On Friday (5th July), an Indian-origin independent candidate named Shockat Adam Patel was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from the Leicester South constituency.
Shockat ran his election campaign on a pro-Palestine agenda and defeated Jon Ashworth of the Labour Party by a margin of 979 seats.
“We as a city have done this. We as a city are a shining example to the rest of the world that it is the people that matter, not those that rule over (us). This is for the people of Gaza,” he made his intentions clear soon after the election results.
“This is for Gaza.”
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) July 5, 2024
Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed the crowd, calling for unity and dedicating his win to Gaza. Adam has unseated Labour shadow cabinet minister Jon Ashworth. pic.twitter.com/11KYHbWfpb
Ties to radical Islamic outfit ‘MEND’
The 51-year-old has been associated with a radical Islamic outfit named ‘Muslim Engagement and Development’ (MEND) for quite a long time, even holding the position of ‘Leicester Chair.’
An article published by The New York Times in October 2022 however identified Shockat as a resident of Leicester and a ‘volunteer’ at MEND.
Interestingly, the American newspaper tried to whitewash the organisation as “a charity that fights against Islamophobia.”
MEND has been flagged for 'promoting extremism'. Henry Jackson Society has termed MEND as "Islamists masquerading as Civil Libertarians". 4/14 pic.twitter.com/ao4DduC4sL
— Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) September 30, 2022
MEND was exposed as early as 2017 by the ‘Henry Jackson Society’ as “Islamists Masquerading As Civil Libertarians.”
According to the think-tank, MEND provided a platform to extremists with a history of sympathising with terrorists, inciting violence, support corporal punishment against Jews, homosexuals and ‘disbelievers’.
“Several of the organisation’s employees and volunteers, including senior figures, have publicly expressed a range of disturbing views on terrorism and anti-Semitism. This has included expressing support for terrorists overseas, dismissing recent terror attacks in the UK, promoting anti-Semitic conspiracies and even calling on British Mosques to hold prayers for the Mujahedeen,” the Henry Jackson Society emphasised.
Peddling ‘Muslim victimhood’ narrative during 2022 Leicester violence
OpIndia had extensively reported on the violence carried out by radical Muslim mobs in Leicester in England’s East Midlands region in 2022. We also pointed out how widespread disinformation was weaponised to justify the targeted attacks against the Hindu community.
At that time, Shockat Adam had attempted to downplay the violence carried out by his co-religionists by labelling it as a ‘reaction to provocation.’
During his interview with The World in October 2022, the new MP from Leicester South claimed, “The Muslim community didn’t just start going and beating up Hindu individuals. This was in response to what they felt was provocation for a sustained period.”
After trying to justify the actions of his radical co-religionists, Shockat tried to undo the damage. “There’s absolutely no condoning of any form of violence and innocent people have been caught up in it, which is unacceptable,” he added.
At the same time, he also promoted the conspiracy theory about mass influx of Hindus associated with the RSS from India to Leicester which set the stage for violence.
“I was saddened, heartbroken almost, but not shocked unfortunately. We have seen, for the last decade, a change in how people were behaving to each other. We were becoming a lot more ghettoized with people living in different communities. And there’s been an influx of a new community that has come from a very nationalistic India,” Shockat Adam told The World.
Even though such a baseless theory was popularised by Islamists amid the Leicester violence, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) grudgingly conceded that there was no evidence to back such a claim.
Lies about RSS and BJP
In one interview with Byline Times in 2022, Shockat Adam further amplified the lie about rise of Hindu nationalism in Leicester.
“There has been an undercurrent of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and [Hindu] nationalism creeping into our city. Some of these members of the new community have come to this country from an India which is in the fervour of nationalism, and the RSS, so they have come with a background of [Hindu] supremacy,” he claimed albeit without evidence.
The MP from Leicester South also glossed over the fact that a large section of Muslims in India voted for the creation of an exclusionary Islamic country ‘Pakistan’ in 1947 based on a divisive concept of ‘Two nation theory.’ He then tried to guilt-trip Hindus for seeking their own State.
“The BJP is the political wing of the RSS. This was a result of colonialism and from a time when India was finding its feet. The narrative was out there that there is a state for every other religion, so therefore India should be for the Hindus. That was that ideology. Whereas the forefathers of India at independence were passionate that India should be a secular country, and it should be for all and for all religions, the RSS oppose that ideology,” he claimed by shrewdly omitting the rationale and context behind the creation of Pakistan.
Anti-India Propaganda
Shockat Adam also did not shy from carrying out anti-India propaganda from the United Kingdom. Through the radical Islamic outfit ‘MEND’, he organised a webinar titled ‘Indian from Partition to Persecution’ in December 2020.
He had roped in a serial fake news peddler CJ Werleman to spread canards about his country of origin. During the webinar, Shockat said, “Our discussion in the show revolves mainly around how India, from its post-colonial birth 73 years ago, after 200 years of imperial subjugation, has now gone through a process where individuals on the ground, commentators, political commentators and human rights activists are saying that they are subjugating their own people.”
“Indian citizens are almost second to third class graded people in their own country, leading to blatant discrimination and even persecution,” the Leicester South MP alleged.
During the webinar, he also pleaded with his fellow co-religionists to donate to MEND so that he could continue to further radical Islamic propaganda in the country.
“I also implore you to support organisations like MEND which are 100% community-funded, community-inspired and a community-run organisation that is tackling Islamophobia in this country and raising awareness of Islamophobia around the world so that we can ensure that what is happening in certain parts of the world will not happen to maybe not ourselves but maybe to our children or even to our children’s children,” Shockat Adam was hear saying.
Majid Freeman and his support to Shockat Adam
Majid Freeman, a rabid Islamist who was at the forefront of instigating violence against Hindus during the 2022 Leicester episode, extended his support to pro-Palestine Shockat Adam.
In one tweet, he said, “Remember this from the other week? @JonAshworth will be regretting this right now. The best man @ShockatAdam won and has now replaced him in Leicester South.”
Just like Shockat Adam, Majid Freeman left no stone unturned to rationalise the violence carried out by frenzied Muslim mobs. Freeman took it a level further by constantly peddling fake news and instigating his fellow co-religionists to ‘teach Hindus a lesson’.
In September 2022, the rabid Islamist alleged that 3 men had tried to abduct a teenage Muslim girl. “CONFIRMED: An incident took place this morning not far from a college in Leicester,” he tweeted.
“A Muslim teenager was approached by 3 men but she ran away into the school. The college & police are aware of it and the family have been given an incident number by Leicester Police,” he claimed.
The conspiracy theorist even claimed to have met the family of the girl, who was traumatised by the alleged kidnapping attempt. “The girl is very shaken but she is ok alhamdulillah. They’ve reported the incident to the police. Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of this and the people behind it are caught,” he said.
The fake news was then amplified by other Islamists, who alleged the role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the alleged abduction attempt. The Hindu man, falsely accused of kidnapping the Muslim girl, was doxxed on Facebook and his residential address was leaked on social media.
Later, the Leicester police debunked the disinformation through a press release. It said, “Yesterday we issued an appeal following a report that a teenage girl had been approached by three men in the area of Richmond Way, Leicester, on Monday morning.”
“A full investigation has been carried out. Following extensive enquiries, we have established that the incident did not take place and no offence was committed,” the cops confirmed.
Today's update, covering the previous 24 hours 👇 pic.twitter.com/CSB5ZtpZvS
— East Leicester Police (@LPEastLeics) September 14, 2022
Islamists also tried to use the trope of provocation to justify their attacks on the Hindu community. They claimed that Hindus raised anti-Islamic slogans whereas they only chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Vande Mataram.’
Majid Freeman was yet again at the helm of this fake news.
Second Claim: Racist Hindu mob raised anti-Islam slogans on streets was widely shared by Islamists & local media (without any evidence).
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 19, 2022
Fact: Mob was shouting slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ & ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to protest the violence against them, indicating no communal angle.
(3/n) pic.twitter.com/VjXhemJT6r
Interestingly, Majid Freeman was also interviewed by the BBC to set the narrative in favour of the perpetrators.
A @LeicsPolice statement has confirmed that Majid Freeman lied about Hindus acting against Muslims in Leicester. Why are the BBC interviewing someone who has already been proven a liar? Why no interview of the Hindu community who suffered the attacks from #Islamists for weeks? pic.twitter.com/tBHDu9FkEz
— INSIGHT UK (@INSIGHTUK2) September 18, 2022
The deliberate attempt by Majid Freeman to stoke hysteria in the Muslim community and lay the foundation of violence against the Leicester Hindus did not stop the then city Mayor from arranging a meeting with him.
