Last month I made history by being the first person in the UK to overturn a Charity Commission decision to disqualify someone from being a charity trustee. I had faced a disqualification order owing to two past Facebook posts and two “likes” from 2014 to 2017 which were deemed to be “Islamophobic” and hence brought the entire charity industry into disrepute.
I spent almost £60,000 of my own money on an appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber, which thankfully proved successful.
Central to my case was the issue of freedom of speech. I insisted that I had the right to comment on aspects of Islam, in particular political and fundamentalist Islam. I argued forcefully at the tribunal hearing that having concerns about Islamism is very separate from anti-Muslim hatred, the latter being totally unacceptable.
Concerns about Islam relate to legitimate beliefs held by individuals, whereas anti-Muslim hatred relates to attacks on individuals merely because they are Muslims.
In my capacity as Chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, I and my colleagues play our part in doing our best to fight the frightening wave of UK antisemitism, with the horrendous attacks on Jews now being a feature of daily public life. Yet we always say that we are also opposed to all forms of racial hatred that are targeted at individuals.
Now, in Reform UK, it seems we have an example. If I remained silent, it would make me a hypocrite and my words at the tribunal would have been hollow. So I must speak out.
I do not know Zia Yusuf very well. I have met him only three times, in my capacity of being a medium-sized donor to Reform UK. On each occasion we spoke for no more than fifteen minutes. However, the attacks on him over the Rupert Lowe issue are in my view totally unfair and yes, smack largely of anti-Muslim hatred.
Zia Yusuf is a massive credit to Reform UK and the attacks on him say more about his critics, writes Gary Mond
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I am not very familiar with the internal workings of Reform UK. However, the remarkable success of the growth in the party’s infrastructure is an absolute fact and evident to all who attend Reform UK functions, big and small. I have been to some six or seven events over the last six months.
The electricity whenever such gatherings take place – whether it be a large conference with over 4,000 people or a branch event with 60 members present – is utterly incredible.
These developments did not occur all by themselves. Many of Reform UK’s excellent organisers deserve credit, but one person has put this entire project together. That person is Zia Yusuf.
Additionally, Mr Yusuf is a staunch contributor on social media to Reform UK’s cause, writing incisively about the horrendous failings of the last Conservative government and the present Labour one. He is also a fine orator at Reform UK’s events, injecting both sound rational thinking and an occasional sense of humour into his speeches.
So why, now, are there calls for his resignation? It is ludicrous to criticise him for going to the police regarding the Rupert Lowe incidents. If he had not done so, he would have been accused of a cover up at a later stage when these matters were ultimately revealed. It is difficult for any politician to survive accusations of ignoring bullying claims, so he had to act.
The public calls for his resignation appear to be based on no more real substance than this foolish criticism of his judgement. Yet much worse, there are insinuations on social media and in verbal conversations that he is a bad influence on the party, that he bought his way into the position, even that he is a closet Islamist and has forced Nigel Farage to change his policies. This is all utter bunkum and betrays his critics’ real motivation. They don’t want a Muslim, especially a successful one like Zia Yusuf. Mr Yusuf is a massive credit to Reform UK and the party is lucky to have him.
My advice to him is to ignore these siren voices and carry on the exceptional work of building Reform UK into an election-winning force in 2029 if not sooner.
