Tooting is in a culturally enriched constituency in southwest London. During the general election it sent Sadiq Khan to Parliament, and Mr. Khan was later appointed shadow Justice Minister for the Labour Party.
The run-up to the election was nasty, as one would expect, but in Tooting the nastiness was three-way: the regular Muslims (presumably Sunni) versus the native English (kuffar) and the Ahmadis (considered takfiri, a form of apostate). Since the dispute with the Ahmadis is more of an intramural fight, it assumed a particularly virulent intensity.
Here’s the story from The Wandsworth Guardian:
Tooting Election Race Infected by Anti-Ahmadiyya Hate Campaign
Hatred and threats towards the Ahmadiyya community even infected the general election race in Tooting.
Since being re-elected in May with a slim majority of 2,524 after fierce opposition from Conservative candidate Mark Clarke, Sadiq Khan has gone on to become Shadow Justice Secretary.
But Nasser Butt, who stood against him for the Liberal Democrats and is an Ahmadi, spoke out about a campaign to prevent him being elected because of his religion.
An election hustings at the Tooting Islamic Centre (TIC) on April 14 turned into a dangerous farce after hardliners shut down proceedings.
After arriving at the TIC, mixed-race Tory candidate Mark Clarke had to be locked into a room for his own safety after he was mistaken for Mr Butt by fundametalists.
Mr Clarke’s election agent, Andre Walker, said: “We had to be locked in a room for our own security. The mosque committee were embarrassed by it and it was tense for a while…it was clear Nasser’s arrival would have been dangerous and a real problem. There was anger an Ahmadi was running.”
During the incident, Mr Butt said he received a phone call from a committee member who told him it would be best if he did not come to speak as had been arranged.
It has also emerged worshippers were given precise orders at the TIC to urge Muslims not to vote for Ahmadi candidates.
A secret recording of a meeting at the TIC, two days before polling day on May 3, revealed Imam Suliman addressed the meeting alongside Harris Bokhani, speaker from an unknown organisation.
Mr Bokhani is heard to tell the audience: “The majority of Muslims in this area are voting Lib Dem, because they think Nasser Butt is a Muslim.
“If you don’t go in and speak to them, they’re not going to do it. They’re fed up of hearing it from the imams. They want to hear it from you. They need to you go into the community and say ‘Why are you supporting the Qadiani community?’“
Mr Khan told this paper last week he was not aware of the incident until days later and did not know about the pair being locked in a room.
He rejected claims the Muslim vote played an important role in his re-election, claiming he had support from faith leaders across the religious spectrum.
He said: “It’s really important everyone in the community gets along. One of the hallmarks of Tooting is that people with different rules and religions have got along so well for so long.
“If there’s any section of our community that feels vulnerable or discriminated against, there’s a responsibility on the rest of us to reach out and ensure this doesn’t happen.
“There are theological differences but we shouldn’t just tolerate each other, we should respect each other.
“My job as MP is to represent everyone in the community, irrespective of the size of the community and religious beliefs.”
TIC Imam Suliman Gani told us this week: “We never recommend any political candidate on religious grounds.
“Like all organisations, we only recommend political candidates based on how their stated policies affect our community.
“The Ahmadiyya community has been actively distributing leaflets claiming they are the only Muslims who love peace and harmony and thereby maligning the vast Muslim community.
“So, as an example, unless an Ahmadi candidate renounced such maligning of Muslims by the community he belongs to, we would not recommend him as he/she would be antithetical to the perception of our peace-loving community in such delicate times.”
For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.
Hat tip: Bewick.
8 comments:
At least the "Indian" restaurants in Tooting are excellent!
And likely Pakistani or Bangladeshi rather than true Indian, and almost certainly Halal.
Sadiq Khan, shadow Justice Secretary, is under investigation for fraud re his Parliamentary expenses.
Not a lot of interest then!
Here in the UK we have had judges stating that the current standards of electoral vigilance are little better than that of a "banana republic".
MANY have been imprisoned for electoral fraud. Those supported all 3 main parties so nothing partisan here but there may be a racial element.
They manipulated votes, particularly postal votes, in a spectacular, and totally partisan way.
Were these people English or British? Well yes if citizenship was the only issue but NO if their real loyalty was to their country of birth or that of their parents or to THEIR particular community. By their standards all is fair. Not quite British.
In a nutshell then all of those who have been caught are either of
Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin and all are Muslim. There must be many more who have not yet been brought to account.
Says it all.
Barbarian standards applied to a civilised country.
The attacks on Butt depressed the Lib Dem vote and helped get Khan re-elected.
That and the thousands of Somalis who suddenly appeared on the electoral rolls right before polling day.
Muslim Tory Sayeeda Warsi referred to 3+ seats where Muslim corruption cost the Tories the seat, I expect Tooting was one.
I live in Tooting. It feels a bit like a Protestant friend of mine must feel, living in West Belfast with Gerry Adams as his MP.
Re restaurants - near the 'Islamic Centre' mosque they are Pakistani. In South Tooting there are many Tamil Hindu restaurants also.
Wasn't the first comment about excellent Indian or Pakistani restaurants meant to be sarcasm? The usual selling point for multiculturalism by Pollyannas is always the variety in cuisine they bring. There's never any talk of the variety in criminality that they bring. Each culture seems to specialize in certain kinds of crime/corruption. Western police forces are overwhelmed with the need to be knowledgeable on over a hundred different cultures, especially since most of the non-white ones have a propensity to pull out the racist card if handled with anything except the utmost respect, whatever their crimes.
The cultures making up the multicultural tower of Babel bring what they know - including crooked elections with threats of violence and imam-instructed bloc voting, another way of punching above their weight in numbers, not to say that the numbers aren't increasing by leaps and bounds too.
I have the misfortune to live near Tooting and driving through it is like driving through another country. Not a very developed one.
I wrote to my MP Sadiq Khan asking him to object on my behalf to the barbarism of halal slaughter, which is disgracefully exempt from animal cruelty laws in the UK. He claimed not to have received my letter for 6 months and then did nothing.
I think Tooting is a lost cause now and I will be moving out of London altogether soon because English culture no longer prevails here. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Wembley, Streatham, Whitechapel, Hounslow, anywhere. It's gone, and so am I.
I feel angry about this and resentful that the multicultural project has destroyed English culture, but I've had enough of living in among it. It will be interesting to see how London prospers as more and more people feel as I do and do as I am doing.
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