Six key questions answered about new definition of extremism laid out by communities secretary Michael Gove

• UK politics – latest updates

The communities secretary, Michael Gove, has laid out a new definition of extremism . Here the Guardian examines what has changed and why, and the reason it is attracting criticism.

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Zara Mohammed, 33, says Tories ending relationship with leading, trusted Muslim body leaves a gap between the community and the government

A couple of months ago, Zara Mohammed , the 33-year-old secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), learned that the Ministry of Defence was ending its 12-year relationship with the organisation.

The MCB, the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella group, with more than 500 affiliated members including mosques, schools and charitable associations, had been acting as a referee for potential imam chaplains in the armed forces.

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Exclusive: Marco Longhi and Jill Mortimer, allies of Lee Anderson, question Jeremy Hunt setting aside £1m for tribute

Tory MPs have privately criticised the government’s decision to build a memorial for Muslims who died fighting for Britain in the two world wars.

In messages to a Conservative MPs’ WhatsApp group seen by the Guardian, two Tory MPs elected in 2019 – Marco Longhi and Jill Mortimer – questioned why a memorial for Muslims was needed. The disclosure raises questions about the attitude towards Muslims in some sections of the Conservative party.

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Members of Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group raise concerns over Michael Gove not restarting body that last met in 2020

The government’s Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group (AMHWG) has been “on pause” for more than four years, despite repeated promises from officials and a sharp rise in hate crime.

The Guardian understands members of the AMHWG last officially met in January 2020, before all working groups were adjourned months later because of the pandemic.

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Displaced families prepare to spend holy month in Rafah amid food shortages and fear of attack

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Seventy days after they were forced to leave their house in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Hanaa al-Masry, her husband and their six children are preparing for Ramadan in their new home: a dilapidated tent. Here, there will be no decorations, no joyous family meals and no reading of the Qur’an under the lemon and orange trees in the garden.

The Muslim holy month – a time for friends and family as well as religious contemplation, prayer and fasting – starts on Monday and will be like none that anyone in Gaza can remember.

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Notion of Muslim-controlled areas unsafe for white people has been promoted by rightwingers since the early 2000s

The claim by a former government minister earlier this week that parts of London and Birmingham with large Muslim populations are “no-go areas” has highlighted the enduring myth that there are UK neighbourhoods and towns unsafe for white people.

Paul Scully, the MP for Sutton and Cheam in Greater London, later retracted his suggestion that Tower Hamlets and Sparkhill were unsafe for non-Muslims to enter , made during a BBC interview about allegations of anti-Muslim sentiments within the Conservative party. But he also defended invoking the Islamophobic trope on the grounds that people told him they perceived there to be a threat.

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In the wake of the chaos of the Gaza debate, prominent Conservatives are trying to exploit fears of extremism for their own ends

It should have been a sober debate about what the UK and its allies can do to bring an end to the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Instead, the House of Commons descended into procedural chaos and angry recriminations last Wednesday after the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, broke with parliamentary convention to allow MPs to vote on a Labour, as well as the government’s, amendment to the SNP’s opposition day motion on a ceasefire. Rather than focusing on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that is escalating with each day that passes, the Commons drew itself into a pointless blame game that has led to days of speculation over Hoyle’s future.

Every party involved – the SNP, Labour and the Conservatives – claimed the moral high ground in Wednesday’s debate, while accusing the others of undermining a critical discussion in their own interests. And all three parties are complicit in the shameful row that followed. Hoyle explained that he selected the Labour amendment out of concern for the safety of MPs who have received threats over this conflict and did not want to support an SNP motion labelling Israel’s military offensive as collective punishment. These MPs not only wanted to express their support for a ceasefire, they feared the consequences if they could not.

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Exclusive: Party figure says it has work to do to retain support as poll shows drop in Starmer’s popularity

Labour has much work to do to retain support among Muslim voters, a senior party figure has said as a poll suggested the party had lost half of its Muslim voter base over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war.

Only 43% of British Muslims who backed Labour at the 2019 general election are willing to do so again at the next general election expected this year, the survey finds.

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