DAR AL HARB - SCOTLAND: MOSLEMS & SCOTLANDS MAIN POLITICAL PARTIES DISCUSS THE RISING 'ISLAMOPHOBIA'

Muslims question powers of Scottish parliament

In a groundbreaking move, Scotland's main parties held a meeting with a Muslim audience in Glasgow on Friday night during which leading political figures were challenged about the powers of the Edinburgh-based parliament.

Among the topics raised by a section of Scotland's 50,000 strong Muslim community were whether the devolved parliament needed a new strategy to deal with the rise in Islamophobia, the Glasgow-based Herald newspaper reported Saturday.

Other issues at meeting, dubbed Muslim Question Time, included the establishment of separate Muslim schools in Scotland, similar to the handful approved for state support in England.

Those answering questions were Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) leader Alex Salmond, Labor's parliamentary business minister Margaret Curran, the Conservative's deputy justice spokesman and Liberal Democrat deputy education spokesman Robert Brown.

The panel, which was also questioned about granting an amnesty for asylum seekers who had been in Scotland for more than four years, was chaired by local human rights lawyer, Aamer Anwar, who specializes in immigration cases.

The Herald said the Muslim audience also challenged the political parties about the lack of powers afforded the Scottish Parliament on dawn raids against asylum seekers and the controversial use of Scottish airports for CIA 'rendition flights'.

The meeting, the first of its kind, comes in the middle of campaigning for next month's elections to the Scottish parliament, which are the third to be held since the granting of separate devolutionary powers to Scotland and Wales in 1999.

Opinion polls have suggested that the SNP will break Labor domination of the Scottish parliament for the first time. The SNP is also hoping that its candidate Bashir Ahmad will become the first Muslim member elected to the parliament on May 3.



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