Muslim vote no longer guaranteed for Labour

Muslim security guard Mohammed Miah helped put Tony Blair in power at the last election.

Now he's seething - and wants him out.

"That man killed so many innocent lives in Iraq he should be behind bars," said Mr Miah, 21, at a teeming market in an area of London's East End dominated by Muslims of Bangladeshi origin.

Instead of backing Mr Blair's Labour party candidate, he plans to vote for George Galloway, a radical expelled from Labour for lambasting the UK and US leaders as "wolves" for their invasion of Iraq.

Mr Miah's desertion of Labour is typical of many of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims.

They voted for Mr Blair en masse in 2001 but are now bitter, both over Iraq and a perceived stigmatisation of them since the September 11 2001 attacks.

"Muslims here feel like an outcast community," said Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

Mr Galloway, with his new anti-war party Respect, is hoping to cash in, taking on Mr Blair loyalist Oona King in the Labour stronghold seat of Bethnal Green and Bow in east London, where Muslims make up half the population.

If the flamboyant Scot, nicknamed "Gorgeous George" for his permanent tan and smart suits, defeats Mr King, a black candidate of Jewish origin who has a huge 10,057-vote majority, it would be a stunning reverse for the ruling party.

Their contest is a litmus test of the Muslim backlash against Mr Blair, and - because of the personalities involved - one of the most fascinating mini-contests of an otherwise fairly dull British election campaign.

It has also got downright nasty.

Mr King has had the tyres of her cars slashed and has been pelted with eggs during the campaign. Mr Galloway has also been attacked by radical Muslims opposed to the very idea of voting.

Last month, around 20 young British Islamists broke into a meeting at a London mosque and shouted abuse about both Mr Galloway and Mr Blair. They urged Muslims to boycott the election, saying they would go to hell if they voted.

Mr Galloway slams Mr King as a "poodle" for supporting the war.

"One hundred thousand people lie dead as a result of the decisions she made," he said in a recent public debate.

She calls him an apologist for Saddam Hussein, and likes to remind voters of Mr Galloway's past visits to him in Baghdad.

"When I come across someone who is guilty of genocide I do not get on a plane and go to Baghdad and grovel at his feet," she told the same debate. Disaffection is not confined to London. Across the country, Muslims are uneasy about backing Mr Blair again after Iraq and could hold the key to dozens of constituencies.

The MCB, the main umbrella group for British Muslims, cites a survey showing support among their community for Mr Blair was about 75 per cent in 2001 but may be just half that now.

Another Islamic group has issued a six-point checklist to judge candidates on: public services; anti-terrorism laws; Iraq; Palestinian issues and Kashmir; religious discrimination laws; and "Islamaphobia" and violence on Muslims. "The time has come for the Muslim vote, estimated at more than 1.2 million, to be taken seriously," said another group, the Muslim Association of Britain.

"The Muslim community has the potential to influence the outcome of the elections in more than 40 constituencies through their vote alone."

Some Muslim voters are turning to Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats. Traditionally centrist, they are now perceived as more left-wing than Labour on many issues and, crucially, always opposed the war.    

In an early warning shot for Mr Blair, Muslim anger was a key factor in a stunning Liberal Democrat win over Labour last year for a parliamentary seat in the central city of Leicester.

But in Bethnal Green, not all Muslims are switching to Mr Galloway's Respect Party.

"Muslims can't forget Iraq - and they're fed up with being harassed by the police and viewed as terrorists all the time," said bus-driver Anwar Ali, 49, wandering through a maze of stalls selling Asian food products.

"But I don't blame Blair because George Bush had already made his mind up over the war. And at least Blair's kept the economy strong. Religion can't feed you, can it?"

The increasingly politically aware Muslim community is seen as unlikely to bash Mr Blair in areas where that might let in the main opposition Conservative Party, who also backed the war.

"I'll be quite surprised if in marginal seats where the Conservatives have a chance of winning, the Muslim vote does not swing back behind Labour," said political analyst Eric Shaw. Labour looks on track to win a successive third term for the first time in its history, but the centre-right Conservatives are only a few percentage points behind in some polls.

Muslims perceive the Conservatives as probably even tougher than Labour on some of the issues that have been upsetting them like anti-terrorism legislation and immigration controls.

Although making up more than 2.5 per cent of the population, there were only two Muslim legislators in the old, 659-seat parliament. Some 52 Muslim candidates are standing this time.