Posted on 05/02/2005 11:11:30 AM PDT by milestogo
UK Muslims poised to punish Blair LUTON, England: Two years after the Iraq war, Britain’s Muslims are using their once-loyal Labour vote as a sharp reminder to Tony Blair that they are still angry. "Because of the British involvement in the Iraq war, we’re not happy with Labour," said Mubin Quraichi, the head of Luton’s central mosque. His understatement is backed up by more virulent protests, political rallies and militancy on the street aimed at punishing the prime minister and his Labour Party at the ballot box for dragging Britain into war. Iraq has hardly been an issue for most of the campaign ahead of Thursday’s general election, but it has flared up in key constituencies where Muslims represent a large proportion of voters and their traditional loyalty to Labour can no longer be taken for granted. In Luton, a working-class town north of London, one quarter of the population is Muslim, and primarily of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin. Their vote was crucial in handing Luton’s two parliamentary seats to Labour candidates in 2001, and it could also be instrumental in taking them away. The two politicians took different positions on the war, and that could affect their standing with voters. Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, rebelled against Labour frontbenchers and opposed the war, while Margaret Moran, MP for Luton South, backed Blair’s decision to join the US invasion in March 2003. The Liberal Democrats, the third-largest party in Britain, which consistently opposed the conflict, and the anti-war group Respect, have gained where Labour has lost, and are likely to pick up most of the anti-war votes. Hafsha Ali, a 27-year-old volunteer handing out Respect leaflets in Luton, said that people repeatedly told him: "I hate Tony Blair, I’m not voting for him." "Even the Labour voters are very angry," added real estate agent Mohamed Chowdry, 56.
While not all Labour loyalists will ditch the party solely over the Iraq issue, there are many people, he said, even "hardcore Labour supporters ... who’d rather not vote." Labour’s greatest fear, especially in places like Luton, is not that locals will support the Conservatives, but rather that they will stay home, apathetic or angry.
Do they honestly think they'll get a better treatment from the Tories??
Agreed. What more evidence do we need that immigration is undermining the Western democracies?
And they even turned on George Galloway...
Any idiot that thinks the Mohammedans can be appeased, deserves their fate.
Maybe the Tories can halt the dhimmitization of the Angles, Saxons, Welsh and descendants of the Normans in their own homeland....well, we can always hope, can't we?
So the British Muslims will punish a leader who helped bring DEMOCRACY to 25 million of their kin by VOTING?
Hypocracy/irony at it's best...
"Because of the British involvement in the Iraq war, we’re not happy with Labour, said Mubin Quraichi, the head of Luton’s central mosque"
BooHoo, BooHoo, so sad...doesn't this guy have an honour killing he has to attend or something?
Jihadists, by definition, are not of sound mind.
allah fubar
If their country was so great before, why did they leave in the first place?
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