Record 13 Muslim MPs, including 8 women, elected to UK parliament

The Muslim representation in the U.K. parliament jumped up to 13 from 8 in 2010 after last week's unpredictable general elections in the country.

Six new Muslim MPs were appointed to the parliament in the UK general elections on May 7, while seven existing members were re-elected. One Labour MP, Anas Sarwar, lost his Glasgow Central seat to the Scottish National Party, or SNP, candidate.

Four Muslim candidates hailing from Scotland won seats for the first time for the opposition party.

Most of the Muslim MPs are from the opposition parties as the Labour Party has nine Muslim MPs, the Tories three and the SNP one. The Liberal Democrat party has only one Muslim MP, despite fielding 24 Muslim candidates.

The Editor of the oldest Muslim monthly periodic, the Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi welcomed the newly elected Muslim MPs saying that was the highest number ever to sit in the House of Commons.

“It is great news that there are more Muslim MPs elected than ever before. However, the House of Commons still does not reflect the diversity of the population," he said.

Versi also welcomed the appointment of eight Muslim women in the elections. He said that this was a welcome sign that more Muslim women have been elected this year, six from the Labor Party, one from the Conservatives, and one from the SNP.

They included the first Muslim SNP MP, Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh, elected in the landslide by the nationalist party in Scotland, as well as the first female Muslim Conservative MP, Nusrat Ghani.

Naz Shah of the Labor Party was victorious in Bradford West over George Galloway, the pro-Palestinian leader of the Respect Party by 11,420 votes.

In last week's elections, Prime Minister David Cameron won an unexpected majority in the UK parliament, overturning all poll predictions and sweeping out the Labour Party again. The ruling Conservative Party secured 331 seats out of 650, while the Labour party got 230. The SNP showed an outstanding victory by securing 56 seats out of 59 seats in Scotland. The Liberal Democrat party could only win eight seats. Three leaders of the loosing parties, the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and Cameron's coalition partner, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats took responsibility for their parties' losses and resigned from their posts.