Carl Packman exposes the sick underbelly of anti-Semitisim at the heart of George Galloway’s victorious Bradford West by-election campaign.
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Carl Packman blogs at the Though Cowards Flinch blog
George Galloway, the new MP for Bradford West, could hardly contain his satisfaction in the early hours after it was reported he had won his election campaign. “By the Grace of God”, he opined in a tweet, “we have won the most sensational victory in British political history.”
Before long it was being dubbed the Bradford Spring, the implication being that a despot was ousted while a rainbow coalition of groups has united in search of the goal of democracy.
But unity was the last thing Galloway had on his mind when he took to the road.
Reading around I found that the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, an organisation that wants to empower “Muslims to focus on non-violent Jihad and political activism”, who naturally support Galloway and Respect, had published a blog post on the Bradford West Labour candidate Imran Hussein, describing him as “thirsty”, dishing out ad hominem attacks, relaying childish jibes that Hussain “might have to rely on his trusted pals John E Walker and Jackie Daniels to give him a hand”.
One of course would naturally assume that this level of politics be beneath the anti-war firebrand. But of course this turned out to be false.
When I spoke to one Labour activist who travelled from London to Bradford to join the campaign against Galloway, he described Respect’s campaign as “vile” – not least because of the personal letter sent around by Galloway claiming:
“I, George Galloway, do not drink alcohol and never have. Ask yourself if you believe the other candidate in this election can say that truthfully.”
Addressing the “voters of the Muslim faith and Pakistani heritage in Bradford West”, Galloway felt it apt to write:
“God KNOWS who is a Muslim. And he KNOWS who is not. Instinctively, so do you.”
His references to his Labour opponent as a “Muslim” in inverted commas made it obvious he wanted the “Muslim faith and Pakistani heritage” vote because he was the real Muslim candidate, which Labour rightly responded to as a “bizarre and deeply insulting letter”.
While on the trail Galloway also dragged out of the woodwork supporters of note, namely Carole Swords and Yvonne Ridley. Swords, chair of the Tower Hamlets Respect Party, was convicted in February for slapping a Jewish man during a boycott protest at a supermarket.
Making the line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism even thinner she was previously found to have written on Facebook that Zionists are “cockroaches” who “hide in the dark and try to create havoc where they lay their eggs” and that those “slimy, vile, hard skin bugs need to be stomped out”.
Yvonne Ridley, on the other hand, who is reported once to have said she’s “quite a fan of Mahmoud Admadinejad who is adored by the common man and woman in Iran”, and that “Zionists have tentacles everywhere”, told supporters of Galloway’s campaign recently that sentences handed to young men after the Bradford riots represented an “apartheid-style justice that we haven’t seen since the days of South Africa”.
With the “most sensational victory in British political history” and comparisons to South Africa, Bradford ought to feel like the centre of the universe.
• How much longer will Labour MPs cosy up to extremists? 30 Jun 2011
• The A-Z of Ayman al-Zawahiri 16 Jun 2011
• Too many on the Left are continuing to promote Islamist extremists 20 May 2011
• Hell Called, Your Place is Reserved: Muslim-country blogs react to Bin Laden death 3 May 2011
• We shouldn’t abandon the label “extremist” for extremists 20 Jan 2011
• Lifting the lid on Islamist radicalisation at British universities 19 October 2010
• Islamic extremist calls British troops Nazis 4 Jan 2010
But in the age of austerity it drew a cheap politician.
The way in which Galloway conducted his deeply divisive campaign should leave him with nothing to be proud about. But as I said yesterday he doesn’t care about you, or me or Bradford, or Glasgow or Bethnal Green, or Joe Public, or the man-in-the-street. Galloway is a one-man brand, and one who appeals to low politics and dirty tricks – what a pity that we have to see him in parliament (occasionally) again.
99 Responses to “The sick anti-Semites at the heart of Galloway’s band of bigots”
sue gordon
The sick anti-Semites at the heart of Galloway’s band of bigots: http://t.co/Q75DMTPI by @CarlRaincoat #BradfordWest
Ed's Talking Balls
Fair enough, I wouldn’t stoop so low as to accuse you of sharing all of Galloway’s views.
But he’s not right wing. Surely you can see that? He ran on a platform of ‘no cuts’ and ‘bash the banks’. That’s got to be more right than left, to put it mildly.
If you mean that his views on Palestine are more right than left, I don’t think that’s right either.
Frances Hinde
RT @leftfootfwd: The sick anti-Semites at the heart of Galloway’s band of bigots http://t.co/mbaX9Wt0
Anonymous
You come to a left wing site and troll. You troll specifically, calling people mentally ill.
Then you say, against the evidence, you’re not a social darwinist. You’re a bed-buddy to the Tories, your denials smell like sun-ripened rat.
Anonymous
I don’t think, bluntly, that you can call anyone who has said that suicide bombings can be morally justified, and has supported Hizbollah (who have declared for Syria-Iran, remembering what’s going on in Syria right now) can reasonably be called left-wing on the issue.
From my POV, the Arab Spring is great (and will become better as the Arab countries directly affected build democratic institutions) – it’s actually made the Arab League sit up and be reasonable on the whole issue of the Palestinian Arabs.
(Dropping the right of return if proper restitution is given, for instance – which is fine in international law, and not insisting on the 1967 borders as a rigid rule, but as a guideline which can be traded over)
Sadly, with two weak governments (The Isralie government has a VERY slim majority, and is being hammered in the polls, while the current division of the West Bank and Gaza undermines the Palestinians) nothing will happen right now.
The next Israeli government is very likely to be more left-leaning…the real big question is what Hamas will do if the elections go against them in Gaza.