Sadiq Khan's Ramadan Rorschach Test

“Brighton and Birmingham and Bradford and Blackburn and Cambridge and Glasgow…” No, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan was not listing off the locations of the Pakistani Rape Gangs across Britain.

Rather, like a field commander listing off his victories, these were the places where public Iftars were being celebrated across the country. “We think we’re going to break the record for the biggest Iftar, not just in Britain, not just in Europe but in the Western world.”

How curious to watch Sadiq Khan on his knees towards Mecca become a Rorschach Test for the nation. The Mayor of London’s open-air Ramadan prayers acted as an ink blot evoking radically different interpretations in the eye of the beholder.

On the one hand, Khan himself explicitly called Monday’s public displays of Islamic piety in Trafalgar Square opposition to “the forces of division and darkness”.

On the other hand, Conservative MP Nick Timothy called out those very same prayers as an “act of domination and therefore division”. In a viral X post he wrote “The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination…. the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook….”

Timothy’s remarks were themselves a Rorschach Test. He enjoyed support from the political right - not just Tory leader Kemi Badenoch but Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Richard Tice and independent activist Tommy Robinson.

The political left took a different view.

“The comments from Nick Timothy are shameful! Kemi Badenoch should do the right thing and sack him” slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “This is disgraceful… Your rhetoric is inflammatory, divisive, and beneath any serious public office.” Wrote independent MP Adnan Hussain, a sentiment shared by his fellow sectarian MPs elected on the Gaza-ticket in July 2024.

The snowballing Rorschach continued with Director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding Chris Doyle quick to point out that Trafalgar Square was in fact an Arabic name: Taraf al-Ghar. He was, I imagine, pretty happy to have found evidence of Britain’s centuries-long multiculturalism. Political commentator Emma Webb challenged Doyle, pointing out the Square is so named to commemorate Lord Nelson’s battle victory in a place conquered and viciously oppressed by Muslim overlords for eight centuries.

I note that of those protesting that Muslims are being unfairly treated by the likes of Timothy none came to the defence of Adam Smith-Connor, arrested for silent prayer in 2022. Charged for praying for his unborn son and ordered to pay £9,000 in prosecution costs. President Trump would later send a delegation to investigate the suppression of Christian speech in Britain. More recently still, local Muslims attempted to get a Christian preacher arrested in Whitechapel, London. In the same neighbourhood a UKIP “Walk With Jesus” demonstration was forbidden. The British left appear to have a two-tier memory.

Unfortunately these Rorschach Tests of opposing world views in Britain run deeper. A Policy Exchange survey this month highlights broader geopolitical divides between British Muslims and non-Muslims.

“When looking at net favourability ratings towards Iran, the British Muslim figure is +22 - despite the regime’s heavily militarised crackdown on the recent nationwide demonstrations which resulted in unprecedented massacres. For the general population, it plummets to -42 (a difference of 64 points).”

This might shock, but it shouldn’t surprise. A 2024 Henry Jackson Society poll commissioned shortly after October 7th, 2023 found British Muslims were more likely to have a positive than negative view of Hamas overall. Only 24% of British Muslims had a negative view of Hamas.

But we didn’t need polling to understand this. Years of relentless pro-Hamas protests through London have exhausted the non-muslim population, pushing their tolerance to its limits.

Nick Timothy was right to call out the imposing Iftar prayers. And whilst I might examine the historical and theological reasons for him being right, there is a simple reason why Muslim public prayer is facing such a negative reaction in comparison with other faiths.