Elaina Cohen, "Too White and Too Jewish" according to Muslim Labour Counciller and former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mahmood Hussain (below)
.jpg)
The Labour Party has become embroiled in a race row after a prospective female councillor was allegedly told she was 'too white and Jewish' to be selected.
Elaina Cohen claims that Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain said he would not support her application for an inner-city ward because 'my Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish'.
Mrs Cohen, 50, has made an official complaint about the alleged remarks made by Mr Hussain, a Muslim and former lord mayor of Birmingham.
She said: 'I am shocked and upset that a member of the Labour Party in this day and age could even think something like that, let alone say it.
'People should not be allowed to make racist comments like that. If someone in the party feels I cannot represent them because of my colour or religion, that's ridiculous.
'I felt particularly aggrieved because I have worked across all sections of the community, particularly with the Muslim section, and have been on official visits to Pakistan.'
Mrs Cohen had applied to stand as a Labour councillor for the Birmingham ward of East Handsworth and Lozells, which has a high Asian and Afro-Caribbean population.
As one of Labour's safest seats on Tory-led Birmingham city council, the final candidate would be almost certain of victory at the June 4 by-election.
But when Mrs Cohen telephoned 57-year-old Mr Hussain for his support, she was astonished to be told that she was too 'white and Jewish' to be considered.
Lorraine Briscoe, who runs a local community association, was sitting next to Mrs Cohen when the conversation took place on speakerphone last Tuesday.
'I was disgusted that a councillor could make comments like that in 2009,' she said.
'He told her, "They will not vote for someone who is white and Jewish. My Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish".
'Elaina then asked him if he had talked to his Muslim members about it and he said, "I don't want to talk about it with you" and hung up.
'Elaina does a lot of good work in this community and she does not see race or religion, she just sees people.'
Two days after the alleged conversation, Mrs Cohen and another candidate were rejected by a pre-selection panel after failing to gain the support of the local party.
Instead, members were presented with one candidate, black South African Hendrina Quinnen, who was selected by an almost unanimous vote.
Mrs Cohen has now sent an official complaint to Labour Party general secretary Ray Collins and Birmingham city council accusing Mr Hussain of improper conduct.
Mr Hussain said yesterday: 'I would not make those sort of comments. The allegations are not true.'
Link...
Details and contact information for Mr Hussain, who was also the former Lord Mayor can be found here.
Dear Mrs. Elaina Cohen - Hope you enjoy the fruits of multiculturalism. You enabled multiculturalism and now, on a very personal level, must deal with the metastasis of this disease.
ReplyDeleteThis guy has to go.
ReplyDeleteNothing else for it.
He is the sheriff telling the blacks he can't allow one of them to run for dog catcher because there might be trouble.
Mahmood Hussain is George Wallace.
EPA - more to this sordid story:
ReplyDeleteBelow are extracts from a 2005 interview with them both via Sunday Mercury in which the couple spoke for the first time about their 'tempestuous' three-year affair. Jewish Elaina Cohen revealed how she still adored England's first Muslim MP despite being constantly briefed against him by his back-stabbing New Labour colleagues...
"They tried to use my emotions to make me hit out at Khalid. They thought I knew things about Khalid that could embarrass him so they wanted to manipulate me into hurting him publicly."
The tangled love life of the Birmingham Perry Barr MP has infuriated some Labour figures. And he has incensed staunch Muslims after abandoning two Muslim wives, both of whom had a child by him.
But Mrs Cohen was keen to show her support for the politician she first met in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2001. "We have a lot of issues to work through but we still adore each other," she insisted. "This is a journey, not the end." The mother-of-two is still renting the plush Birmingham city centre flat they shared for two years. Mr Mahmood is currently 'staying with friends'.
The unlikely couple are vague about the exact reasons for their split. But Mrs Cohen, who was in public relations and journalism before she became her lover's £20,000-a-year parliamentary assistant, insists no-one else was involved. "I've been on dates with a few people since we split, but nothing more," she said.
Sitting across the table from her in a city centre bar, Mr Mahmood was slightly more coy. "I've met women friends for dinner but you couldn't say they were dates," he said...
"It's been a very hard time for me. I went through a difficult divorce, which only came through last week. The hardest thing was leaving my children and making sure they've been OK throughout all of this. "When Khalid and I split, certain people within the Labour Party would constantly put the knife in.
"It's a wonder we've stayed close but we're only here together today because we talk all the time and we know who's been saying what." Mrs Cohen switched from Tory to Labour after getting together with Mr Mahmood."I would have converted to Islam if we'd got married," she added."When you love someone you want to commit to them completely." Mrs Cohen says she is now 'entrenched' in New Labour, thanks to her ex-partner."I ran his last election campaign and I'm a member of the local Labour Party," she said proudly.
She left her husband and kids to be with Khalid (God know why - the man's a schmuck) so why isn't this relationship on the register? And could the cynics who say that this relationship is only on ice/hidden to appease the Muslim electorate in his Perry Barr be right?
Whoops, he's done it again!Two wives down, now Khalid ditches ElainaWomanising MP Khalid Mahmood, Labour's answer to Steve 'shagger' Norris, is at it again. Mahmood, 44, dumped two
ReplyDeleteMuslim wives, both of whom had a child by him. Now the member for Birmingham Perry Barr has split up with married Jewish lover Elaina Cohen, left, an ex-Tory activist, but is coping well. 'I've met women friends for dinner but you couldn't say they were dates,' says coy Khalid.