Muslim council leaders have sparked outrage after trying to ban all
councillors eating in meetings until sunset during the holy month of
Ramadan.


Politicians have hit out after the move to impose hardline Islamic rules on
non-Muslim colleagues throughout September.


The bombshell has been dropped by Labour chiefs of the notoriously loony
Tower Hamlets Council in east London.

The storm was sparked by an e-mail sent to all councillors this week
highlighting arrangements for Town Hall committee meetings next month, which
marks the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...37_468x294.jpg
<--- Ramadan row: Tower Hamlets Council leader Lutfur Rahman and Liberal
Democrat leader Stephanie Eaton

The memo said that new council leader Lutfur Rahman and his deputy, Siraj
Islam, had requested that meetings be kept to a minimum to accommodate
fasting councillors.

They have also urged all other councillors to resist eating until the
breaking of the fast at sunset.

Cllr Stephanie Eaton, leader of the Lib Dem group on the left-wing East End
authority, said she would be ignoring the new Ramadan regime.

She insisted the new Labour leadership was favouring one religious group
over others.

Cllr Eaton said: 'The Liberal Democrats have enormous respect for the
contribution of all faith groups and cultures to the life of the community
of Tower Hamlets.

'But we fervently believe that the rules of any one religion should not be
imposed upon others.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...82_468x351.jpg
<--- Holy row: A view of Tower Hamlets in east London

t is the first time such a request has been made and it comes as Ramadan
falls earlier this year during the longer daylight hours.

Council bosses have also ordered that the town hall's business agenda should
be reduced, with only seven scheduled committee meetings for the entire
month, to deal with the Ramadan restrictions.

Officers have also been barred from arranging any more and been told to
explore ways of dropping some of the scheduled seven.

Those going ahead generally start at about 6.30pm.

So with sunset due to fall just after 7.30pm at the beginning of September
and around 6.30pm by the end of Ramadan, the breaking of the fast will take
place during meetings.

At those points, there will be 45-minute adjournments to allow members to
eat and pray, council leaders have ordered.

But it is the arrangements for the food and other refreshments that has
angered Cllr Eaton and the rest of her party, which includes two Muslim
councillors.

Normally tea, coffee and sandwiches are set aside for councillors to nibble
at during evening meetings.

But during Ramadan these will be reduced and complemented by special Muslim
food packs containing chicken, lamb and vegetarian snacks.

But in his email, John Williams, the council's head of democratic services,
said: 'It is requested that members do not partake of any refreshments until
after the Iftar refreshments are served.'


Cllr Eaton said that was going too far. Speaking on behalf of all her
stunned party colleagues, she said: 'I was rather disconcerted to see that
the arrangements put in place for Ramadan, which we support for Muslim
colleagues, have been imposed upon all councillors.


'We object to the request that non-Muslim councillors observe the fasting
rules for Ramadan.

'This sends out the wrong message to our community.Our community consists of
a huge number of different religions, all of which should be valued, and no
one religion should be accorded more status or influence than others.

'Freedom of belief is an important human right, and we Liberal Democrat
councillors, Muslim and non-Muslim, agree that this request is
inappropriate.'


Cllr Eaton has also written to Town Hall bosses about her concerns that
their move 'will not enhance community cohesion and asking for their
reassurance that no faith is given any particular status or priority in the
operation or decisions of the council'.

Council bosses said their arrangements were in place 'where it is not
reasonable to expect members observing Ramadan, and who are required to
attend a formal committee or other meeting, to travel home in time for
sundown in order to break fast and undertake prayers'.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar and the holiest of
the four holy months. It begins with the sighting of the new moon after
which all physically mature and healthy Muslims are obliged to abstain from
all food, drink, gum chewing, any kind of tobacco use, and any kind of
sexual contact between dawn and sunset.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...dan/article.do




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