Muslim Labour MPs speak out about campaign of intimidation and abuse

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Leading Muslim Labour MPs have criticised the unprecedented campaign of intimidation they faced during the campaign, describing physical threats and a torrent of hateful disinformation that forced some women to take up police protection.

Senior cabinet member Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, was among the politicians given police protection. Veteran Private Naz Shah, who has been at the forefront of a series of high-profile, divisive elections for more than a decade, said the abuses were unprecedented.

Ms Mahmood, who became justice minister on Friday, retained her seat but her majority shrank as many voters chose independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob. In her declaration speech, Ms Mahmood said the campaign had been tainted by “harassment and intimidation”.

She condemned the “attack on democracy itself” and said it was unacceptable to “intimidate and threaten” people. “British politics must wake up soon to what happened in this election,” she said. “And let me make this clear, because it means the world to me and my family: it is never acceptable to deny someone their faith; to brand them as an infidel.”

An outspoken critic of Islamophobia who resigned from parliament after the Gaza ceasefire vote in November, Ms Shah was not endorsed by the prominent Muslim Vote campaign, which targeted her constituency, which is 54 per cent Muslim.

“It’s really toxic out there. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” she said in a final message to her campaign team this week.

“It was cruel, particularly to Muslim candidates,” said one Labour Party activist, a Muslim who travelled the country to support candidates throughout the election period.

Labour’s initial support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel divided many members of Labour’s traditional electorate.

Muslim Vote (TMV) has backed a range of alternatives to Labour candidates, with promises including “rooting out Islamophobia and discrimination” in British systems.

It backed a wave of independent candidates to challenge Labour on Palestine, including former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was re-elected, veteran South African politician Andrew Feinstein and British Palestinian Leanne Mohamad, who came close to unseating senior Labour politician Wes Streeting.

Labour Party candidates of Muslim faith have been a disproportionately large campaign target.

Attacks on faith and ethnicity

In some cases, Muslim Labour candidates have faced questions about their ethnicity or faith.

Former Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, who stood in Birmingham Perry Barr, was ousted from power by TMV-backed candidate Ayoub Khan. A series of posts by TMV accused Mr Mahmood of failing to “defend” “Muslim issues” and supporting government programmes deemed anti-Muslim.

In east London, Rushanara Ali was re-elected by a narrow majority in Bethnal Green and Stepney despite rivals questioning her Bangladeshi Muslim heritage.

Although Ms Ali has been an active supporter of the Palestinian cause, her abstention during the November vote on the ceasefire motion became a point of contention.

UK Labour Party leader George Galloway described Ms Ali as the “wrong MP for Bengal” at his party’s rally in east London this week. Mr Galloway himself lost in Rochdale, which he had represented since February.

Galloway-backed independent candidate Ajmal Masroor, a cleric and television presenter, was Ms Ali’s main rival. He spoke at mosques and campaigned outside schools, presenting the election as a spiritual matter, campaigners said.

Mr. Masroor’s posters were visible to National arranged at a local mosque. The strategy seemed to work, as Mr. Masroor won 30 percent of the vote, dwarfed by Ms. Ali’s 34 percent.

Sheikh Zahir Mahmood, one of The Muslim Vote’s supporters, questioned the loyalty of local MPs as he urged his Oldham congregation to vote with Gaza days before the election. “We have Muslim MPs who can’t even ask for a ceasefire. (Their) allegiance is greater to their party than to the ummah,” he said in a video shared online by the Islamist news site.

Future generations

The campaign also targeted first-time Muslim Labour Party candidates who often endorsed a non-Muslim candidate in their name.

Labour candidate Heather Iqbal, a former shadow policy adviser to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, lost the Dewsbury and Batley constituency by almost 7,000 votes to independent candidate Iqbal Mohamed, who was supported by The Muslim Vote.

In Barking, Green Party candidate Simon Antony was backed over Labour candidate Nesil Caliskan, a former leader of Enfield Council who is of Turkish Muslim descent.

In Sheffield, Green candidate Angela Argenzio was backed over Labour candidate Abtisam Mohamed, a Yemeni-born lawyer with strong ties to the city’s Arabic-speaking and Muslim communities.

Dirty tricks

Muslim Labour candidates and their supporters have also been targeted by online disinformation about their faith.

Labour MP Mohammad Maroof said the level of online harassment left him fearing for his safety. An image showing him with a group of activists was altered to replace Labour posters with the Israeli flag.

“It’s damaging to the cohesion of the community. I’m very concerned about this type of behaviour. This is my community, this is my home. I’ve never felt threatened, now I’m very concerned about my safety,” he said National.

One video shows Ms Shah being harassed by a local protester during the agitation, who promises to “follow her” and describes her as a “dirty Zionist”.

· An online video of Ms Ali at an event with Bengali community supporters described them as “traitors”.

A photo of Ms Mohamed meeting with mosque community leaders was captioned “a vote for Labour is a vote for genocide” and circulated online by unknown activists.

There is no indication that The Muslim Vote was involved in these specific attacks on candidates, nor has the organization commented on how it supported independent candidates.

Updated: 05 Jul 2024, 15:19