Starmer must stand against Musk and Islamophobia, Labour Muslims urge
January 9, 2025 2025-01-18 21:50Starmer must stand against Musk and Islamophobia, Labour Muslims urge

Starmer must stand against Musk and Islamophobia, Labour Muslims urge
The Labour Party must show ‘courage’ in the fight against racism, Muslim members argue
Sir Keir Starmer has been urged by figures in his own party to tackle “head on” those pushing “Islamophobic talking points” in the debate on grooming gangs despite Labour fears of losing votes to Reform.
Writing exclusively for The i Paper, the leaders of the Labour Muslim Network, have urged the Prime Minister to show the “courage” to call out attacks such as Robert Jenrick’s call for a crackdown on immigration from countries with “alien cultures” and “medieval attitudes”.
They also sounded the alarm that the “poisoned discourse” would only get worse after Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to remove content controls from his social media platforms to make it more like the X platform owned by Donald Trump ally Elon Musk, who has revived the debate on grooming gangs in the UK in recent days.

The PM may take particular note of the intervention from Labour Muslims after his party’s performance in July’s general election suffered over its stance on Gaza.
Starmer on Wednesday again rejected calls from Conservatives, Reform and tech billionaire Musk to launch a national inquiry on grooming gangs of mainly South Asian heritage.
He also warned Tory leader Kemi Badenoch against the “lies and misinformation and slinging of mud” in the debate on grooming gangs and suggested he had “jumped on the bandwagon” with her calls for an inquiry.
Earlier this week, Starmer said Badenoch’s party was “amplifying what the far-right is saying” on grooming while failing in government to act on the landmark 2022 Alexis Jay report on child sex abuse.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch however accused Starmer of “enabling those people who wish to smear all British Muslims based on the actions of a small minority” by refusing an inquiry.
She also suggested Labour politicians may be “complicit” in “one of the worst scandals in British history”, which has blown up since X boss Musk launched a barrage of attacks on Starmer and Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips on the issue, and voiced support for jailed far-right agitator Tommy Robinson.
But Labour Muslim Network chair author Ali Milani and vice-chair Samayya Afzal, said they had seen evidence of politicians using the row to employ political strategies “predicated on demonising Muslim communities, attacking Islam and targeting (mostly Muslim) migrants who come to this country in search of safety and asylum”.
They wrote: “Muslims have had to contend with being called ‘alien’, ‘backward’, ‘medieval’, ‘barbaric’, ‘extreme’ and so much more. We recognise those classic Islamophobic tropes that suggest Muslims have an inherent problem with women, that Muslims demean women, and that Muslims bring with them ‘medieval’ cultures to infect Britain. None of it is true. We know that. The reality is Musk, Jenrick and all their friends and colleagues know it too.”
Milani and Afzal urged Starmer to ensure that fears over losing votes to Reform does not temper Labour’s response to the claims.

They said: “We know many are fearful of (Nigel) Farage and the rise of Reform. We have heard it from Labour figures across the party.But the answer is not to cower to them or allow them to define the narrative of Britain’s past or future. That is not only a recipe for division and further hate, but also of political suicide. You cannot out-Farage, Farage. The answer is to challenge them head on. If they want to divide our communities, we will unite them. If they want to attack migrants and refugees, we will defend them. If they want to embrace the likes of Elon Musk, we will stand in their way. Do we have the courage to do that?”
Reform leader Nigel Farage has fallen out with Elon Musk after he said there was no place for Tommy Robinson in his party, following Musk’s support for the right-wing agitator, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
After the comment Musk tweeted that Farage should be replaced as Reform leader as he did not “have what it takes”.
Source: The i Paper