It has baffled me for many years why the Labour Party has enjoyed an ‘unholy’ alliance with Islam and Muslims here in the UK.
Islam is not just a religion, as many people believe. It is also a political ideology, and in terms of the political spectrum, it is considered by many to be ‘ultra-conservative’.
A less-polite definition of ‘ultra-conservative’ is of course “far-right”. Because that is where it sits on the political spectrum.
Anyone who lives in an Islamic country, where Islam is the dominant religion, and governments follow Islamic rules of law, such as sharia, will tell you that those countries are hardly ‘liberal’, and in many cases, the concept of democracy is also questionable.
Left-wing liberals and socialists love to champion things such as women’s’ and LGBT rights, as well as ‘social justice’ and ’empowering ethnic minorities’.
Meanwhile in Islamic countries, women get stoned and beaten if they go outside without wearing veils or head-scarves, and gay people get stoned or worse, thrown off high buildings to their death.
For many years here in the UK, Labour has been embracing and indeed pandering to the whims of an ever-growing Muslim population, certainly in major cities and conurbation areas, such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. Labour have been very keen to win this ‘Muslim vote’, because it fulfils their left-wing ideology of ’empowering ethnic minorities’.
Yet at the same time, Islam itself is not a ‘left-wing ideology’, and it is certainly not very ‘liberal’.
It seems to me in the last couple of years that this ‘conflict of interest’ has begun to rear its ugly head, notably over the conflict in Israel between the Israeli government and the Palestinians in Gaza, headed up of course by Hamas, who have been defined as a ‘terrorist organisation’.
Barely a week goes by without some kind of “Free Palestine” protest, attended by Labour supporters and members, as well as those from other ‘socialist’ parties and organisations.
Labour finds itself in a quandary though, because while it wants to appease its Muslim voter-base, it is also in thrall to Israel, through its ‘Friends Of Israel’ group – which most establishment political parties have to be fair – as well as a number of big donors who also happen to be pro-Israel.
What a pickle! Of course in the last year or so, we’ve seen opportunists like George Galloway and Ahmed Yakoob jump on the ‘free Gaza’ bandwagon, and taking on Labour candidates in areas of the country with large Muslim populations.
Of course, Mr Galloway failed to retain his seat at the subsequent General Election, as voters simply went back to their usual Labour/Conservative voting behaviour.
Which brings us nicely to the present year of 2025, and the almost shambolic/chaotic launch of (yet another) new left-wing political party, with it’s founders being ex-Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, who both currently sit as independents in the House of Commons.
I consider Mr Corbyn to be a ‘traditional’ hard-left socialist-type, probably in the same vein as George Galloway, but less of a political-opportunist. While I see Ms Sultana as a ‘moderate Muslim’ – a young woman who has no doubt gone through the university system and has been subjected to left-wing liberal and socialist ideals. She has her supporters, while Corbyn has his own, but I suspect while they share some ideals, they still come from different ‘factions’ of the Labour party that they were previously both members of.
Over the weekend, I see that “Your Party” (or whatever it ends up being called) had their first members conference, which was mired in controversy.
First of all, co-founder Sultana decided to boycott the conference’s first day.
Sultana claims new Corbyn party carrying out ‘witch hunt’ against activists
Zarah Sultana has accused leading figures in the new party she is founding with Jeremy Corbyn of carrying out a “witch hunt” to purge left-wing activists.
Sultana boycotted the first day of the founding conference of the project, currently operating under the name Your Party, after several members who also belonged to the Socialist Workers Party were expelled.
Party officials said the expulsions were for breaching rules that ban members from joining any other political party in the UK or abroad.
Sultana’s comments came as Corbyn used his conference speech to call for unity as the party had “a unique opportunity” to found “a socialist party of mass appeal”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpq4l0rn3y1o
Secondly, it seems that two Muslim MPs decided not to join this new party:
Since launching the party in a surprise announcement in July, Sultana has repeatedly clashed with party officials.
And less than a month out from its founding conference, MPs Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed left the group overseeing the project, citing a “toxic culture” – particularly towards Muslim men.
Before leaving, both Hussain and Mohamed both put their name to a letter criticising Sultana for failing to transfer an estimated £800,000 of Your Party donations held by a company she controls.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9x5k73zro
The BBC article doesn’t go into details about this “toxic culture towards Muslim men”, so what could it have been?
Oh, some ‘trans-liberation activist’ calling out the two MPs in question as ‘transphobes’. The person in question had already been kicked out from the Scottish Green party.
While I’m not one to normally endorse anything that Laurence Fox says, he makes a valid point here.
Islam and lesbian/gay/transgender issues/rights are not compatible with each other.
You can’t pander to one without upsetting the other.
Anyway, at the end of the day, I do feel that there are far more pressing issues that ordinary people should be concerned about in our country, rather than whether pronouns are misused or not. We already have anti-discrimination and equality laws in place, that ensure people are treated fairly and equally, I don’t see why people with ‘protected characteristics’ should enjoy any preferential treatment.
The conclusion I am about to reach is as follows: left-wing Labour spent years chasing after the ‘ultra-conservative’ Islamic/Muslim vote, which is now coming back to bite them in the ass, as Islamics/Muslims have become so prevalent within the Labour party, that there is a real risk that some proper hardcore Islamists could make an attempt to take over the party, or failing that, they could start up their own political party, that was far less ‘left-wing and liberal’, but would easily gain a huge amount of support.
“Your Party” is yet to get off the ground, but it is facing the same fundamental problems that the Labour party has – and in my opinion that is simply because Islam/Islamism is fundamentally at odds with left-wing liberalism/socialism ideology.
Personally, I’d rather the UK didn’t end up as another communist/Islamist shithole, which is what will end up happening if people don’t start sitting up and taking notice.
