Attorney general asks if Kemi Badenoch would object to Jewish public prayer | Conservatives
Attorney-General Richard Hermer has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to a Jewish prayer in public, after the Conservative leader backed one of his shadow ministers to say an Islamic prayer event was frightening and un-British.
Hermer, one of Britain’s leading Jewish politicians, said Badenoch’s decision to support the views of shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy put him on a par with Reform UK and far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Following an event to mark Ramadan in London’s Trafalgar Square on Monday evening, Timothy posted footage of mass prayers and said such action in public was “an act of domination” and “straight out of Islamist tactics”.
Asked about his support for Timothy on Thursday, Badenoch said any public expression of religion “must conform to the norms of British culture” and criticized the way men and women are separated during Ramadan prayers, with men and women closer to the stage and women further back.
Hermer told Guardian Badenoch he needed to clarify his view. “Nick Timothy said that mass prayer in public places is an act of ‘domination,’” he said. “But when he and Kemi Badenoch were questioned about their appalling views, they only seemed to have a problem with Muslim events.
“Timothy and Badenoch’s comments beg the question: would they have a problem if I, a Jew, prayed in public? Or do they just find Muslim prayer offensive and against ‘British values’?”
“Reform and the Conservative party, like Tommy Robinson, are trying to divide Britain. Instead, they should celebrate our incredibly welcoming and diverse country.”
Despite heavy criticism, Timothy remained true to his views using an article in the Daily Telegraph Saying that Islamic practice is a rejection of other faiths and that this is meant as a “challenge” to Christianity and a call to replace it.
Asked after his speech whether he agreed with Timothy that Islam was particularly an issue, or whether he agreed with other Conservatives’ claims that the real concern was the separation of prayers for men and women, Badenoch said: “Both are true.”
The Guardian pointed to this response when a Conservative official was asked whether Badenoch was concerned about any prayers being separated by gender, or whether her concern was more specifically about Islam.
Badenoch said she was “very disturbed to see women being pushed to the back in the middle of Trafalgar Square”. He added: “We have to make sure that religious expression is consistent with our values, our norms, our beliefs. And sometimes that means saying: actually no, that’s probably too much.”
The event, called Open Iftar, has been held in Trafalgar Square for the past six years and was attended by London mayor Sadiq Khan on Monday. This was the last of 18 events this year; others have been held at the National Gallery, Tottenham Hotspur stadium and Silverstone racecourse in Northamptonshire.
Photos Posted by organizers During the rest of the event, men and women were photographed together, and it was seen that there was no distinction beyond prayer.
Saying that the Trafalgar Square event should be banned in his article in the Telegraph, Timothy wrote: “Trafalgar Square, the monument of national independence, belongs to all of us. Using it as a stage for this act of domination and separatism is completely wrong and should never be allowed to happen again.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage expressed his support for the idea, describing the Trafalgar Square event as “an attempt to capture, intimidate and dominate our way of life”.
