Dear All,

It is déjà vu in the UK as the Tory leadership whips up more xenophobia in anticipation of a general election. The most bizarre example of this is the prime minister, who recently stood outside Number 10 Downing Street and cast aspersions on those marching in support of Palestinians and calling for a ceasefire.

Sunak insinuated that those marching to protest against Israel’s aggression were being used by sinister, extremist forces. He appealed to protestors to be “peaceful” and “empathetic” and he spoke, in an alarmist tone, of forces trying to “tear us apart” and destroy Britain’s democracy.

It was a bizarre outburst and seemed to be a panicked reaction to the recent by-election victory of George Galloway in Rochdale.

Galloway, often described in the press as a “firebrand” orator, is a veteran leftist politician. He was elected as a Labour MP four times but was expelled from the party by Tony Blair in 2003 for his uncompromising opposition to the Iraq war. He was elected as a Respect party MP twice. He lost in the 2015 and 2019 elections. Now, a decade later, he has again staged a dramatic political comeback. Both Labour and Conservative politicians would prefer not to have to deal with Galloway. He is a highly articulate and outspoken politician with impressive debating skills (as many unprepared and uninformed reporters have discovered) and a consistently anti-imperialist stance. As such he can be a ruthless opponent in debates and interviews.

He is controversial for his outspoken support for Third World causes, his pro-Palestinian stance and his criticism of Israel. And he enraged Western leaders by visiting Iraq and meeting Saddam Hussein there in 1994.

Galloway is a thorn in the side of the political establishment. Recently he has been one of the people drawing attention to the Gaza crisis. His victory had clearly rankled the prime minister since the latter described it almost as a calamity, declaring Galloway’s victory as “beyond alarming” and then proceeding to conflate Galloway with “extremists” and the Hamas. Sunak’s whole speech was incomprehensibly alarmist. He made it sound as if the country was facing some sort of national emergency.

He made this unscheduled speech a week before the March 9 Palestine Peace March in London that was expected to have a large turnout. (As it happened, approximately 300,000 people are estimated to have then attended that protest). The implication of Sunak’s words was that the peace marches were made up of people with an extremist agenda and the insinuation was that these people were Muslims. He said demonstrators “cannot call for a violent jihad” to justify the actions of Hamas… or “for any kind of hatred or anti-Semitism.” Again, the words contained an allegation - that those attending the protests were violent and anti-Semitic and that they were somehow the enemy.

This othering of those attending the marches and criticising Israel is part of the Conservatives’ and the right wing’s ongoing efforts to smear anybody who criticises them. This talk of division and the scare-mongering about extremist conspiracies to divide Britain evokes a sense of déjà vu: Brexit was engineered through instilling a sense of fear and xenophobia in voters. The 2019 election was won on this foundation of polarisation and fear mongering. Eight years ago this scare mongering about ‘Islamic extremists’ was a tactic Zach Godsmith, the Conservative candidate in the London mayoral election, used against Labour’s Sadiq Khan.

The Conservatives’ strategy then was pretty reprehensible as it focused on dividing the brown, desi vote: Indian voters from various religious (non-Muslim) communities received letters saying negative things about the Labour candidate, Sadiq Khan. For example, a Hindu voter received a letter from David Cameron describing Sadiq Khan as ‘dangerous’ and a voter with a Tamil name received a letter from Goldsmith with the heading ‘Sadiq Khan will put London’s future and your community at risk.’ It claimed that the election of the Labour candidate would be bad for their community because as a minister he did not ‘use his position to speak about Sri Lanka or the Tamil community in parliament.’ There was also scaremongering about new taxes being imposed on gold and jewellery, “His party are beginning to adopt policies that will mean higher taxes on your family and your family’s heirlooms and belongings. We cannot let him experiment with these radical policies.” Similarly, letters from the PM implied that Khan was linked to extremism. It was Goldsmith who would “keep our streets safe from terrorist attacks.” The word Muslim was not mentioned but it was clear that the insinuation was that Muslims are extremists and that Muslims would target non-Muslim communities. It was a hateful and hate-filled campaign, designed to divide south Asian communities and create fear. Fortunately, it failed then but it is what the Conservatives have now resorted to again by trying to portray those marching in London as ‘extremists.’ These insinuations cast Muslims as deranged Jew-haters and promote Islamophobia.

This is the rhetoric which Rishi Sunak has revived with his talking of “violent jihad” in the context of the Palestine marches. For the record, the marches in London have so far been very well organised, family-oriented events. Those attending are of all ages and from many different races and religions. In fact, the marches have proved that it is not just Muslims who are appalled by what is being done in Gaza – it is anybody who thinks that killing children and babies and starving civilians is wrong.

In the meantime, look out for more such polarising, panic-creating hate speech, Fear and xenophobia is the aim…

Best wishes.

Umber Khairi