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

Article by Nadeine Asbali

You would have thought that the victims of the horrific grooming gangs scandal have been through enough without being used as a political football to further the Islamophobic agenda of the far right. Yet, once again, this is what we are seeing. With grooming gangs back in the headlines, anti-Muslim sentiment is again dominating political discourse. It seems that justice for the victims – as well as preventing this from happening again – falls by the wayside when there are political points to be scored.

I’ve lost count of the number of headlines and social media posts I’ve encountered this week referring to “Muslim grooming gangs”, peddling the damaging myth that the organized child sexual exploitation occurring in countless cities across the UK in the early 2000s was somehow tightly linked to a religion peacefully followed by a billion people around the world.

Elon Musk has led this most recent wave of virulent Islamophobia, pushing disinformation on his X (Twitter) account about grooming gangs being a Muslim issue, a sign of failed multiculturalism and accusing Labour politicians like Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips of being “rape genocide apologists” and “complicit” in the “rape” of Britain.

Musk’s language is hard to ignore here. To talk about Britain itself being “raped” perpetuates this idea of violent, perverted foreigners (read: Muslims) coming to Britain and attacking native Brits. It paints all Muslims and all migrants as the enemy of Britain, ignoring the fact that Muslims like me have been part of the fabric of Britain for centuries.

When you consider Musk’s track record of peddling far-right, anti-migrant and Islamophobic narratives, like false reports claiming that the Southport attacker was Muslim last summer – which fuelled riots and widespread violence including hotels housing refugees being torched and mosques being attacked (as well as his ongoing support for the likes of Tommy Robinson who is known for his own anti-Muslim views) – it seems that this is less about securing justice for the victims of grooming and more about finding yet another way to demonize Muslims.

Of course, we have seen this misconception about grooming gangs presented as fact before. Consider when then-home secretary Suella Braverman claimed that the perpetrators of grooming in the UK are “almost all British-Pakistani men”. Yes, some of the crimes were carried out by British men of Pakistani heritage, but not “almost all” of them. In fact, a 2020 report conducted by the government concluded that most child sexual abuse gangs were made up of white men.

In fact, reports that the police were overly cautious about investigating the grooming gangs at the time due to fears of igniting community tensions or appearing racist have long been used to promote the idea that political correctness and pandering to the feelings of “foreigners” is repeatedly put before the safety of “native” Brits. Just last week, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick suggested that Britain should cap immigration for those from “alien cultures” with “medieval attitudes towards women”, pointing to the grooming scandal as evidence.

But it’s not just about the widespread, unchecked Islamophobia that is regurgitated every time grooming gangs are back in the news and its impact on everyday Muslims going about their lives. As a secondary school teacher of eight years, I have received regular training on identifying and preventing child sexual exploitation –and when you see how devastating the impact is on a young person’s life, it’s impossible not to feel as though the victims of these crimes are being let down once again.

First, they were failed by those who should have kept them safe, but now they are being failed for a second time by a system so fractured that it would rather exploit those suffering for political point-scoring than come together to stop this ever happening again. Those who are the most outspoken about this scandal are simply shouting over the voices of the victims, and jumping on the anti-Muslim bandwagon is only utilizing the trauma of vulnerable young girls to sow public discord.

Not only does this do nothing to heal the pain of those who lived through it, but it also makes meaningful change more difficult. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has spoken openly about how the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being delayed by renewed calls for a public inquiry by those on the right. Considering how the bill includes propositions like a unique identifying number for every child, something that would revolutionize how authorities work together to protect those who need it most, it is clear that this Islamophobic wave sweeping our national politics is a direct danger to the nation’s most vulnerable children.

Rather than descending into divisive rhetoric, what the nation needs at a time like this is genuine systemic change. As a teacher, I see firsthand how the fragmentation of public services lets down the most vulnerable children every day. The horrific consequence of this failing is clear, too, in the tragic Sara Sharif case, where pulling their child out of school was enough for her parents to obscure the horrendous abuse they were inflicting upon her, despite teachers reporting bruising and her family being known to social services since before her birth.

Whatever they may claim, those latching onto this scandal as an opportunity to demonize Muslims and further their problematic agenda cannot really care about the victims of this public failure. If they did, they would be calling for genuine change, for authorities that are better connected, and for a more centralized system to keep the most vulnerable safe – rather than simply pitting one disenfranchised group against another.

Source: The Independent

Omar Suleiman has called on Elon Musk to stop blowing political “dog whistles of Islamophobia” and invited the world’s richest man for a conversation if Musk is unintentionally spreading anti-Muslim narrative on his social media platform.

Suleiman, a globally renowned imam, theologian, human rights activist and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, on Tuesday charged Musk of sharing “dangerous” and “dishonest” tweets about Islam.

“When one of your Teslas kills someone while self-driving or explodes on fire and the media charges your vehicles as unsafe, you point out sampling bias, share all kinds of statistics, and allege that the media is either accidentally or deliberately misrepresenting statistics to promote a vindictive agenda,” Suleiman wrote on his X handle, tagging Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX space tech firm and Tesla automotive company.

“Yet, for the past week, you have blown every conceivable dog whistle of Islamophobia, by highlighting a select group of (horrifying) incidents supposedly in the name of Islam. Your barrage of tweets aimed at Islam have been as dangerous as they are dishonest about a faith practiced by over 2 billion people.”

Suleiman expressed readiness to engage with Musk if the latter “genuinely” wants a clarification.

“If you don’t know you are doing this and genuinely want clarification, I and many others easily accessible to you are willing to have a conversation. If this is a deliberate smear campaign, then you are indeed every bit the hypocrite you once condemned,” Suleiman wrote.

Musk ignores white British men

Musk, who is set to serve Donald Trump’s new administration as an outside adviser, has waded into UK’s political affairs.

He has sparked a massive row about gangs of men who groomed and raped girls in England over several decades, focusing on the Muslim and Pakistani heritage of some of those involved in the crimes while ignoring the majority of white British who had been involved in those crimes.

The cases have been used by far-right politicians to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse opponents of cover-ups.

The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demanded UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer be imprisoned.

On Monday he posted an online poll for millions of his followers on the suggestion: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”

Musk’s allegations are in contrast to the studies of England, Scotland and Wales conducted by the previous UK government that have already dispelled the myth of “Asian grooming gangs” popularized by the British far-right and others.

According to research sponsored by the British Home Office in 2020, the majority of child sexual abuse gangs are made up of white men under the age of 30.

“There is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented,” the research added.

At the time, Nazir Afzal, the ex-chief crown prosecutor in North West England, who brought prosecutions over the Rochdale grooming gangs, welcomed the report.

“It confirms that white men remain the most common offenders, which is something rarely mentioned by right-wing commentators,” he had said.

In February 2024, the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse think tank analyzed ethnicity data from defendants and found that despite making up 9 percent of the population, men of Asian descent, in general, were involved in 7 percent of the cases of child sexual abuse, whereas white men, who make up 83 percent of the population, were involved in 88 percent of such cases.

Source: TRT World

Last week, as far-right thugs targeted Muslims primarily, the former Conservative immigration minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News that saying “Allahu Akbar” —“God is greater”— in public should be an arrestable offence. This is a solemn phrase millions of British Muslims use daily.

Jenrick’s Islamophobia received no pushback from the interviewer, no response from his party leader, and led to no apology: a stark reflection of how Islamophobia has become acceptable, not just on the far right, but also in mainstream media and politics.

What makes it even worse is the context of his comments.

In Southport, a mob hurled bricks at a mosque, causing one worshipper, trapped along with the imam, to think he might die. Others attempted to set fire to a hotel in Rotherham used to house asylum seekers. Far-right thugs stopped cars in Middlesbrough to check if their drivers were white before letting them pass. A “large group of men” beat up a black man in Manchester, and a Muslim man was stabbed at a train station in Liverpool. In Hull, violent far-right rioters dragged an Asian man out of his car, while racially abusing him by repeatedly yelling “P**i”. Others shouted “fuck Muslims” in a “demonstration”, children were found screaming “who the fuck is Allah?” and other children joined their parents shouting “P***s out”. And some attacked an Islamic book stall in Liverpool, whilst others vandalized Muslim graves in Burnley.

There was a similar story online. According to researcher Marc Owen Jones, on X,65 per cent of impressions earned by posts about Muslims between 28th July and 9th August (155m impressions) were anti-Muslim or anti-migrant.

The appalling scale of the far-right thuggery led to a palpable and justifiable fear among Muslims and minority communities across the country. Even Humza Yousaf, former first minister of Scotland, shared that the riots made him question whether he and his family would remain in the UK. And the mayor of London Sadiq Khan shared that he did not feel safe as a Muslim politician in the wake of the riots.

In this environment, Jenrick felt confident in pushing out his hate and divisiveness. He was not alone. Elon Musk shared—and then deleted—a false post from the co-leader of the far-right Britain First party about the UK building “detainment camps” for rioters, and proclaimed that civil war in the UK was “inevitable”; Matthew Goodwin seemed to suggest that a “son of immigrants” is not really British; and Nigel Farage called “some of the actions” of far-right rioters “truly disgusting”—but also appeared to excuse rioters, saying it was “a reaction to fear, to discomfort, to unease that is out there shared by tens of millions of people.”

Certain news outlets followed suit. The Daily Telegraph headlined its front page “Far-right clash with Muslims in rioting”, and ran a host of frankly embarrassing and repulsive articles; and GB News consistently seems to be trying to make excuses for the far right.

You might argue that they are targeting the 34 per cent of Conservative party voters and 63 per cent of Reform voters who blamed Muslims for the riots.

Perhaps. But I think it goes deeper.

Too many people in positions of power have, for too long, denied Islamophobia, or outright encouraged it.

Let us not forget the rampant Islamophobia in the Conservative party: from Boris Johnson comparing Muslim women to “letterboxes”, which led to a 375 per cent rise in hate crime against Muslim women, to former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and current MP Bob Blackman retweeting Tommy Robinson.

Let us not forget the negative coverage of Muslims in the UK media, in which stereotypical tropes about them are regularly propagated. The editor of the Daily Express even admitted that the paper helped create “Islamophobic sentiment”. Research by the UNHCR found the Daily Mail and the Sun showed a hostility towards migrants that was “unique” among the newspapers they sampled.

There is a reason why approximately a third of the UK population endorse casual prejudices such as “Islam is a religion of violence” or “Muslims will never be as British as other British people”.

While we have seen fantastic examples of community, solidarity and allyship against racism, even belatedly from some of its worst perpetrators, we cannot get away from the fact that far-right Islamophobia has gained a public foothold.

And removing this foothold is not straightforward. It requires a reflection on the power dynamics and drivers of Islamophobia (and other forms of bigotry) in our society. There are some community-based and education-centric solutions, but there also needs to be a concerted effort to tackle it both from the very top, where influence sits.

In practice, this means (finally) appointing an Islamophobia adviser with support from Muslim communities to focus on the issue; adopting the APPG definition of Islamophobia—that it is “rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”—as part of a broader effort to embed an understanding of this kind of racism in society; and implementing measures  requiring social media giants to refer breaches of the law to local police, as well as to monitor and penalize clear cases of incitement to racial or religious hatred.

It’s time to turn words into action, and to ensure that Islamophobia is challenged. The question is, do we have the will to do it?

Source: Prospect Magazine

London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner threatened to charge foreigners amid the UK’s ongoing far-right, anti-Muslim protests for “whipping up hatred” online, stating billionaire and X owner Elon Musk could face potential prosecution.

“We will throw the full force of the law at people. And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you,” Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told Sky News on Friday, August 9.

The Commissioner added that “Being a keyboard warrior does not make you safe from the law,” naming “the likes of Elon Musk” as potential investigation targets when asked about charging people on social media residing outside the UK.

More than 700 people have been arrested as of August 9, with over 300 charged for their suspected participation in the anti-Muslim riots, and over 30 have been indicted with online crimes. These offenses consist of sharing footage of the ongoing violent riots, or posting content that the Crown Prosecutorial Service describes as inciting “violence or hatred.”

Musk, alongside several other critics, accused the government of restricting freedom of speech and operating a “two-tier” justice system where white British suspects are punished harsher compared to immigrants.

“Sure seems like unequal justice in the UK,” Musk said on X alongside a series of memes comparing newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer to a Nazi officer and the British government to George Orwell’s “1984” totalitarian dictatorship.

The Telegraph reported on Friday that Starmer may potentially amend the UK’s Online Safety Act to persecute social media companies that enable the spread of “legal but harmful” content.

The clause was originally intended to be passed by the former Conservative government, but it was withdrawn after receiving backlash from Business and Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch, who criticized the bill as “legislating for hurt feelings.”

Elon Musk shared a fake article falsely attributed to The Telegraph, claiming that Keir Starmer was considering sending far-right rioters to “emergency detainment camps” in the Falklands.

Musk deleted his post after about 30 minutes, but before it was removed, a screenshot captured by Politics.co.uk showed it had nearly two million views.

The post included an image shared by Ashlea Simon, co-leader of the far-right group Britain First, with the caption, “We’re all being deported to the Falklands.”

The fabricated article, styled to appear as though it was written by a senior Telegraph reporter, falsely claimed that Falklands camps would be used to detain prisoners from ongoing riots due to overcrowding in the British prison system.

The Telegraph confirmed on Thursday that it had never published the article and stated, “This is a fabricated headline for an article that does not exist. We notified relevant platforms and requested that the post be taken down.”

The newspaper said in a post on X that it was “aware of an image circulating on X which purports to be a Telegraph article about ‘emergency detainment camps’. No such article has ever been published by the Telegraph.”

Musk has not apologized for sharing the fake report but has continued to post content criticizing the UK government and law enforcement’s handling of the riots.

Source: Al Mayadeen English

British actor Laurence Fox wrote a post on X, claiming that the mayors of some of the largest towns and cities in the United Kingdom are Muslim. Fox then claimed that Muslim families receive state support, free housing, and free accommodation, and cited a stratospherically false and unrealistic unemployment rate.

He then complained, “Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?”

The Mayor of London is a Muslim.

The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim.

The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim.

Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim.

The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim.

The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim.

The mayor of Luton is a Muslim.

The mayor of Oldham is Muslim.

The mayor…

— Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) May 4, 2024

The Islamophobic tweet was later community noted with the following corrections: “Chaman Lal is Sikh and the mayor of West Midlands- Birmingham. Al Garthwaite is a white German-born Brit- mayor of Leeds. Colin Ross is a white Brit and the mayor of South Yorkshire is a white Brit – Sheffield. Mike Holly is a white Brit- mayor of Rochdale.”

Regardless that did not stop the Tesla CEO and one of the world’s richest men from endorsing the post by claiming to be shocked by Fox’s statement.

‘Let me just further endorse another bigoted, Islamophobic post.’

— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) May 5, 2024

~~ The most deranged Islamophobic post ~~

Elon Musk:
“wow” https://t.co/mCjGyZbD9i

— Waqas (@worqas) May 5, 2024

Wow what Elon?
Wow to a deranged, inaccurate post?
Wow to how many Islamopobes the West has created?
Wow to the number of views?
Wow to racists?
Another unhelpful ambiguous expression… or maybe Muslim hate is what your masters want you to peddle?

Tell us. We are curious. https://t.co/gvjNAuVoSX

— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) May 5, 2024

Others users encouraged Musk to read the community notes feature provided by his own platform.

Hi @elonmusk,@LozzaFox’s post that you commented “Wow” on has been community noted.

It was disinformation from a 2017 meme.

Source: https://t.co/JNtXGeJBdW https://t.co/UgMsEKw4uJ

— Dilly Hussain (@DillyHussain88) May 5, 2024

Community notes is an excellent feature of this platform.@elonmusk, what @LozzaFox said isn’t accurate… pic.twitter.com/agqcT66nhJ

— Gordon (@gorcampbell) May 5, 2024

Will Elon Musk now apologize and delete this point, amplifying and seemingly agreeing with a post filled with total demonstrable falsehoods about Muslims in the UK? His own Community Note system has destroyed Fox’s post.

Why amplify bigoted misinfo on your own site? Shameful. https://t.co/5ml9LJNvTM

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 5, 2024

Meanwhile, the original tweet was slammed for its misleading statistics, including the claim that the unemployment rate for Muslims in the UK was 63% when in reality it stands at 6.7%.

I don’t know where this man is getting his numbers from, but it’s complete horseshit.

The unemployment rate for Muslims in England and Wales isn’t 63%.

It’s 6.7%. https://t.co/P0wrei7nqI

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) May 5, 2024

The mayor of Birmingham IS NOT a Muslim. (Chaman Lal is Sikh and the mayor of West Midlands is a white Brit).

The mayor of Leeds IS NOT a Muslim. (Al Garthwaite is a white German born Brit).

The mayor of Sheffield IS NOT a Muslim. (Colin Ross is a white Brit and the mayor of… https://t.co/lZPI61jen1

— Dilly Hussain (@DillyHussain88) May 5, 2024

Source: Mediaite.com

“It strikes me as deeply troubling and potentially dangerous that two people — Musk and (Facebook co-founder) Mark Zuckerberg — essentially control the public square,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “That seems like a sad day for democracy.”

Twitter announced on Monday (April 25) that Musk will take over the company, with the deal expected to finalize sometime in the next three to six months. Musk has been a frequent critic of the platform’s current moderating policies, and his expressed goals for the platform under his leadership have centered on free speech.

But since the announcement, Musk has promoted criticism of Twitter on the platform, and company staffers have reportedly expressed concern he may undo long-standing efforts to moderate content.

Some groups — including religious organizations — have also voiced ambivalence about Musk’s interpretation of free speech.

The ADL, a Jewish civil rights organization, is one of several groups that help Twitter moderate hateful content by serving on the company’s Trust and Safety Council.  “We know firsthand that hate and extremism in digital spaces can lead to physical violence, particularly against Jews and other marginalized communities,” Greenblatt said in his statement.

In a survey conducted by the ADL in 2021, 36% of Jewish respondents said they had experienced online harassment, comparable to 33% the year before. In addition, 22% said they had experienced “severe” online harassment, slightly up from 20% in 2020.

The same survey found that 42% of Muslim respondents said they had experienced online harassment, with 32% saying the harassment they experienced was severe.

Source: Religion News Service (RNS)