MohammedAmin.comSerious writing for
serious readers
Muslims who speak on sensitive issues such as Israel and Palestine are often attacked unfairly
Summary
Posted 26 December 2025
I was horrified by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. My tweet below on that day is my pinned tweet.
In 2014 I explained why Hamas needed to either revise its goals or dissolve itself. It has done nothing for the Palestinians of Gaza.
— Mohammed Amin 🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦🇵🇸🇮🇱 (@Mohammed_Amin) October 7, 2023
The murders of Israeli civilians today add to its crimes and will only harm Gazans.https://t.co/PNZzUv7h3e
However, the brutality of Israel's response has shocked people of all faiths and backgrounds around the world, who have spoken out to express their concern over Israel's conduct.
In turn, those speaking out have often been targeted by supporters of Israel.
The persecution has been particularly egregious in the USA since the inauguration of President Trump. While I could give many examples, I will limit myself to one.
On 26 March 2024, Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national on an F-1 student visa, co-authored an op-ed in her campus newspaper with pro-Palestine views. Shortly after President Trump came into office, her visa was revoked.
The American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit challenging the US Government's conduct. The following paragraph from the Harvard Crimson's report is chilling:
A senior State Department official testified Friday that some claims and phrases common to pro-Palestine campus advocacy — including criticism of the state of Israel and calls for universities to divest from Israel — all “could be” grounds for revoking a noncitizen’s visa.
The American Civil Liberties Union reported on 8 December 2025 that the case was ongoing, but that Öztürk had received some interim relief.
The UK's Times newspaper reported on 15 March 2024 "Civil service group suspended over antisemitic tropes." The Telegraph carried a story on the same subject on 16 March 2024 "Civil Service guidance directed officials to website that likened homosexuality to ‘a scourge’." I have not read either story because both newspapers have a paywall, but I have included links for the benefit of readers who subscribe to those newspapers.
The Times of Israel carried a story on 16 March 2024 "Report: UK group probed for urging Muslim civil servants to spread anti-Israel views" which I presume was based on the UK newspapers. This can be read by everyone.
The suspension took place under a Conservative Government before the 4 July 2024 general election. On 10 September 2024, in response to a Parliamentary question, the Labour Party minister Georgia Gould announced that the Civil Service Muslim Network had resumed activity.
The online news website Hyphen subsequently investigated the background to the suspension using freedom of information requests. On 21 March 2025 their investigative reporter Lucas Cumiskey telephoned me about the story he was working on, and asked me for my comments, which I gave over the phone.
His subsequent story published on 26 March 2025 "Revealed: Muslim civil service group cleared after Gaza-Israel lobbying probe — Call for apology as MP and trade union allege Tory government suspended Civil Service Muslim Network ‘based on political pressure rather than facts’" showed that the suspension was not justified.
Obviously the suspension had caused significant stress to the Muslim civil servants involved.
Due to space limitations, the Hyphen story could only carry a small part of what I said to Lucas Cumiskey, so I have reproduced his full transcript of my comments below.
Mohammed Amin, former chair of the Muslim Conservative Forum, a group within the Tory party, who has been a Liberal Democrat since 2019, said:
“I’ve never been a civil servant but as a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers and a member of the firm’s Supervisory Board I was quite involved in the role of internal staff networks in our firm, and believe they play a vital role in helping people come together, whether Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc, and help the organisation to run more effectively.
The October 7 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s subsequent response understandably give rise to very strong emotions amongst many people, including British Jewish, British Muslims and indeed everyone else who cares about suffering overseas. In that situation, emotions can run very high.
I have no direct knowledge of what took place at this meeting of the Civil Service Muslim Network but can understand how what was said can easily be misreported, particularly in an environment where those who advocate for the state of Israel have every incentive to malign those who express concern for Palestinians.
In my view, the previous Conservative government, particularly with some of the statements by people like then Home Secretary Suella Braverman, demonstrated an excessive concern to pounce upon any any expressions of sympathy and support for Palestinians, and I can understand that they may well have overreacted to the reports that they received regarding what happened at the Civil Service Muslim Network.
It is particularly incumbent upon government ministers who have power and authority to investigate carefully and objectively before taking action that maligns their employees, in this case Muslim civil servants.”
As soon as you speak (or write) in "the public square" it is a sad reality that, apart from just disagreeing with you, some people will malign you personally, alleging bad motives and often misrepresenting what you have said. It happened to me as soon as I wrote my first blog post (on apostasy) back in 2007.
It is unfair, but it will happen.
Taking that into account, my two pieces of advice are:
