British-Pakistani businessman Mohammed Amin has accused Robert Jenrick of “attacking Muslims” in a fiery critique of his recent comments on extremism in Britain.
He said Mr Jenrick exaggerated the threat of Islamism in the UK and ignored key facts, such as Government statistics showing that children of immigrants often outperform white British students.
His comment come after the Shadow Justice Secretary made headlines with his damning article today, saying that Britain is facing the “fight of a generation” against home-grown Islamism and that “time is running out” to prevent an extremist takeover.
In his scathing analysis, Mr Jenrick accused the Government and law enforcement of being willfully ignorant of the growing threat.
Discussing the article in The Telegraph, Mr Amin said: "I read Robert Jenrick’s article in the Telegraph very carefully. He makes some points which I agree with.
"For example, the schoolteacher in Batley that he mentions, who was badly let down not just by the police but by the local authority, by the school, etc., when they should all have been standing up for him because he did absolutely nothing wrong in his teaching, of course.
"Similarly, the West Midlands Police, I’ve read the transcript of the appearance of two senior officers from the West Midlands Police, the Chief Constable and his assistant, before the Home Affairs Select Committee.
"And it’s quite clear from the questioning, it’s not a party-political issue. Liberal Democrat MPs, Labour MPs were very critical about the evidence they’d been given, the decision-making process, etc., and Mr Jenrick is right to criticise that. So some of the things he’s talking about are perfectly valid.
Mohammed Amin has been left furious at Mr Jenrick's comments
|GB NEWS
"My problem with Mr Jenrick is that he uses these instances to paint a picture in his article about Britain being taken over by Islamists, which is just completely wrong."
GB News host Dawn Neesom asked: "Okay, so Mohammed, what would you say to the other story this week about the UAE restricting students from studying in the UK because they were worried about Muslim students from an Arab country being radicalised?
Mr Amin explained: "Well, the UAE is not a democracy, it’s a monarchy that appears to be well supported by its people, which is why I’m not aware of any particular unrest against the monarchy in the UAE.
"But many countries in the Middle East are concerned about issues they face with potential uprisings against their governments, because these, in general like Egypt are not democratic governments.
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Robert Jenrick has said Britain is facing the “fight of a generation” against home-grown Islamism
| ROBERT JENRICK"That is a million miles away from the issues we have in the UK. Generally, for example, he has no contrary facts in his article at all. It’s totally unbalanced.
"For example, you would be totally unaware, reading Jenrick’s article, that the children of immigrants in this country do better at school than children of white British people.
"That’s a fact in Government statistics, you can read it on the Government website, but he generally doesn’t care about that kind of fact."
Dawn said: "Okay. No, that’s another fair point. I mean, it’s not the children of all immigrants, it’s certain groups of migrants into this country, just to clarify that.
"But he also mentions, I think, in one of the pieces today, about the grooming gangs, the Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs, and how that was tiptoed around for fear of being accused of Islamophobia and racism. What would you say to that one?"
Mr Amin explained: "I agree with him. It was tiptoed around, which is why the government is now being particularly rigorous in these cases.
"Investigations are being conducted properly, with proper data gathering, and carried out thoroughly. I’m not trying to pretend that there isn’t any kind of problem in this country.
"We, the country, face all kinds of problems, whether it’s integration issues, the economy, or crime generally.
"The point is that the article is extremely unbalanced. One thing that really jumped out at me when I read it, I am a Muslim, is that one of the things he generally accuses the Government of not doing is banning non-Western slaughter for halal meat.
"By the way, he doesn’t mention kosher meat, because he doesn’t want to be seen as attacking the Jewish community.
"But he’s quite happy attacking Muslims generally. And that’s not an attack on Islamism, that’s an attack on all Muslims."
Dawn asked: "So would you say, Mohammed, that this article is Islamophobic?"
Mr Amin: "I never use the word Islamophobic. What I would say, in my view, is that Jenrick is trying to unseat Kemi Badenoch because he wants to be leader of the Conservative Party, and he believes that coming out with these kinds of far-right positions will help him unseat Kemi Badenoch. And that’s how this article should be read."