Islamic Party of Britain

Islamic Party of Britain
File:Islamic Party of Britain logo.jpg
Leader	David Musa Pidcock
Founded	September 1989 (September 1989)
Dissolved	2006 (2006)
Headquarters	Milton Keynes
Ideology	Islamism
European affiliation	none
European Parliament group	none
Colours	Green, White
Website
http://www.islamicparty.com
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The Islamic Party of Britain is a defunct political party in the United Kingdom that was active from its formation in 1989 until 2006. The IPB was Islamist, opposed to both capitalism and communism. David Musa Pidcock, a Sheffield man who converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam while working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia, founded and led the party. The IPB published a quarterly magazine entitled Common Sense.

The party entered the 1992 general election, standing three unsuccessful candidates in the constituencies of Bradford, a city with a large Muslim minority.

Performance

The Islamic Party never achieved a seat in either house of Parliament. Pidcock represented the party in the Bradford North by-election, 1990, earning 800 votes (2.2%), finishing fourth of ten candidates.

In the 1992 General Election, the party stood candidates in each of the three constituencies in the City of Bradford. All of them finished last, with Pidcock in Bradford West doing the best, with 471 votes (0.96%).

Relations with other parties

In its first year, Pidcock claimed that his party was planning co-operation with the ecologist Green Party.

The IPB was generally supportive of the Respect coalition with one of their leading members, home affairs spokesman Mohammad Naseem, standing for and funding the coalition.

Policies

The party believed in equal treatment under the law regardless of an individual's status, income or ethnicity. The IPB argued that religion is the most important thing in life. It called for reform of the British banking system to make it interest-free and Islamic, and for increased trade with the Islamic world. At one time, the party answered questions sent in by readers. When answering one question, the party argued that homosexuality needed treatment, was not to be tolerated and that homosexuals should be put to death for a "public display of lewdness", a policy that was condemned by Peter Tatchell.