In October 2015, the Facebook group ‘British Muslims for Corbyn‘ was created, more than 3,800 people are currently members. Its founder and administrator is Arslan Ashraf.
Its stated objective is to “politicise and mobilise British Muslims to garner support for Jeremy Corbyn.”
Jeremy Corbyn and Arslan Ashraf campaigned together in Peterborough in May 2019. The then Labour Party leader recorded a video message of support for the antismitic Facebook group. Ironically, it was a message stating he would build a society “without racism!”
A scan of the group’s posts reveals numerous antisemitic posts and hate speech. Some of them are from the admin of the group, including, antisemitic conspiracies & hoaxes, comparisons of Jews to the Nazis, blood libel and more.
An investigation into this Facebook group reveals that many of its prolific contributors are antisemites. Among them are:
Abdul Ibrahem who joined the group in June 2016 and also administers ‘Palestine from the river to the sea‘ group on Facebook.
The next member is Billy J. Wells, who joined the group in April 2016. Billy was running for UK Labour in Bradwell South and Hopton, but was dropped after we discovered posts saying: “The world is controlled by the super rich families of the Zionist lobby.”. Our world leaders sell their souls for greed and do the bidding of Israel”. Billy still seems to be antisemitically obsessed with Jews, control, and power.
This group also includes Daud Niazi, another notorious antisemite. Daud joined in December 2019 and is permitted to freely post his bile and hatred. Paul Rippingale was exposed as Daud Niazi by John Ware in the Jewish Chronicle.
Mizanur Rahman, who is alleged to have links to the Islamic Human Rights Commission, is known to be an antisemite. Rahman joined the group in January 2017. He recently applied to become a Labour council candidate but apparently his application was rejected on fears that his social media activity will bring the party into disrepute. Mizanur is a member of Harrow East CLP and he will be reported to the Labour Party for antisemitism.
It was also disturbing to find that a number of Labour councillors were among the group members:
- Cllr Ehtasham Haque, Labour Councillor for Blackwall & Cubitt Town in Tower Hamlets. He is ex-husband of MP Apsana Begum and was recently suspended from Labour.
- Cllr Aasim Rashid, Labour Councillor Rochdale Borough.
- Shabana Qadir (Cllr Shabana Dhedhi), Labour Councillor for London Borough of Waltham Forest.
- Cllr Vincent Lo, Labour Councillor for Fryent Ward, Brent. He was a Parliamentary candidate in 2017.
For the past 4-5 years, these four councillors have been members of ‘British Muslims for Corbyn’. None of them have condemned or distanced themselves from the horrific antisemitic views of the group.. Disgraceful.
Remember that Corbyn shared a support message with this group, and there are many antisemitic Facebook groups bearing his name. The troubling thing is that he never once denounced any of these groups spreading antisemitism in his name. Certainly not the behavior of someone who “hasn’t got an antisemitic bone in his body” or is a “lifelong anti-racist”.
Arslan Ashraf, the group admin, is the owner and director of Keller Academic Services, an educational support company. The appropriate authorities will be notified about his antisemitism and the facilitation of hate speech.
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