----------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------