The case of Azhar Ali & his Pro-Palestine Pals
Azhar Ali - the Muslim candidate standing for Gazan constituency of Rochdale ?
When this campaign video came out many people thought that Afzal Khan (Labour MP on the right) was translating what Azhar Ali (Labour Candidate for Rochdale on the left) was saying from English into Urdu. But that was not the case. As I am a native speaker of Urdu, I was able to translate what Afzal Khan was saying. This was an endorsement and not a direct translation. Read the translated endorsement from Afzal Khan below:
Afzal Khan: "Yes, I am very happy as well that Azhar Ali who is our brother, has been selected here in Rochdale from Labour Party. Azhar is an accomplished politicians who understand our issues (‘happiness & griefs’ literal translation refers to ‘issues that matter’ in general). And it our need that our strong voice in represented in British Parliament. And it is a prime moment for our community to make a historic (poignant) mark, for our future generations. So help him and make him an MP."
Further Information and Stats:
Azhar Ali, born in Lancashire, of Pakistani parents from Mirpur region of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan, where people’s native tongue is Punjabi.
Afzal Kahn, born in Jhelum, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, where people’s native tongue is also Punjabi.
Pakistan is not a single ethnicity country: Sindhis, Punjabis, Pashtuns, Balouchi, Hazaras, Parsi, Muhajirs etc
And with different ethnicities, you have different languages as well: Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balouchi, Siraiki, Hindko, Urdu etc
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and the native language of Muhajirs (Migrants from India to Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947) who mainly live in the port city of Karachi and amount to less than 8% of the whole country.
70% of the Pakistani population in UK is from Kashmiri Punjabi ethnicity, from the regions of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber districts.
The other 1/3rd of the Pakistani population in UK is Punjabi.
During the period of 1965-70, with the initiative led by Labour government in UK, 50,000 Pakistanis from the region of Mirpur and surrounding areas were emigrated and relocated to industrial northern towns in England.
Things to notice in this endorsement:
Now, with that additional information, let’s return to the endorsement.
This video was posted on Afzal Khan’s twitter account. Notice how there are captions when Azhar Ali is speaking in English but no captions when Afzal Khan is speaking in Urdu. It is as if they only meant this for the Pakistani community and they didn’t want you to know what they were talking about.
Why is this problematic you ask? An MP stands for the whole constituency, not for a selected group of people within a particular community. They stand for a selected party or independently, but with the aim to serve all, even those who did not vote for them.
Furthermore, the endorsement is laced with intentions of divided loyalties. Afzal wants him to be an MP so that he can push the Pakistani agenda and Pakistani issues in the British Parliament. So, mainly catering to the Pakistani community in England and beyond.
Notice that he wants to stand as an MP for Rochdale. One of the epicentres of sex grooming and rape cases, mainly conducted by men of Pakistani ethnicity.
Anyone who lives in England should be expected to speak English, and if we are getting immigrants for the right reasons then they should go through an integration process where they will be able to integrate properly especially with the language and culture. That is an entirely separate issue.
He is not endorsing in Urdu just because the "community" which might not or might be in the constituency Azhar is representing. He is endorsing in Urdu, to signal that the needs of their personal sub-community of Pakistanis will be represented by Azhar being in parliament. Azhar is standing from Rochdale in England, not Rochdale in Pakistan.
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So what followed? Well, after I had posted this translation of endorsement out on Twitter (X), there was already pressure from a lot of journalists and commentators on why he spoke in Urdu for a campaign for a constituency in England, and then Azhar Ali, released a focus group video. Funnily enough, in this video, he was seen having a focus group with only white native British population of Rochdale:
Combine this with his other campaign messages:
On the face of it, this does not portray Azhar Ali as an Islamist, or as someone who would want the needs of Pakistanis first. And if he had only gone with these messages he might have faired better then what happened to him next. And if Rochdale was not one of the areas where Pakistani men had operated as predators, with their rape gangs, grooming underage girls and raping them. Not to mention anything about it - well those are also red flags, especially when he is trying to gather support of ethnically Pakistani voters as shown above.
And it is not as if he has been disconnected from these situations politically either. He has been a councillor in Lancashire since 2013 till current.
Azhar Ali Political Career:
Azhar Ali is from Brierfield, a town in Pendle, Lancashire. Not that far from Rochdale.
One of his early steps in politics was becoming leader of the students union at nearby Nelson & Colne College, according to the Lancashire BME Network charity’s website.
He stood as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Pendle in 2015 and 2019, according to the Lancashire Evening Post.
He became a councillor on Lancashire County Council in 2013, and the LEP reports he took charge as leader in 2017. He has also been awarded an OBE for his service to the community.
The eventual Antisemitism of Azhar Ali:
An audio, was made public by Guido Fawkes, which was recorded at a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party, where Azhar Ali can be heard saying the Israeli prime minister “deliberately took the security off” and “allowed the massacre”:
The recording came as a lawyer who led a review into antisemitism in the Labour Party said its handling of the crisis has been shambolic.
Mr Forde, whose 2022 inquiry found that both left and right wings of the party had used antisemitism as a factional weapon under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you want a fair and transparent system then it has to deal with people consistently.”
He added: “I’m aware from discussions with some of the MPs within the party – who might be described as left-leaning – that they feel that when it comes to disciplinary action taken against them then things move rather slowly, but if you’re in the right faction of the party, as it were, then things are dealt with either more leniently or more swiftly.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of Labour Party, took 48hrs to deliberate and then decided to withdraw his support from Azhar Ali:
He did not answer, straightforwardly, whether the other councillors present within that recorded would also be dealt with. And that tells you all you need to know about the real Labour Party. They are just bidding their time till they come in power.
And as the Labour Spokesman point out:
“We understand that these are highly unusual circumstances, but it is vital that any candidate put forward by Labour fully represents its aims and values. Given that nominations have now closed, Azhar Ali cannot be replaced as the candidate.”
Azhar Ali is still standing as a candidate representing Labour Party, and his name will be on the top of the ballot, as his surname starts with ‘A’. He may even win, only to find himself in parliament as an independent MP.
There was a lot of uproar in the media, as one would expect:
The story does not end here. Azhar Ali, came out and apologised for his comments:
Some would rightly point out, that he only apologised because he was found out and not because it was heartfelt.
Again, on the face of it, just criticising Israeli government is not antisemitism. Or even making up conspiracy theories without evidence. But only on the face of it. It is not as simple as it seems. You see, 30% of Rochdale’s population is Muslim and mainly from Pakistan. And a lot of other portions of the population are left leaning, perhaps too left leaning. All this means is being anti-Israel and being Pro-Palestine is a vote winner in this region. And to those 30% being a step further, being anti-Jewish, is a guarantee to get their votes.
There is a reason why regardless of anything, regardless of sex grooming and abuse of so many girls from working class backgrounds, Labour still seemed confident to retain the seat, following the death of Tony Lloyd in January who held a 9,668 majority.
However, the Muslims in the area had been disapproving of Labour of late. For not being too pro-palestine and not being anti-Israel enough. And for not backing the Muslims. As if, the first and foremost priority of a UK MP should be anything apart from British people. Which is what goes to show - that on the face of it seems like criticism of Israeli government but deep down it is a hatred of Jews that drive these comments and mentality. But this is what happens when you add in an ideology like Islam, which neither wants to coexist nor have mixed loyalties, apart from being loyal to itself. Look at the reaction of these Muslims which Azhar Ali encountered on his campaign:
From the councillors to the candidate and to the “members of public”, none of them seem to have any loyalty to Britain or exhibit British sentimentalities. Their main focus is Palestine and the destruction of Israeli State. This is all they care about. I wonder if they went to watch a cricket match between Pakistan and England, who they would support? A rhetorical question. We all know who. And that, as banal as it may seem to you, is important. That is the least stakes to national security situation where the loyalty of citizens can be observed.
And the story continues further. Look at Azhar Ali’s latest campaign now, done by some of his supporters:
Yet, 5 Pillars, the muslim outlet, hounds him and demand why he doesn’t go against his party leader and champion muslim sentiments and pro-palestine demands:
Green in the campaign message, interesting choice of colour. Pakistani colours. Message for Palestine, that is all they care about. No mention of the Pakistani rape gangs by Azhar Ali, all his campaign. And it seems that even the far-left campaigners, who profess their care for working class, don’t care about it. This combination of Islamists and Marxists need to be seen for what it is and it needs to be dealt with. Even the most moderate seeming Pakistani, if Muslim, is highly likely to hold anti-Jewish sentiments. Especially if they live in a parallel society within England which most of the Pakistanis do north of England. This gets drilled to them as they are kids. I saw this all around me when I lived in Pakistan for 10 years. Not so much though while growing up in Kuwait, where I lived till I was 15.
Both these factions are using each other. And they both see Israel as their enemies for their own reasons. Islamists see Israel as enemy because of them just being Jewish State and Marxists see them as enemy because to them Jewish Zionists are the oppressors - as they have made a simple oppressor/oppressed calculations in their head, a simple black and white situation - and Jews also represent the success of capitalism which they would like to besmirch and destroy.
Neither of these ideologies are beneficial for Britain and it is time that they are dealt with appropriately and driven out of our institutions. And the best thing of all, is that Labour Party who is looking likely to win the next general elections, have both factions of these extremist ideologies in abundance.
An example of how both these factions act, when asked to condemn Hamas:
Interestingly, further evidence was uncovered that Azhar Ali is also a trustee of a mosque, which preaches anti-jewish hatred. I am sure, no one reading this would be shocked:
Yes, he has raised millions for this mosque. We are basically harbouring our own enemies in this country and letting them operate with impunity, all in the name of diversity and inclusion.
So, here we are now. The case of Azhar Ali, is not a case in isolation. It is a case of complex negative influences coming together and flourishing under the banner of Labour Party. It is a taste of what is to come, if and when, Labour wins the next general election. I suspect it will mark the exodus of a lot of British Jews and ex-Muslims, as under Labour, life will go from being intolerable to highly unsafe. Also, shows you why Labour wants to introduce Islamophobia within its policies. All I can say is, that we are in for a rough ride.