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If you have been requested which was the sixth largest political party within the UK, larger and extra profitable than the Green Party or Plaid Cymru, equal to the DUP and Reform, through which path would your guess take you?
Plaid Cymru need better illustration for the Welsh in our shared Parliament, the Green Party need these islands cleaner and greener. The DUP are pursuing a specific political balancing act in Northern Ireland and Reform need to mend Conservatism all through these islands.
But the 5 impartial pro-Gaza MPs who have been elected stood on a platform which demanded assist for a genocidal wrestle to take away the Jewish folks from their historic homeland, and make sure the victory of the Palestinians typically and the terrorist group Hamas specifically.
What has this goal received to do with British home politics? Nothing. What has it received to do with the physique politic in these islands? Very little. Instead it’s the importing of a 1,500-year feud between the followers of Muhammad and the Jewish group who refused to simply accept his claims to be a respectable prophet talking on behalf of their God.
The dominant perspective behind an immigration coverage that has pushed the big improve within the follow of Islam in these islands has been a dogmatic multiculturalism pushed laborious by the Left.
The assumption was at all times that Islam would combine with Western secular society – an train in wishful considering produced by a sure combination of hubris, ignorance and myopia that each underestimates and misunderstands what Islam is, and what it asks of its followers.
There was at all times going to be a second when Islam broke the floor of the political pond and emerged in its personal proper. Until this election, it largely hid behind Labour as a component in its assist base.
The most up-to-date catalyst that produced the indicators that Islam was going to emerge as a political entity in its personal proper was after all the slaughter by Hamas of over a thousand Israeli civilians on October 7, 2024. Muslims reacted with fury when Israel defended herself by pursuing Hamas in Gaza.
A regional battle rooted within the Middle East discovered itself replicated and inserted into each group within the West the place Muslims have been to be present in important numbers.
Initially what was described as sectarian violence spilled out onto the streets within the type of monumental demonstrations for Palestine and in opposition to Israel in a manner that was fuelled by a extremely refined marketing campaign of Palestinian propaganda which introduced Muslims because the wounded, susceptible victims of firstly Jews, after which secondly anybody who refused to affix within the marketing campaign to crush Israel specifically and Jews typically wherever they could be discovered.
There have been grotesque moments corresponding to when Muslim mobs in Russia’s largely Muslim area of Dagestan stormed the airport in Makhachkala in quest of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel.
The outbreak of poisonous antisemitism inside the Labour party introduced the Labour Party with an issue it couldn’t discover a answer to. The Labor motion discovered itself caught between two sufferer narratives and would inevitably fall brief within the face of Islamic requires Jewish genocide.
Frustrated with what from an Islamic viewpoint was the inadequacy of the Labour management’s response, the fury in opposition to Israel broke via formally into political sectarianism on the General Election this month when Islamic independents stood in opposition to Labour candidates in a trial of power.
Labour misplaced 4 seats outright to pro-Palestinian impartial candidates in constituencies with a big Muslim presence. In Blackburn, the constituency as soon as held by former dwelling secretary Jack Straw, Labour’s Kate Hollern misplaced by 132 votes to the impartial Adnan Hussain.
In Dewsbury and Batley, Heather Iqbal, a former adviser to the brand new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, misplaced by practically 7,000 votes to Iqbal Mohamed.
In Birmingham Perry Barr, the previous Labour MP Khalid Mahmood misplaced to the impartial Ayoub Khan.
In Birmingham Hodge Hill, the previous cupboard minister Liam Byrne gained by simply over 1,500 votes over James Giles, the candidate for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain.
Shadow cupboard minister Jonathan Ashworth was one of many 4 to lose his seat for Leicester South, an space the place 35% of the inhabitants determine as Muslim. His seat was captured by an impartial candidate Shockat Adam, operating on a pro-Palestinian ticket, who gained by 979 votes.
Celebrating his win, he claimed that his victory was a sign to those that had been in energy so lengthy that they’d forgotten the folks they have been serving.
“This is for the folks of Gaza,” he claimed. This represented a radical new reconfiguration of British politics. Suddenly the folks to be served have been a conflation of native Muslims and the very a lot non-local folks of Gaza.
It is obvious now that the 4 seats that Labour misplaced to pro-Palestinian independents are simply the newest, and most dramatic, expression of Muslim political energy, rising in proportion with the general Muslim inhabitants.
The realisation that the mayors of London, Oldham, Luton, Oxford, and Blackburn are all Muslims offers a stark reminder of the unfold of the affect of Islam on native politics in addition to the nationwide platform that has been secured.
Muslims at the moment are ready in these areas the place they represent greater than a 3rd of the inhabitants — they needn’t be a majority, for Muslims vote as a bloc — to elect those that will demand that the federal government undertake anti-Israel insurance policies.
Shaista Aziz, a former Labour councillor commented in an article she wrote for Al Jazeera: “The pro-Palestine left made a big influence on this election. But the struggle is way from over. Now that the Tories are out, and Labour is in energy, this non-homogenous group must unite additional, and develop new methods to stress the brand new authorities to take significant motion on points that matter to them, beginning with the struggle in Gaza.”
This is a rallying cry to the brand new Islamic MPs at Westminster to make use of the democratic equipment of the UK authorities to pursue Islamic agendas.
I keep in mind the profound shock and shock I felt when a extremely revered educational colleague informed me that the overt goal of the Muslim group within the UK was to make the most of the mixed elements of mass immigration, the next start charge, and an Islamic block vote in elections to make sure that the mix of demography and democracy would reshape British politics to mirror Islamic political, non secular and cultural ambitions over the approaching many years of this century.
The subsequent most vital risk that we face in our society is the federal government adopting a harsh and restrictive definition of Islamophobia, which it intends to legislate in opposition to. This will make it successfully unimaginable to debate Islam in public.
It’s simply attainable that Jess Phillips – having practically misplaced her seat in Birmingham and skilled aggressive heckling at her acceptance speech after struggling profoundly disturbing ranges of intimidation and aggression throughout her marketing campaign – could change her thoughts about Labour coverage on Islamophobia.
We face two issues. Firstly, the rising energy and affect of Islamic sectarianism, however making it a lot worse, the shortcoming to make use of the ‘I-‘ phrase in any public dialogue.
Murders are described as ‘terror’ with no point out that they have been accomplished within the title of Islam. The importation of Palestinian rage in opposition to Israel is roofed up with ‘sectarian politics’ as a substitute of Islamic antisemitism. And, if the Government’s plans to criminalise Islamophobia are carried via, self-censorship will turn into state censorship.
Knowing how to reply to this alteration in our political, social and non secular panorama goes to be laborious sufficient as it’s. Being fined or despatched to jail for speaking about it would make issues infinitely worse. Jess Phillips, over to you.
