Jim Fitzpatrick condemned for ‘hijacking’ Muslim wedding by bridegroom

A bridegroom has accused Jim Fitzpatrick, the farming minister, of “politically hijacking” his wedding by publicly criticising the traditional Muslim segregation of men and women at the ceremony.

Bodrul Islam said he was “amazed and shocked” that Mr Fitzpatrick had used his wedding to make a political point about radicalisation and social integration.

The 28-year-old said it would have been “common courtesy” for his local MP, who left the ceremony after being told he could not sit with his wife, to respect his religion’s customs.

Mr Islam, who is a Labour supporter, is now calling on Mr Fitzpatrick to apologise for the embarrassment he has caused to his family.

“Please apologise for the fact you have hijacked an innocent wedding,” he said.

Mr Islam married Mahbuba Kamali, a 24 year-old investment banker, in front of 800 guests at a ceremony held in the London Muslim Centre, next to the East London Mosque, on Sunday.

As is common with many Islamic weddings held on mosque premises, the event was segregated with men and women sitting in different rooms.

Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town where a third of voters are Muslims, did not know the couple personally but was invited by the bride’s father.

When he and his wife Sheila, a GP, were told by someone outside the couples’ families that they would be separated, they left the event.

The wedding party was keen not to offend Mr Fitzgerald so a local Labour councillor rang him up and invited him to come back, saying there was a table where non-Muslims of different sexes could sit together.

But instead the minister contacted his local newspaper to tell them he was “disappointed” by what had happened.

“We are trying to build social cohesion in a community but this is not the way forward,” he said.

Mr Fitzpatrick blamed a hardline group that has an office at the mosque, the Islamic Forum of Europe, for imposing stricter rules on weddings and claimed he previously had been to many where men and women mixed freely.

But the newlyweds insisted they wanted the wedding ceremony to be split along gender lines.

Mr Islam, the director of a training company, said: “I didn’t let the IFE dictate to me or tell me what to do. Neither they, Mr Fitzpatrick, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia or the Pope has a right to tell me and my wife what to do.

“I am not part of the forum and neither is my wife. We liked the religious service, we paid for it, that’s it.”

Speaking after Friday prayers at the mosque in Whitechapel, he went on: “It was my wedding day and if he felt uncomfortable I would have made sure that he sat next to his wife.

“After he left, he was contacted and told he would be able to sit with his wife and apologies were offered if he had taken any offence.

“Completely to my surprise, I woke up to this political quagmire.

“I was amazed and shocked. It was a personal wedding between two families which has been hijacked for political gain.

“What surprised me was that if you have got a personal invite to a wedding then you respect that religious and cultural event. It is common courtesy.”

Mr Fitpatrick said he had never meant to insult Mr Islam and his family and had left the wedding as discreetly as possible to avoid causing a scene.

“It was never my intention to offend Mr Islam and if he thinks that I done so then of course I will apologise to him.

“My beef is not with the family, they are entitled to have a segregated wedding if they want to. My beef is with the IFE and the undue influence they have over the social, cultural and political aspects of the mosque.

“They are the militants of the 21st century, they are religious zealots with their interpretation of the Koran and I think this has now been exposed.”

Muhammad Abul Kalam, from the IFE, said they were “baffled” by Mr Fitzpatrick’s criticisms.

“The wedding was a private function. The IFE wasn’t invited, individual members were asked, but it was nothing to do with us.”

See more on this Topic