SARAH VINE: Allahu Akbar-yelling Green embodies sectarianism’s return

When Hamas terrorists gleefully recorded themselves kidnapping, raping and killing Israeli civilians on October 7 2023, their actions were accompanied by unmistakeable cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’ 

The same is true of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and of Islamic extremists the world over. 

The phrase, meaning God is great, has become, I’m afraid, their battle cry.

So when Mothin Ali, the newly elected Leeds City councillor for the Green Party, who celebrated his win with the same victory cry, claims that criticism of his behaviour amounts to ‘Islamophobia’, he is being more than a little disingenuous.

Yes, to many Muslims it is simply an exclamation of religious fervour, but he must know full well what associations those words also have for survivors and families of the victims of Islamist atrocities, for Jews in Britain — and for all of us who fear the rise of religious extremism. They are, as the young people say, a bit of a trigger.

It is clear from even a cursory glance at his social media that Ali is not a fan of Israel. Nothing wrong with that — he should be free to express his views, and even Israel’s staunchest supporters would not deny that Benjamin Netanyahu has some tough questions to answer.

But Mr Ali seems to have confused his right to free speech with a right to abuse and intimidate.

Shortly after the October 7 attacks, he posted a video to TikTok suggesting that the terrorists were justified. And earlier this year, he was instrumental in forcing a rabbi and his family into hiding after targeting him with a string of slurs, calling Leeds University’s Jewish chaplain, Zecharia Deutsch, a ‘creep’, a ‘low-life’ and an ‘animal’.

As reported by this newspaper’s Guy Adams, Ali falsely claimed that Deutsch had tried to kill women and children in Gaza, prompting an avalanche of antisemitic abuse directed at Mr Deutsch and his family.

Deutsch’s home was targeted with hateful late-night phone calls; his wife Nava was threatened with rape and their children with torture – and Ali called for Deutsch to lose his job for ‘massacring people’ and being a ‘far-Right radical’.

So Mr Ali may be many things, but he is certainly not, as he claims, a victim. His Islamic faith should be respected, like all faiths. But it is not, and never should be, something to hide behind in the abuse of others.

Besides, Mr Ali is a politician now. He holds public office. He should expect to be scrutinised and held to account for his actions. That is, I’m afraid, just the name of the game.

But perhaps more worrying than Mr Ali himself is what he represents. Which is the rise of a movement not seen in Britain since the darkest days of the Troubles: the return of sectarianism in politics. It is a deeply disturbing prospect.

Mr Ali is just one of a number now elected on religious platforms, openly hostile to Israel and promoting, in some cases, narrow beliefs and values that run counter to the secular liberalism on which this country is built. 

Where once these narrow-minded absolutists inhabited the fringes of our political landscape, now they are beginning to enter the mainstream. And what is most worrying of all is that those who are in a position to resist them, or at the very least to mitigate their influence, seem blind to the threat.

Take the co-leader of the Green Party Carla Denyer, for example, under whose auspices Ali was elected. When asked about his views in a TV interview, she seemed utterly oblivious to them, saying only that she was ‘not familiar with all of the details’ and didn’t have ‘the full facts at hand.

That is simply not good enough. I know many people, especially idealistic young adults, who voted Green in these local elections. Surely, they have a right to know if members of their chosen party support the actions of terrorists?

But by far the most important figure in mainstream British politics with serious questions to answer is the man likely to be our next Prime Minister: Sir Keir Starmer

As someone married to a Jewish woman, whose own home was recently targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters in a shameful and frightening act of intrusion, he will understand more than most the issues at stake here. And yet, so far, he has failed to take a firm stand.

In particular, he has not yet responded to an extraordinary list of 18 demands made by a pressure group called the Muslim Vote in exchange for support at the General Election.

Among other things, they want him to apologise for failing to back a ceasefire last autumn, impose sanctions on Israeli politicians and cut military ties with the country.

In addition, they require that ‘Sharia-compliant’ pensions (funds that invest in companies that comply with Islamic finance principles) be made available in every workplace, that all schools and educational establishments should allow Muslim prayer on the premises, that the definition of Islamophobia should be redefined (so as to effectively make it a hate crime to contest the views of someone like Ali).

It’s vitally important that Starmer now addresses these demands. Many of these requests have serious ramifications for freedom of expression in this country, and many of them — such as, for example, the demand to allow Muslim prayer in all schools — run counter to the notion of Britain as a broadly secular nation with moderate Christian undertones.

As voters, we need to know what his response is. Especially since it amounts to naked political blackmail. Give us what we want, Sir Keir, or else. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work, and it’s certainly not how most Britons — of all faiths — want it to work.

The problem for Starmer is that he doesn’t exactly have the best record when it comes to resisting the demands of dangerous pressure groups.

The Labour leader has only just about admitted that men don’t have cervixes (I’ve lost track of where he is on women with penises). And that’s only really because of resounding public support for the findings of the Cass report. But let’s not forget that it was in large part thanks to the moral cowardice of people like him that extreme trans ideology gained such momentum in this country — with devastating consequences, as set out by Cass.

It was in trying to please that vocal minority that Starmer and others became complicit in the harms committed against young people in the pursuit of the trans political agenda.

If he doesn’t push back robustly against the demands of Muslim Vote and the likes of Mr Ali in Leeds, Starmer risks making the same mistake again – and not only tacitly condoning the vilification of Jews and anyone who opposes this kind of sectarian, divisive politics but also alienating the vast majority of voters who do not want their democracy defined by religion or decided by a conflict thousands of miles away.

Under a Labour government, will Sharia compliant pensions be law? Will it be compulsory for schools to allow Muslim prayers? Will Britain cut ties with Israel (and by extension its other allies)? We need to know, Sir Keir.

Because the danger is that if he does acquiesce to these demands in return for votes, it will not stop there. There are plenty of Islamic clerics and supporters in the UK who have made their position clear, in public and without equivocation: it is their mission to establish a Caliphate in Britain.

And you only have to look as far as Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sudan to see that these people mean business.

Object, and you will be branded as Islamophobic. It’s a simple ruse, but boy does it work. It worked in Rochdale, with the grooming gangs, it’s worked on these pro-Palestine marches, where the police and the authorities have been too scared of upsetting people’s ‘cultural sensibilities’ to shut down openly antisemitic sentiment and where they would rather cover up Jewish monuments than ensure their protection.

Our cultural ambivalence, our very open-mindedness is seen as our weakness, and it will be exploited. High-minded liberalism is no match for determined sectarianism.

You only need a few useful idiots in key positions (see The Greens and that woman clapping along like a trained seal behind Ali in his victory video), people too scared — or too politically correct — to speak the truth of what’s going on for fear of retribution, and before you know it you’re in a situation where a man risks arrest for being ‘openly Jewish’.

And the rest, as they say, is history.