The Muslim Vote

The Muslim Vote is a British pressure group established in December 2023 which seeks to support candidates who oppose the Conservative and Labour leadership stances on the Gaza war among other policy positions.

Background

A survey of Muslim voters reported that 86% voted Labour in the 2019 general election. After Labour initially supported Israeli military action in the Gaza war following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, support for the party fell among Muslims, with a poll by Survation finding only 43% saying they would vote Labour in the next election. BBC analysis of the 2024 local elections results said that Labour voteshare had fallen 21 percentage points in council wards where more than 20% of residents are Muslim and analysis by Number Cruncher Politics found that Labour lost 33 percentage points in majority-Muslim areas.

History

The Muslim Vote was launched in December 2023. It is "modelled along the lines of Operation Black Vote". Its national co-ordinator, Abubakr Nanabawa, was previously a Labour activist as a student at the University of Birmingham. The former leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Jalaluddin Patel, said he helped The Muslim Vote, and Anas Altikriti said he advised it.

In May 2024 it released a list of eighteen demands for the Labour leader Keir Starmer, including apologising for his previous stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

The organisation's May 2024 launch in Wales was supported by local branches of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition.

In May and June 2024 it endorsed candidates in the 2024 general election. It says it chose candidates who oppose the UK government's approach to the Israel-Hamas war alongside a list of other priorities including support for public services and that "schoolteachers take cultural and religious sensitivies into account, not least when discussing LGBT issues in schools where most of the community have a religious background". The Muslim Vote said that voters should spoil their ballots if they do not have a "pro-Palestine, pro-peace" candidate.

The organisation was criticised by some Muslims for supporting four Labour MPs who voted for a motion that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Candidates endorsed by The Muslim Vote received 462,728 votes in the election (1.61%), and were elected in 4 constituencies. All 4 elected candidates were independents. (Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam) outright defeated Labour candidates.

Reception

The Muslim Vote has been supported by a number of Muslim organisations including:

* Muslim Association of Britain
* Muslim Council of Scotland
* Muslim Council of Wales
* Muslim Engagement and Development

Some organisations supporting the group were named by Michael Gove as being assessed against a new definition of extremism. The Conservative politicians Andrew Percy and Iain Duncan Smith called the organisation a threat to democracy and the Labour politician Tan Dhesi said they were trying to "import toxic politics of persuading people to vote based on religion". Stephen Evans of the National Secular Society called on the Labour Party to ignore the demands of The Muslim Vote, stating that the organisation "represent themselves, not Muslim voters", adding that Muslims are not a monolithic voting bloc and warning that "abandoning universalism to pander to this kind of sectarianism would be dangerous and divisive".

See also

* Independent Alliance (UK)
* Gaza war protest vote movements
* Votebank
* Identity politics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muslim Vote, The
2023 establishments in the United Kingdom
2024 in British politics
Religious activism
Lobbying organisations in the United Kingdom
Islamic political organizations
Islamic organisations based in the United Kingdom
Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom
Gaza war protests in the United Kingdom