Councillor Mahmood Hussain:
Jews and Whitey’s need not apply
Labour Party embroiled in race row after candidate told
she was ‘too white and Jewish’ to be selected
The Labour Party has become embroiled in a race row after a prospective female councillor was allegedly told she was ‘too white and Jewish’ to be selected.
Elaina Cohen claims that Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain said he would not support her application for an inner-city ward because ‘my Muslim members don’t want you because you are Jewish’.
Mrs Cohen, 50, has made an official complaint about the alleged remarks made by Mr Hussain, a Muslim and former lord mayor of Birmingham.
She said: ‘I am shocked and upset that a member of the Labour Party in this day and age could even think something like that, let alone say it.
‘People should not be allowed to make racist comments like that. If someone in the party feels I cannot represent them because of my colour or religion, that’s ridiculous.
‘I felt particularly aggrieved because I have worked across all sections of the community, particularly with the Muslim section, and have been on official visits to Pakistan.’
Mrs Cohen had applied to stand as a Labour councillor for the Birmingham ward of East Handsworth and Lozells, which has a high Asian and Afro-Caribbean population.
As one of Labour’s safest seats on Tory-led Birmingham city council, the final candidate would be almost certain of victory at the June 4 by-election.
But when Mrs Cohen telephoned 57-year-old Mr Hussain for his support, she was astonished to be told that she was too ‘white and Jewish’ to be considered.
Lorraine Briscoe, who runs a local community association, was sitting next to Mrs Cohen when the conversation took place on speakerphone last Tuesday.
‘I was disgusted that a councillor could make comments like that in 2009,’ she said.
‘He told her, “They will not vote for someone who is white and Jewish. My Muslim members don’t want you because you are Jewish”.
‘Elaina then asked him if he had talked to his Muslim members about it and he said, “I don’t want to talk about it with you” and hung up.
‘Elaina does a lot of good work in this community and she does not see race or religion, she just sees people.’
Two days after the alleged conversation, Mrs Cohen and another candidate were rejected by a pre-selection panel after failing to gain the support of the local party.
Instead, members were presented with one candidate, black South African Hendrina Quinnen, who was selected by an almost unanimous vote.
Mrs Cohen has now sent an official complaint to Labour Party general secretary Ray Collins and Birmingham city council accusing Mr Hussain of improper conduct.
Mr Hussain said yesterday: ‘I would not make those sort of comments. The allegations are not true.’
Ms.Cohen shouldn’t be surprised that such racism would be present in this day and age, and coming from a Muslim office holder in a Western society, he’s just expressing the views of his constituents who happened to be as enlightened to the joys of a multicultural society as himself. The EU’s multiculturalist elite have yet to reconcile the two competing, and ideologically opposed notions, in which the adherents to a foreign monoculture ideology are allowed to immigrate in mass to colonize host European societies, and all in the name of multiculturalism. When Ms.Cohen figures out that conundrum, she’ll be that much closer to getting a chance to run in an area where she’s a minority. KGS
NOTE: * Humanitarian racists, attributes an intrinsically reduced responsibility for their acts to people of certain ethnic or national groups.
