KHADIJA KHAN: Labour's performative outrage over this Trafalgar Square mass prayer row sickens me - it reeks of naked opportunism.01:39, 21 Mar 2026, updated 12:14, 21 Mar 2026By KHADIJA KHANIn modern Britain, it seems there are some subjects that simply cannot be discussed – at least not honestly – without inviting a storm of outrage.The latest victim of this reflexive indignation is the Shadow Lord Chancellor Nick Timothy.His supposed offence? A short post on X in which he argued that: ‘Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.’ He added: ‘Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish.‘But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.’The ritual to which Timothy was referring was an event in London’s Trafalgar Square, where around 3,000 Muslims gathered for a mass prayer event on Monday marking the end of Ramadan. Organised by a charity called the Ramadan Tent Project, it was a highly visible act in the heart of the nation’s capital, and one which Timothy had every right to question.He did not, notably, comment on Muslims as people. He did not question their right to worship or call for restrictions on private belief.What he did do was to raise a question about the appropriateness of large-scale religious ritual in shared civic spaces. Nonetheless, within hours, the outrage began, spearheaded by Sir Keir Starmer, who described Timothy’s words as ‘utterly appalling’ and demanded that Kemi Badenoch sack him. Shamefully, the PM suggested that the Conservative Party has a ‘problem with Muslims’.In an equally inflammatory tone, Labour chair Anna Turley labelled Timothy’s comments ‘despicable’ while London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan – who notably presided over and participated in the mass prayer – declared himself ‘heartbroken’ and suggested that British Muslims would feel ‘scared’ and ‘singled out’. Singled out for what, exactly?There is not a Muslim in Britain today who is prevented from practising their faith, attending a mosque, or going about their daily life. That is as it should be in a free society.But those like Starmer, quick to cry ‘Islamophobia’, seem curiously uninterested in the nature of the event itself.Commentators have pointed out that women were relegated to the back rows – literally placed behind men.’These are not fringe practices; it is entirely consistent with what I myself witnessed raised in a Muslim household in Pakistan, where it was made abundantly clear that women were not men’s equals. What is truly remarkable is not that such practices exist – but that so many Western feminists, otherwise so eager to denounce sexism and misogyny, fall into a deafening silence when confronted with it in this context.Their silence is not accidental. It is part of a broader unwillingness to engage honestly with difficult questions about religion, culture and integration – questions that are instead dismissed as bigotry the moment they are raised –although only, it seems, in relation to Islam. Nor did this episode emerge in isolation. It is part of a trajectory that many ordinary Britons can see plainly, even if politicians refuse to acknowledge it.’https://mol.im/a/15666089
Sue Hammond ● 19d