LONDON: A member of the UK’s House of Lords has been accused of expressing Islamophobic views after he said Islamist radicals planned to “take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box.”
Malcolm Pearson, whose peerage title is Baron Pearson of Rannoch and is now an unaffiliated peer, was speaking during a debate on the new Labour government’s plans to improve counter-terrorism measures at public venues.
“The Shariah allows Muslim men to have four wives at a time, most of whom are having at least two children, so the Muslim population is going up 10 times faster than our national average,” he told the chamber last Thursday.
“On past trends, Birmingham and nine other English local authorities will be majority Muslim by 2031. The radicals’ plan is to wait until they can take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box,” he added.
His comments were heavily criticized in the days afterward.
The Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Council of Britain said they will lodge formal complaints with the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards over the remarks, The Independent reported on Tuesday.
“Lord Pearson’s recent comments are outrageous and perpetuate classic Islamophobic tropes that demonize British Muslim communities. He appears indifferent to the impact of his words, despite the rise in Islamophobia-related hate crimes,” Zara Mohammed, MCB secretary general, told the newspaper.
“As a member of the House of Lords, Lord Pearson should be held accountable for his conduct. We will be writing to the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards and hope they investigate and take appropriate action,” she added.
Raghad Altikriti, chair of MAB, told The Independent that politicians had a duty to promote unity and respect and not resort to “racist dog whistles and Islamophobic tropes.”
He continued: “His comments and behavior fall far short of the expected standards of a member of the House of Lords, and we hope that the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards will look into this matter and take decisive action.”
When pressed by the newspaper to clarify his comments, Pearson said he was simply being “factual” and quoting a “projection of Office for National Statistics figures.”
He added: “Islamists … are quite open about using the ‘power of the womb and the ballot box’ to help them take over Western civilization; like communists before the (Berlin) Wall came down, they are a world domination movement.”
A House of Lords spokesperson confirmed that the House of Lords Commissioners for Standards would look into any complaint it received to first determine if it “fell within their remit to investigate.”
