Catherine Heseltine is someone you would have seen on the mainstream media like BBC or Sky News representing Islam and the Muslims. Catherine is the CEO of Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) and she had a good old chat with The Revivals’ Iram Ramzan.
Despite standing on her feet for half a day, Catherine Heseltine’s mission in talking to every single Muslim about the importance of getting active in politics and media did not diminish.And nor did her trademark smile.
Catherine has had many projects to occupy her time with, recently having just finished the ‘Boycott Israeli Dates’ campaign during Ramadan. She is now running a ‘Stop Islamophobia’ campaign to focus on the lobbying for MPs to take the issue more seriously, and for the police forces to monitor Islamophobic hate crime.
She certainly has a lot of work on her hands.
While there are some Muslims out there who think it is ‘pointless’ to vote, believing it to be a ‘waste of time’ to become involved in politics in the ‘Islamophobic’ atmosphere, Catherine said that not voting leaves the platform free for the BNP.
“No one was born hating Muslims,” she said.
If anyone has any doubts, she said people should take the example of the pro-Israel lobby.
“They don’t spend millions of pounds on political and media lobbying in support of Israel because it’s a waste of time. Politics is power. Muslims, when they get involved, CAN make a difference. At the last election, we mobilised Muslim voters to kick out three pro Israel anti Muslim MPS.”
The MPS, she said, only won by a narrow majority, showing that every vote can count.
“As a community we have not got involved intelligently and that is why we have been ignored.”
Has MPAC been successful?
“Absolutely!” she beamed.
Despite raising awareness of the problems facing Muslims, she acknowledged that there is still work to be done.
