It is properly organised. It seems to have a conflict chest brimming with money. And a few of the political slogans being utilized by the candidates it’s endorsing are deeply disturbing.
The Muslim Vote (TMV) is a political marketing campaign group that claims to characterize Britain’s 4 million-strong Muslim group. And it’s planning to help scores of candidates on the subsequent Election, posing a severe menace to Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer, who’s already embroiled in a disaster over anti-Semitic feedback made by members of his social gathering.
The catalyst for the marketing campaign group’s launch in December was Starmer ordering his MPs to not help a parliamentary movement the month earlier than from the SNP, which referred to as for an ‘speedy’ ceasefire in Gaza. Last week’s debacle within the Commons over an identical vote, once more tabled by the SNP, might solely have bolstered the group’s mission.
The charged emotions contained in the Commons final week had been matched by the zeal of pro-Palestinian protesters exterior, a few of whom projected the offensive battle cry ‘From the river to the ocean’ on to the Elizabeth Tower. To see these phrases, 300ft excessive, beneath Big Ben will need to have heartened TMV’s backers.
Not least its chief and pro-Palestinian activist Muhammad Jalal, who The Mail On Sunday revealed two weeks in the past led the now banned terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir between 2000 and 2007 underneath his actual title Jalaluddin Patel. He has been poring over the dimensions of Labour majorities in particular person seats the place these with small leads will fear for his or her futures if the Muslim vote of their constituencies is swung in opposition to them.
Leanne Mohamad addresses the gang at a pro-Palestine protest exterior the Israeli Embassy
Patel, who says his position with TMV has solely been to gather information and says he’s not a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has tweeted that his marketing campaign will goal 55 MPs on the subsequent election. The group plans to assist put up candidates in these constituencies the place MPs voted in opposition to or abstained on a direct ceasefire movement.
High upon Patel’s listing of targets is Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, who’s seen as a future social gathering chief. A TMV-endorsed unbiased candidate and pro-Palestinian activist, Leanne Mohamad, is standing in opposition to him in his Ilford North constituency.
Streeting is weak, too – he received his seat, which has a 27 per cent Muslim citizens, with solely a small majority of 5,218 in 2019.
In the constituency, a poster taped to a bus cease reveals a field on a poll paper, sloganed with the phrase ‘Vote for genocide, vote Labour’. It was positioned reverse a Jewish bakery. The picture has been reposted on social media by supporters of the TMV marketing campaign.
Mohamad is prone to faucet into anti-Israeli sentiment amongst lots of Streeting’s constituents. Like different independents, she has used lurid language to assault her rival.
‘Every Western politician who greenlighted these conflict crimes has the blood of over 3,000 Palestinian kids on their palms,’ she mentioned.
She has addressed pro-Palestinian marches in Central London and spoke on the first worldwide convention of the Peace & Justice Project, based by former Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn, final November. She was put ahead by an outfit referred to as the Redbridge Community Action Group, which describes itself as a ‘grassroots organisation belonging to Ilford North that got here collectively after we witnessed the grotesque genocide in Gaza’.
And, tellingly, an internet occasion with the Redbridge group was hosted by TMV.
Many extra Labour MPs face related challenges. In Shadow Business Minister Rushanara Ali’s Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, the lawyer for ISIS bride Shamima Begum – who, on Friday misplaced her attraction in opposition to the elimination of her British citizenship by the Home Office – is standing in opposition to her.
‘I’m going face to face with Rushanara Ali and the Labour Party conflict machine,’ declared Mohammed Akunjee. ‘Her refusal to vote for a ceasefire is a betrayal of her humanitarian sentiment.’
The warning to Starmer from TMV couldn’t be clearer: ‘We are usually not only a motion of discuss.
‘We imply enterprise. For the primary time, the Muslim group has united and is appearing as one on the poll field.
‘We’ve come properly ready. We will not tolerate being taken with no consideration. We are a robust, united pressure of 4 million appearing in unison. We are targeted on seats the place the Muslim vote can affect the result. We are right here for the long run.
‘In 2024, we’ll lay the foundations for our group’s political future. The upcoming elections within the UK sign a shift. Muslim points on the forefront.’
In a rallying cry earlier this month, TMV added: ‘Labour are apprehensive about their damned polling numbers… We are watching the casualty numbers. We is not going to help those that have did not again a ceasefire. Muslims agree that the present political class doesn’t characterize us.’
So who’s behind this group plotting to deliver down so many senior Labour MPs? A coalition of Muslim businessmen, financiers and strain teams – a few of that are listed on the TMV web site, though the precise nature of help, whether or not monetary, skilled or in any other case, just isn’t spelt out.
Among these supporters is the Muslim Association of Britain, an organisation whose present director Dr Anas Altikriti is on document as supporting Hamas. When requested concerning the terror group seizing hostages on October 7, he replied: ‘The taking of hostages is an important a part of any strategic form of army motion or act of resistance.’ He additionally denied Hamas engaged in ‘mass slaughter’ and rape on October 7, saying: ‘It’s an Israeli lie.’
Another backer is Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), which final month opposed Parliament’s determination to outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir – an Islamist motion looking for to unite Muslims underneath one Islamic caliphate – as a terrorist organisation.
The group, which as we have revealed was as soon as run by the supposed chief of TMV, praised the October 7 bloodbath, describing Hamas as ‘heroes’ on its web site, and urged Muslim international locations: ‘Get your armies and go and take away the Zionist occupiers.’
Despite this, MEND mentioned in a press release that it ‘condemns the Home Office proposals to proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organisation as an anti-democratic transfer’. In his overview final 12 months of the Government’s Prevent technique for countering non-violent extremism, the previous chairman of the Charity Commission, William Shawcross, wrote: ‘MEND has a historical past of partnering with actors of extremism concern.’ For instance, MEND’s former Director of Engagement, Azad Ali, misplaced a libel case on the High Court in 2010 in opposition to the Daily Mail, which had described him as a ‘hardline Islamic extremist who helps the killing of British and American troopers in Iraq’.
In response, MEND mentioned that the authorized motion happened earlier than Ali joined their organisation. But the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman doubled down on the criticism. Speaking within the Commons final 12 months, she mentioned: ‘Let us be clear… Muslim Engagement and Development is an anti-Prevent group, with a historical past of partnering with actors of extremist concern.
‘Prevent has been routinely smeared by such teams as a car for spying on Muslims. They have slandered those that work with Prevent to fight Islamist extremism as disloyal, sinful or native informants — derogatory phrases which might be solely unacceptable in our free and liberal society.
Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags throughout a protest in Parliament Square in London
‘We should fight these pernicious fallacies.’
Another signed-up supporter of TMV is Islamic Finance Guru, run by brothers Ibrahim and Mohsin Khan, each of them solicitors. They have drawn up round 3,000 wills to assist folks go away cash to various Muslim charities. Among these charities is Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), which was based within the UK in 1984. ‘Here at Islamic Relief, we have completed all of the onerous give you the results you want,’ says its web site. ‘We’ve teamed up with Islamic Finance Guru (IFG) and their staff of skilled solicitors to give you a easy resolution for creating your Islamic will. You can entry a free will-writing service which is absolutely compliant with Islamic regulation and home regulation – and it simply takes 20 minutes to finish.’
In June 2014, Israel banned IRW from working within the West Bank. Moshe Ya’alon, then Israel’s defence minister, mentioned: ‘The IRW is among the sources of Hamas’s funding and a method for elevating funds from varied international locations on this planet. We don’t intend to permit it to operate and abet terrorist exercise in opposition to Israel.’ The allegations had been denied by the charity. ‘There isn’t any credible proof that we now have seen, and we now have acquired to problem it,’ Naser Haghamed, IRW’s chief government mentioned in 2020.
Another supporter of TMV is the equally named organisation, The Muslim Vibe – a media platform, internet hosting podcasts, information and movies by Muslim contributors.
One essay, printed final month, was replete with claims of ethnic cleaning of the Palestinians by the Israelis. ‘This is the ideology that the Nazis had adopted. The thought of a ‘superior race’ attributable to which they noticed the Jews as ‘animals’.
‘We can join such ideas to what we see right this moment simply. In right this moment’s world, somebody like Netanyahu [Israel’s Prime Minister] doesn’t see Palestinians as individuals who should reside of their land peacefully. Many Israeli brokers have described explicitly that their goal is to deprive the Arabs of fundamental requirements, like water, meals and medication.’
TMV, which didn’t reply to requests for remark, flags up constituencies the place there’s not less than a ten per cent Muslim vote.
‘We will assist you to decide whether or not your native space ought to put up an unbiased. We will share with you a step-by-step information to organising a neighborhood marketing campaign. We have 1000’s of volunteers prepared that will help you. From knocking on doorways to crafting political supplies. We have a number of professional bono authorized organisations prepared that will help you navigate the authorized points that inevitably come your means. We will work with you to safe the funding you want in your native campaigns.’
Palestine flags have been put up in Ilford, the place Labour’s Wes Streeting is about to face competitors from TMV-endorsed unbiased candidate Leanne Mohamad
Their efforts will assist the marketing campaign in opposition to Labour’s most senior elected Muslim, Shabana Mahmood, the Shadow Justice Secretary, in Birmingham Ladywood. In November’s vote on Gaza she abstained.
Akhmed Yakoob, a lawyer, who has been chosen as an unbiased candidate, was launched because the ‘subsequent MP for Ladywood’ when he spoke alongside Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestine rally final month in Birmingham attended by greater than 5,000 folks.
He has 112,000 followers on Instagram and 165,000 on TikTook, the place he says: ‘Shabana Mahmood abstained from voting for a ceasefire, she selected to take a seat on the fence whereas 4,000 infants had been killed.’
The independents are pushing at an open door. The Labour Muslim Network (LMN) commissioned a ballot by Survation that confirmed if there was an Election tomorrow, 43 per cent of Muslims would vote Labour, dramatically down from that 86 per cent achieved on the final Election.
The LMN mentioned Labour’s strategy to the conflict was ‘deeply offensive’ to British Muslims. ‘The Labour management should change paths now or threat dropping the help of the Muslim group for a era.’
The social gathering faces a troublesome week forward as Thursday’s Rochdale by-election nears. Starmer was compelled to withdraw backing for its candidate Azhar Ali, who was uncovered by The Mail On Sunday and the Daily Mail making revolting anti-Semitic slurs at a gathering in Lancashire. A second parliamentary candidate, Graham Jones, was suspended after it emerged that he, too, had made anti-Semitic feedback.
The bookies’ favorite in Rochdale is now far-Left firebrand George Galloway whose marketing campaign banners function the flag of Palestine. Whoever wins, the by-election will shine an uncomfortable mild on Labour’s divisions over Gaza. But as Starmer tries to reconcile the conflicting views amongst his MPs on a direct ceasefire in Gaza, he’ll quickly discover difficulties a lot nearer to residence.
The TMV is in superior talks about placing up a candidate to oppose the Labour chief in his very personal Holborn and St Pancras constituency.