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International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
World
Danielle Summer

Left-Wing Muslims Lose Faith In The Labour Party As Gaza Death Toll Passes 31,000

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for rejecting the call for a permanent ceasefire. Photo: AFP / Denis Charlet (Credit: AFP News)

In a report headlined "The War In Gaza Is Changing The Muslim World," Islamabad-based Journalist Umer Farooq said that Israel's ceaseless bombardment of the Gaza Strip "will boost fundamentalist tendencies in Muslim societies."

Since Israel declared war on Gaza, triggered by Hamas' on the ground massacre and gruesome assault of Israeli's, world leaders have been called upon to facilitate a permanent ceasefire agreement between the conflicting governors.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has since been criticised for rejecting the call for a permanent ceasefire.

Instead, the left-wing leader has repeatedly pushed policymakers to vote for a "humanitarian ceasefire" that he claims will lead to "a just and lasting peace for Palestinians."

While more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged enclave, the Conservative government have yet to vote in favour of a permanent ceasefire.

According to the most recent data published by the Office for National Statistics, in 2021, 3.9 million people in the UK identified as "Muslim" – equal to 6.5 per cent of the population.

Murthaza Qadri, who lives in Walsall, England, said that Labour's chance of winning the next general election has been threatened by its inability to call for a permanent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

In Walsall, a suburban market-town home Walsall Central Mosque, more than 11.3 per cent of the population are Muslim.

Qadri went on to explain that the catastrophic fighting has made the community "talk about politics."

"We've been brought up in an environment where we were blindly supporters of Labour, old and young. But now people are opening their eyes a bit more," he said.

In recent months, the local community have seen eight Labour councillors resign over the issue.

Former Walsall Labour Councillor Aftab Nawaz, who stepped down from his post last year, said that he "saw a different side of the Labour Party" as the party's "central control" increased.

"If we are sitting at home or in our mosques praying for the people of Palestine, yet we represent a party whose leader isn't saying that this should stop, we ourselves become complicit," he said.

Nawaz also said that his resignation has been met with much support from the Muslim community.

"We had calls from all over the place, not just in Walsall. People were coming up to us and hugging us and saying well done, you've stood up for what you believe, you've stood up for us and you'll always be our heroes. We're not heroes," the former left-wing councillor added.

Nawaz went on to note that he will "never regret being part of the Labour Party," explaining that he tells his followers that "it's not that we've left the Labour party, the Labour party has left us."

The Labour Party has also failed to come up with a solution to the military tensions that have since spread through Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Yemen.

"I have never seen the region as implosive, as boiling. There is so much rage and anger, not only against Israel but against the United States," warns Fawaz Gerges, a Middle Eastern politics expert.

Last month, the US also voted against a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who previously condemn the Security Council for failing to "condemn the barbaric terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel," told the Security Council blocking set out to protect hostage negotiations from being disrupted.

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