In British elections, Muslim voters seek candidates who care about Gaza

Standing outside his home in a residential street in Slough, west of London, tire shop owner Raja Ijaz recounts a conversation he had recently with the local Labour Party candidate in Britain’s upcoming general election. 

When Tanmanjeet Dhesi came to ask for his vote, “I told him bye-bye,” says Mr. Ijaz, showing the white of his palm. “I said, I’m not voting for you because you didn’t vote for the cease-fire in Gaza. My entire family has abandoned the Labour Party because of this reason.”

Some of his Muslim neighbors have broader concerns, equally unhappy with both leading parties, including the Conservatives.

“Neither of the two main parties has raised their voice about Gaza,” says Muhammad Salim, two doors down from Mr. Ijaz. “This is a really important issue for me because people are dying, and I’ll be raising my concern by voting for an independent.”

That would be music to the ears of a new organization, The Muslim Vote, launched six months ago to try to shape a Muslim voting bloc that will demand that politicians pay attention to Muslim concerns. Such a bloc, based on religious belief, is unprecedented in Britain, outside Northern Ireland.

“The Labour Party and the Conservative Party both have taken ... Muslim voters for granted and are not concerned with representing them or their views,” says Abubakr Nanabawa, the coalition’s spokesperson.

“This election signals a shift for Muslims – no more political apathy,” the organization proclaims on its website. “We will no longer tolerate being taken for granted. We are a powerful, united force of 4 million acting in unison.”

Could Muslims make a difference?

Dismayed by the Labour Party’s tepid response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Mr. Ijaz and Mr. Salim have decided to vote for Azhar Chohan, an independent candidate who has made “stopping the Genocide in Gaza” a key part of his campaign. “It’s woken up the Muslim conscience,” says Mr. Chohan, who has been endorsed by The Muslim Vote.

Muslims make up more than a quarter of registered voters in Slough. If Mr. Chohan is able to galvanize the community, he could cause an upset. In February, the Workers Party of Britain leader, George Galloway, won a by-election in Rochdale by targeting Muslim voters, standing on an overtly pro-Palestinian platform. That victory has inspired many pro-cease-fire candidates to stand in the general election.

British Muslims, who account for about 6% of the total population and are heavily concentrated in urban areas, have historically tended to vote for the Labour Party. But a February poll by Survation showed that Muslim support for Labour had dropped by 26% since its leader, Keir Starmer, suggested that Israel had the right to cut off food and water to Gaza and then failed to back calls for an unconditional cease-fire.

At local elections in May, a BBC analysis showed that Labour’s share of the vote was down 21% in local council wards where more than one-fifth of the residents were Muslim.

The Conservatives are widely expected to suffer a crushing defeat at the general election on July 4. But the size of Labour’s majority may depend on whether independents endorsed by The Muslim Vote – only half of whom are in fact Muslims themselves – can turn events in the Middle East to their advantage on polling day.

The Muslim Vote has identified dozens of constituencies where Muslims make up a large enough share of the electorate to potentially sway the result. In Newcastle Central & West, where Muslims form around 12% of the total electorate, the organization has lent its support to Yvonne Ridley, a journalist and broadcaster who converted to Islam in 2003.

“The Muslim community has seen the way that governments and leaders have reacted to Gaza, and we can all see what’s happening there for what it is, which is a genocide,” she says. “And yet our leaders condemn us for marching, condemn us for protesting and we know what we’re doing is the right thing.”

A “conspiracy” or democracy?

The Muslim Vote, and its effort to organize Muslims into a coherent political force, have attracted considerable controversy.

In Slough, the incumbent member of Parliament and front-runner in the election, Labour’s Mr. Dhesi, has accused Mr. Chohan of “trying to toxify” the town and “divide our diverse community by importing the toxic politics of persuading people to vote based on religion.”

Right-wing populist Nigel Farage has gone further, accusing Muslims of indulging in sectarian politics and of not sharing British values.

For some, these criticisms are rooted in a historical malaise. “Every single time the Muslim community ... tries to organize, it’s the same old,” says Anas Altikriti, an adviser to The Muslim Vote. “It’s all of a sudden a conspiracy and an attempt to take over. And that pertains to a much bigger and deeper and older problem that has roots in the ... colonial perception of the other.”

The themes of sectarianism and disloyalty to Britain have emerged in many discussions about the Muslim electorate, according to Faisal Hanif, a researcher at the Centre for Media Monitoring who tracks the way Muslims are portrayed in the British media.

“Muslims deciding what they care about and who they want to vote for,” he says, “is seen as threatening.”