Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), “At a time when waves of Islamophobic hatred are sweeping across Europe and lapping at out shores, the Muslim community is going to need as many advocates and defenders in the Parliament. With its support, I can be one of those,” Yaqoob said.
“But the prize is not just about Muslims having a voice, but having a voice for all those who feel they have been abandoned, regardless of their background,” she said.
The 39-year old mother of three, whose parents came from Pakistan in the 1960s, almost made history at the last elections in 2005, when she came from nowhere to secure 27.5 per cent of the vote in one of Labour’s safest seats, taking second place ahead of Liberal Democrat and Conservative rivals.
A year later she won a seat on Birmingham City Council in central England, winning almost 50 per cent of the local vote and saying she was challenging the ‘old order.’
Her task next month is made more difficult by boundary changes that have led to the abolition of Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, the most populous Muslim constituency, where she had slashed Labour’s 16,000 majority to just 3,000.
Part of the constituency is being merged to form Birmingham Hall Green, where Yacoob is again challenging Labour MP Roger Godsiff, who has been discredited by last year’s expenses scandal and spoke in only five debates in the last parliamentary session.
In an article for the Muslim News being published on Friday, she said that her party, which was formed out of the anti-war movement, has “a real chance of making a breakthrough.”
“With the possibility of a parliament where no party has an overall majority, Respect’s presence could prove critical. If just three Respect MPs are returned from our strongest areas, we will have an impact way beyond our numbers,” she said.
Helping her cause, Yaqoob has been uniquely endorsed by retiring local left-wing Labour MP, Lynne Jones, who described her as “an excellent candidate of great ability who, as a councillor, has shown she works hard for her constituents.”
Her party’s motto is to be “a voice for the voiceless, either in this country or abroad” and her campaign is also being aided by the decision by the Greens not to field a candidate and calling for votes for her stances on social justice.
Yaqoob, who was born in Bradford, northern England and works as a psychotherapist, became more politically active following the 7/7 attacks in the US when she was reportedly spat at on the street in Birmingham.
In 2006, she received the Asian Jewel Award for Public Service Excellence, has since been named in several lists of the most powerful women in Britain and currently chairs the Stop the War Coalition (SWTC) in Birmingham.
A key factor benefiting Yaqoob is the decline in Britain of Muslim support for Labour, while disillusionment with foreign policy, most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as domestic economic concerns are also expected to aid her broad campaign.
"I draw my strength, and my moral inspiration, from my Islamic faith,” she is quoted saying on Respect’s official website.
“But in this struggle for peace, equality and justice I have met so many people who draw their inspiration from other sources, but who share the same commitment to ideals that have a universal appeal,” she adds.
The party has already had one MPs elected to the previous parliament, its founder George Galloway, after be was expelled from Labour over his outspoken criticism following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Labour also have three candidates defending seats and one in a target seat, who are competing to become the first Muslim women in the British parliament, all of whom are not commonly associated with wearing hijabs.
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