Newham Mosques Unite to Condemn Labour-East London MPs Under Pressure

Some 19 mosques and Islamic centres have combined to demand that Newham councillors back calls for Keir Starmer to resign.

In an unprecedented show of solidarity with their co-religionists in Gaza, Muslims have protested in a manner which they chose not to do for suffering Muslims in Chechnya, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan or the Western Sahara.

Mass protests and ‘pray-ins’ on Whitehall have been joined by school strikes and smaller protests targeted at particular MPs.

Unfortunately, we missed the part where the Muslim community in Britain intervened to protest the murder of Jews (and Muslims, and Buddhists) in Southern Israel (by Muslims), or animists in Darfur (by Muslims), or the murder of Christians in Southern Sudan (by Muslims), or the abduction and murder of Christians in Nigeria (by Muslims), or the terrorist attacks in Pakistan on Shias and Ahmadis (because they were the wrong sort of Muslims) or ditto in Afghanistan (with the Hazaras) etc etc etc.

In what is increasingly looking like a coordinated campaign (parts of?) the Muslim community in Britain are showing their strength.

On past experience, politicians have buckled to either maintain their support or for fear of the consequences. It might be that the 56 MPs who joined the SNP in the lobbies calling for a ceasefire did so because of conviction. It might also be that they found themselves under pressure in constituencies with a large Muslim population. That would suggest that pressure is working.

This time it might backfire; it might be different for the following reasons.

The humanitarian impulse towards Gaza is likely to be shared by very large numbers of the population. As we have alluded to above, the selective outrage over Gaza suggests hypocrisy and this might just turn off the 93% of the population that isn’t Muslim. Coupled with this is the increasingly overt demand for genocide against Jews, overtly from Palestinian leaders and covertly, behind innocuous sounding chants, from protesters in the west.

The clearer this becomes, the greater the distancing is likely to be between chanters and the rest of the population.

Muslim groups have been able to disproportionately influence local political bodies, locally this is nowhere clearer than in Tower Hamlets where 30% of the population organised to acquire 66% of the elected positions. Where there is an electoral critical mass and the will to use it, Muslims have shown that they can achieve power independently of the established parties. Mostly, ethno-religious groups organise within one of the main parties, usually Labour. This might change. Aspire is clearly a model in which they will not be under the ideological pressure of the SWP.

If so, Labour can expect to be under pressure in various seats, but do they really share the same aspirations as Hamas? Labour will have to choose whether short term electoral advantage is better than holding to its historic principles.

Seeing the programme of a party predicated on a single religion will give voters a chance to see what they really stand for. We might have some idea if we look at the experience of any number of states that have benefitted from Muslim hegemony. These beacons of hope and progress shine out as examples that are clearly inspirational. Yeah…

Following similar demands from mosques in Preston, Lancashire, the group of Newham mosques have called upon labour councillors to write a joint public letter, calling on Keir Starmer to resign over his stance on Gaza. The councillors have been given a deadline, which expires at 5pm on the 20th November.

An organisation that represents mosques in Redbridge released a letter calling on Wes Streeting to resign, over his stance on the Gaza ceasefire amendment. A more personal affront occurred when 300 school children walked out on his talk at a Redbridge High School as school students walked out of classes in East Ham and Tower Hamlets.

In addition, it is apparent that several other local MPs have been targeted.

Rushanara Ali in Tower Hamlets is being targeted by Aspire and their allies. Her seat must be vulnerable in the next general election.

In Stratford, Lyn Brown was specifically targeted. Placards asserting “Blood on your hands'' and “Resign” adorned a table where passersby were encouraged to sign a petition.

We still do not know whether any of Newham’s councillors will break ranks, but this must be a worrying time for them. So far as we can observe they are staying away from the Plaistow North campaign “in droves”.