This week, Broadstairs writer and KentOnline columnist Melissa Todd explores ‘religious fluidity’ after meeting a Methodist Church worker who converted to Islam...

MP Lee Anderson claimed he did nothing wrong in stating London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan was “under the control of Islamists”, or that he had “given London to his mates.” He’s since been suspended from the Conservative party for his remarks.

Politicians positing Muslims as a problem to be solved, alongside relentlessly negative media coverage, has seen attacks on Muslims more than triple in the last four months, including death threats sent to Mosques, public abuse, vandalism and physical assault, with Muslim women being the target in two out of three reported cases.

The government has condemned the rise in hate crimes, claiming there’s “no place for hate in our society”. It’s easy to say that. It’s much harder to take the lead and remove from public office those who make that hate feel acceptable. Anderson retains his £100k a year slot on GB News, and is considering moving to the Reform Party, so I doubt his chastisement will silence him.

It took Rishi Sunak three days to decide to lose Anderson, who is prized within the Conservative Party for his eagerness to make public appearances saying the unsayable. A great many politicians look over the ocean to Trump and feel political success must lie in being publicly angry and outrageous. It doesn’t work nearly so well over here, as Nigel Farage can testify, yet their efforts can still threaten social cohesion. A party that claims to represent One Nation cannot bear ill will towards a faith that sustains three million Britons.

With Anderson’s words still ricocheting through my head I went to Margate Union Church to hear Julian Bond speak. He’s worked in the Christian Muslim forum for nine years, and been active in interfaith work for much of his career. Despite being employed by the Methodist Church, last August he chose to convert to Islam. I wanted to know why, and asked about the main differences between the two faiths.

“Jesus”, he said. “As in Sunday school, the answer to every question is Jesus!” The Koran challenges central ideas about Jesus Christ - while Islam is strictly monotheistic, Christianity has the Trinity, the Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Muslims are keener on pilgrimage, and fasting too - Christians might give up sugar for lent, but at Ramadan Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, refraining from all food and drink. There are five prayers a day, making the faith more a way of life, an integrated way of living, part of family and community. In short, it’s more rigorous in its practices, more akin to early Christianity, as practised in Monastic orders.

For years, Julian went to a Muslim prayer group on Friday evening, then Church on Sunday morning. He explains he always enjoyed having a deep experience of another faith, of reading scriptures in different languages, noting the differences and similarities. A keen musician, he found that music transcended intellectual wrangling, and he’s still in the chapel choir and singing in Church House. He identified as "religiously fluid”, which seemed an interesting idea. Before meeting him I’d rather assumed you had to pick one side, or none at all, like a football fan.

In fact, conversion is pretty common. In the last five years it’s estimated that 12.2 million people converted to Islam and 4.6million away from it, while 4.9million switched to Christianity, 13.1million away. If this trend continues Islam will be the world’s largest religion by 2060, in part because of the comparatively younger age and higher birth rate within the existing Muslim population.

Converting to Islam was a simple process, Julian continues, involving two witnesses and a declaration of faith. He says he “felt much lighter afterwards. As if I’d arrived.” When asked about the decline in Christianity, he said the best way for any faith to survive is through dialogue, sharing, understanding, finding common ground, particularly on the local level. He points out that, as theologian Hans Kung wrote, “there can be no peace between the nations without peace between religions, and there can be no peace between religions without dialogue between the religions”.

To accuse Muslim public figures of possessing divided loyalties because they are Muslim is worse than ludicrous, it’s dangerous. It generates suspicion and further conflict between groups that share many more commonalities than distinctions. Lee Anderson has since said the Prime Minister had no choice but to suspend him, and that he will “continue to be loyal”, which sounds quite like a rescinding of his former remarks. Still, I doubt that will stop some parts of the Right claiming he was “fired for telling the truth”.