The Daily Mail has spotted government minister Mike O'Brien's grovelling plea in Muslim Weekly to the Muslim community to vote Labour (see post below, 4 January). Indeed, it makes it its splash story today. Under the headline 'Shameless: Labour's cynical bid to win back the Muslim vote it lost over Iraq', it reports the central point:

'He boasts that the government has obediently introduced controversial legislation at the behest of Muslim leaders.’

But interestingly, it focuses on another unpleasant aspect of this article — the unstated implication that Muslims should not vote for Michael Howard because he is a Jew:

‘Ask yourself what will Michael Howard do for British Muslims? Will his foreign policy aim to help Palestine? Will he promote legislation to protect you from religious hatred and discrimination? Will he give you the choice of sending your children to a faith school? Will he stand up for the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab? Will he really fight for Turkey, a Muslim country, to join the EU? These are not academic questions. Remember, the last thing we want is to vote in anger and repent at leisure as Michael Howard, with a big smile on his face, walks through the door of no 10’.

The Tories have called this attack ‘despicable’. The party actually supports most if not all these policies. So the only reason why O’Brien can be suggesting that Michael Howard would not support them is because he is a Jew. This is what Labour might otherwise call playing the race card; others might call it pandering to visceral and primitive anti-Jewish prejudice.

In any circumstances, such an attack would be loathsome. But given the torrent of anti-Jewish prejudice pouring out of the Muslim world and influencing the attitudes of Muslims in Britain, it is as potentially lethal as it is cynical.