Labour’s Muslim problem revealed as Rochdale candidate dropped
Posted by admin978 on February 12, 2024 · Leave a Comment
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party (which seems almost certain to return to government at a general election some time within the next twelve months) is yet again caught in a ‘scandal’ over ‘anti-semitism’. The party’s candidate at the forthcoming parliamentary by-election in Rochdale, Azhar Ali, has been disowned by the party after recordings were leaked of Ali expressing conspiracy theories about last year’s Hamas attack on Israel.
Azhar Ali – a 55-year-old businessman of Pakistani origin – has been leader of the Labour group on Lancashire County Council since 2021. Having failed several times to obtain selection as a parliamentary candidate, he was chosen to contest this by-election after the death of long-serving MP Sir Tony Lloyd.
Nominations have already closed, which means that Labour cannot replace Ali and cannot prevent him appearing on ballot papers as the Labour candidate. If Ali wins then he is expected to sit in the House of Commons as an independent.
Labour hoped that by opting for a very swift contest after Lloyd’s death – the by-election will be held on 29th February – they would stop any rival party building momentum. They were especially concerned that either a “right-wing” party would gain traction among White working-class voters, or the populist left-winger George Galloway would exploit anti-Zionist views among Rochdale’s large Muslim population.
2021 census figures show that Rochdale’s population is 29.6% Asian (predominantly Pakistani – 22% – and Bangladeshi – 4.2%).
Asians are far more likely than White working class voters to turn out at elections, and have traditionally been solidly Labour, but this loyalty has been tested by Starmer’s transformation of the party since he replaced Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
Starmer (whose wife is Jewish) seems to be obsessed with wiping out any trace of his predecessor’s anti-Zionist views. Even after Israel’s exceptionally brutal response to the Hamas incursion, Starmer has resisted suggestions by many Labour colleagues that he should join calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
His stance led to the resignation of many Labour councillors across the country, with Lancashire being especially badly hit. Several of Azhar Ali’s colleagues quit, including the leader of Burnley borough council and two county councillors who represent areas of Burnley and had been part of Ali’s Lancashire team.
It was in this context that Azhar Ali spoke at what he thought was a private meeting of Lancashire Labour activists last October. What he didn’t know was that someone (presumably a factional opponent within the party) was recording his comments. The tape was passed to the Mail on Sunday and reported yesterday.
Though Ali didn’t express explicitly anti-semitic views, he endorsed one of the many conspiracy theories that are widely believed within the UK’s Asian community. He told the meeting:
“The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel ten days earlier… Americans warned them a day before [that] there’s something happening… They deliberately took the security off, they allowed… that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.”
For 36 hours after the story broke, Labour tried to defend Ali, but leading figures in the Jewish community demanded he must be dropped, and Labour has now complied.
It’s too early to say whether Ali will be capable of fighting an independent campaign. If not, it seems likely that the beneficiary will be George Galloway who, although he opposes almost everything H&D readers stand for, is undoubtedly an able campaigner.
The tragedy is that no racial nationalist party is presently capable of fighting a serious parliamentary election campaign. Indigenous Britons in Rochdale have been thoroughly betrayed by all mainstream political parties and by the consequences of the multiracial society. They were never consulted about the demographic transformation of our country, which is more visible in Rochdale than in almost any other town in Britain.
Rochdale was the scene of one of the most infamous cases of the “grooming” of White teenage girls by men of mainly Pakistani origin. In 2016 eight such men (together with a White heroin addict who committed similar bestial crimes as part of a “grooming” ring) were sentenced to a total of 125 years in prison for offences that took place between 2004 and 2008.
(A few days before the Ali scandal, the Green Party’s candidate in the Rochdale by-election, Guy Otten, was also forced to withdraw from the campaign due to anti-Islamic posts on Twitter several years ago. Though Otten would have polled a negligible vote in any case, his case is another example of the perils of politics in the internet age, especially in the treacherous political waters of a constituency which is one-third non-White. It seems that candidates can be disqualified nowadays for being either anti-Israel or anti-Muslim, when what we would ideally like to see are candidates who are pro-British!)
What can H&D readers learn from the events of the past two days that have rocked British politics, both in Rochdale and nationwide?
(1) Ali’s swift defenestration shows which racial/religious minority has real influence in UK politics, and it’s not UK Muslims. Although there are hardly any Jews in Rochdale, the Labour Party decided to obey the demands of the Jewish community, while continuing to ignore the views of UK Muslims.
(2) Although this is the situation at national level (and certainly where foreign policy is concerned), Labour at local level in many parts of the UK is disproportionately influenced by Asians, who are now likely to split, with one group (often local businessman) pragmatically unconcerned by the fate of their co-religionists in Gaza, while others will break away and support independent candidates.
(3) Gaza is just the latest (though the most serious) of the issues that split Muslim voters. Where Labour is concerned there are also longstanding factional divisions between Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (especially serious in Oldham); bitter personal rivalries; and splits between traditional “community leaders” and younger activists on social issues such as feminism and gay/lesbian/trans questions. Many of those who are most radical on Gaza are also opposed to their own community leaders on issues involving the role of women. For example, one of the Lancashire county councillors who quit Labour over Gaza is a Westernised Pakistani woman.
(4) While some H&D readers will strongly agree with criticisms of Labour policy on Gaza, the sad thing is that the Palestinian cause has been tainted by childish conspiracy theories. Events have shown that Jews do indeed have disproportionate power in UK politics, including within the Labour Party. But it is frankly ludicrous to argue that Israel allowed the Hamas attack to happen, or that Hamas is in some sense part of a Zionist conspiracy. On a wide range of issues, real conspiracies are allowed to happen because political dissidents (both within the Muslim community and among White racial nationalists) are too paranoid and quick to jump on online bandwagons without thinking seriously about the issues involved.
(5) One consequence of this is that the anti-Zionist cause is represented by charlatans such as George Galloway. If he wins the by-election on 29th February and becomes MP for Rochdale, the loudest pro-Palestinian voice in Parliament will also be an ultra-leftist and an ally of Vladimir Putin, further discrediting the Palestinian cause in the eyes of most White Britons.
(6) Yet again, the cause of truth and justice – whether for the Palestinians or (more relevantly) for the victims of Rochdale grooming gangs and other crimes in our dysfunctional multiracial society – is ill-served by the choices available to voters at the ballot box. As racial nationalist activists, we all bear a heavy share of responsibility for the collapse of our movement during the first quarter of the 21st century. Do we have the courage and determination to change course?
