‘Racist’ takes against pro-Palestine, Muslim candidates spark anger

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, while winning by a landslide in Thursday's general election in the UK, also lost votes to pro-Palestinian candidates, several of whom picked up shock wins in previously "safe" seats.

Labour's victory has led hundreds of social media users to draw attention to some of the rhetoric surrounding the substantial spate of votes that went to pro-Palestine candidates who ran as independents. 

Takes dismissing the victories of candidates like Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain and Ayoub Khan and labelling Muslim voter mobilisation as “sectarian voting”, are being slammed as dog whistle racism and repetitions of Islamophobic tropes.

“Muslims, like anyone else, have the right to voice their views in democratic elections,” a representative of The Muslim Vote (TMV),  a UK-based political campaign, said to MEE in a statement.

Read more: ‘Racist’ takes against pro-Palestine, Muslim candidates spark anger