Attorney General challenges Badenoch: Would you ban Jewish prayer in public too?
Senior Jewish politician ccuses Badenoch and Timothy of singling out Muslim prayer
One of the country’s most senior Jewish politicians has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public.
Attorney General Richard Hermer made the intervention after shadow minister Nick Timothy said an Islamic prayer event was intimidating and “an act of domination.”
The KC told Jewish News: “Nick Timothy has said mass prayer in public places is an act of ‘domination.’
“But when he and Kemi Badenoch were questioned about his appalling views, they seemed to have an issue only with Muslim events.
“Timothy and Badenoch’s comments beg the question – would they have a problem if I, as a Jewish man, were praying in public? Or is it just Muslim prayer they find offensive, and contrary to ‘British values’?”
Hermer went on to accuse the Conservative party, “like Reform and Tommy Robinson”, of “seeking to divide Britain.”
“Instead, they should be celebrating our brilliantly welcoming and diverse country,” added Hermer.
After an event to mark Ramadan took place in London’s Trafalgar Square, Timothy posted images of mass prayers taking place, saying such an action in a public space was “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.
Asked about her support for Timothy on Thursday, Badenoch said any public expressions of religion should “fit within the norms of a British culture”, and criticised the way men and women were separated for the Ramadan prayers, with men nearer the stage and women farther behind.
When a Conservative official was asked to clarify whether Badenoch was worried about any prayer being separated by gender, or if her concern was more specifically about Islam, the Guardian was pointed to this answer.
Badenoch said she was “very uncomfortable with seeing women pushed to the back, in the middle of Trafalgar Square”.
She added: “We need to make sure that the religious expression is in conformity with our values, our norms, our beliefs. And sometimes that does mean saying: actually, no, that’s probably too much.”
The event, branded as Open Iftar, has taken place on Trafalgar Square for the past six years, and was attended on Monday by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
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