“Sectarian voting and cheating.” So said Nigel Farage in his comment on the Gorton and Denton by-election win for the Green party, and he may well be justified.
It will be remembered that Gorton and Denton has a very large British-Pakistani population. Traditionally they have voted Labour, but on this occasion the Greens’ candidate, Hannah Spencer, exploited what she branded Labour’s failure to support Palestine, accusing them of promoting instead “racist, dog whistle gutter policies”.
Leaflets were issued in Urdu and Bengali proclaiming her support for Palestine and calling on voters “to punish Labour for Gaza”. She was even photographed outside a local mosque wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional Middle-Eastern scarf that has become such a symbol of cultural identity and resistance.
Muslim voters apparently lapped it up, deserting in droves the Labour Party, which has traditionally been seen as championing their interests, in favour of a candidate who was unashamedly giving her support to Islamist demands to crush Israel, and establish a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’.
But it gets worse. Democracy Volunteers, the polling observer group certified by the Electoral Commission to monitor voting and detail suspected electoral fraud, reported “concerningly high levels” of family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election, the concern being that women will simply vote as directed by their husbands or fathers – sometimes on multiple occasions - and the practice has therefore been declared illegal.
However, the polling observer group reported on this occasion the highest level of family voting seen at any election in their 10-year history. John Ault, head of Democracy Volunteers, said, “We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.”
Should we be alarmed? Yes, we should. If what has been reported is true, this is a deliberate and unashamed effort to undermine British democracy, exploiting tactical voting to establish the interests of groups that are, at base, hostile to the interests of the general public. The Greens’ success is a victory not for environmental democratisation and what they see as a fairer world, but for Islam, which for many of its adherents demands total and absolute compliance with Sharia law and obedience to the Prophet Muhammad.
As Britain’s Muslim communities continue to grow stronger and more numerous, we are already seeing their political influence grow and this is significant because, unlike followers of other faiths or no faith, they have an unusual tendency to vote en bloc, according to where they feel their best interests will be served. Indeed, there have for some time been rumours that the long-term aim is to establish an independent, dedicated Muslim party, which will ultimately become the dominant force in Government and take control, so that the UK becomes an Islamic state. Support for Palestine coupled with the growth in anti-Semitism is an alarming manifestation of what such a victory might mean.
The political aspirations of a worrying proportion of Muslims do not sit well with British democracy. In Islamic countries, non-believers are all too often barely tolerated, and sectarian violence against other religious groups is common. Christians especially live in danger of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, physical attack and genocide. If such Muslims take political control of the UK, it can be anticipated that the same behaviour will be replicated here.
In her manipulative and unprincipled campaign, Hannah Spencer may think she has been very clever, but by her calculated exploitation of racial and religious division, she has taken hold of a snake by the tail. Whatever one’s political persuasion and affiliation, the voters of Britain who genuinely value democracy should be alarmed.
