Rochdale by-election is referendum on Gaza, says Muslim charity boss
Which shows where priorities lie; not the condition of the UK and definitely not the welfare of local inhabitants. Readers will know that Rochdale, a former industrial town in Northern England, now administered as part of the conurbation of Greater Manchester, is one of the places where Islamic grooming gangs raped and prostituted young English girls on an industrial scale. Some have been convicted and sentenced. Some have escaped the final part of their sentence, the deportation, and remain in town, still intimidating their victims as they rebuild their lives.
The sitting MP died last month and so a by-election is being held. The candidates are not an edifying bunch. Azhar Ali started as the Labour candidate. He got off to a bad start by campaigning in Urdu (whether it was him speaking directly to the demographic, or one of his aids is irrelevant, it was that this demographic needed special attention that matters) then various anti-semitic remarks and opinions came to light, one after another, until there were too many to ignore and the Labour party dropped him. It was past the closing date for nominations so a new Labour candidate could not be put up and Mr Ali is campaigning as an Independant.
Pro-Islam, pro-Palestinian MP for hire George Galloway is also a candidate; enough said. I haven’t a clue who is the Conservative party candidate (I could look it up if I needed to know). The Reform party candidate (Reform are a newish right-leaning party that have been generating some interest) is Simon Danczuk who was Labour MP until 2017 when he was suspended for sending dodgy sexy texts to a teenage girl (she was of age, but nonetheless sleazy behaviour not becoming of a gentleman). I know Reform, like UKIP before them, don’t yet have the infrastructure of capable potential candidates coming up from the grassroots, but he is Not A Good Choice.
From the Telegraph and the BBC.
The Rochdale by-election is a “referendum on Gaza”, the boss of a Muslim youth organisation has said.
Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, who is from Rochdale, said that galvanising the Muslim vote on the “single issue of Palestine” would be “really powerful” in the upcoming electoral contest.
Last week, Sir Keir Starmer was forced to withdraw his support for Labour’s candidate in the upcoming Rochdale by-election because of comments he made about Israel and Jewish people.
Meanwhile, George Galloway, former MP and the Workers Party of Britain candidate for Rochdale, is running on a pro-Palestine ticket.
Mr Shafiq, who is a member of Labour’s ruling NEC, said that any assertions that the upcoming by-election was a referendum on anti-Semitism was “deeply offensive”, and instead suggested it was a referendum on Gaza.
He told BBC Radio 4: “I think that’s deeply offensive to suggest that an election campaign should be fought just on anti-Semitism. What about Islamophobia? What about anti-black racism? I think this is a referendum on Gaza. I think this is a referendum on our political establishment and an opportunity for people to participate in a peaceful democratic process.
“I think that’s the key issue that faces voters in my hometown of Rochdale,” he added.
No it isn’t. This is more important in Rochdale:-
A damning report has found serious failings in efforts to protect children from sexual abuse by grooming gangs. The review’s authors said Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council failed to properly investigate reports of abuse in Rochdale between 2004 to 2013 despite warnings from whistleblowers.
The team found there were 96 men still judged to be a potential risk to children, which is “only a proportion of the individuals engaged in child sexual exploitation” over the period.
…only “a very small proportion” of the children known to be sexually exploited in Rochdale were included in later trials.
…both the police and the council chose not to investigate the men in what the review concluded was a “serious failure to protect the children”.
It also highlights the apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters identified as potential victims of Asian men.
…praised whistleblowers, including health worker Sara Rowbotham and former GMP detective Maggie Oliver, who raised concerns despite facing vocal criticism from authorities.
In 2007, Ms Rowbotham and her team had alerted GMP and Rochdale Council about a gang of men of Pakistani and Afghan heritage engaged in child sexual exploitation (CSE) while Ms Oliver resigned from GMP in 2012 to publicly reveal the extent of the police failings.
It also found concerns raised by Ms Rowbotham and Ms Oliver were “substantiated”.
Ms Oliver added police had “failed generations of children”. She said: “What is happening now is still woefully, woefully inadequate in dealing with these kinds of crimes and the fact that they do not deal with them correctly means that the abusers are still confident that the chances of them being arrested, prosecuted, convicted are so tiny that it is worth taking the chance.”
However this is irrelevant. Also irrelevant the decline of English manufacturing industry and resultant lack of productive employment, excess immigration, the state of the NHS and so on. The robust consequences visited upon those committing or supporting the worst terrorist massacre of recent years is much more important.
Mr Shafiq described people as being “very, very angry” that British Muslims “have been labelled as anti-Semitic” or “somehow endorse” the rise in anti-Semitism.
“That’s so far from the truth. We were deeply pained. I think anti-Semitism is absolutely evil and wrong, an affront to our society…” Is he bravely telling the truth when he says ‘evil and wrong’ and thus going against all the filth we see on the streets of London every Saturday? Or is he yet another taqiya merchant?