Shockat Adam, the newly-elected MP in Leicester South in United Kingdom’s General Elections that took place on 4th July, is the brother of the founder of the hardline Islamist group ‘Friends of Al Aqsa’, Ismail Patel. During his victory speech, someone from the audience passed him a black and white keffiyeh headscarf, which is a Palestinian headscarf. Shockat raised it and said his victory was “for the people of Gaza”.
Notably, Ismail has previously visited Gaza and met leaders of the terrorist organisation Hamas. Reportedly, he “saluted” the terror group for “resisting Israel”. The extremist group Friends of Al Aqsa was founded in the mid-1990s by Ismail in Leicester. The group has played a vital role in organising pro-Palestine demonstrations across the UK following the Hamas Terrorist Attack on Israel.
Shockat has been active at the protest sites and has given pro-Palestinian speeches. During his online campaign, his photographs while speaking to a pro-Palestinian group holding Palestinian flags with the words “Our Community Needs You” were circulated to gain trust of the like-minded voters.
Shockat has defeated former Labour minister Jonathan Ashworth by a sleek margin. Notably, Ashworth held the seat since 2011. However, since the Hamas Terror Attack on October 7, Ashworth became a target of the pro-Palestinians who actively hounded him on the streets of the city accusing him of betraying the people of Palestine.
According to Jewish News’ unnamed sources, Shockat’s office was shared with Friends of Al Aqsa to organise protests in the city. The organisation celebrated Shockat’s victory on social media. In a post, they wrote, “Yesterday’s election was a tectonic shift in British politics. Widespread dissatisfaction at the Conservative’s and Labour’s stance on Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza saw an unprecedented shift towards pro-Palestinian candidates, both running as Independents and within smaller parties.”
Yesterday’s election was a tectonic shift in British politics. Widespread dissatisfaction at the Conservative’s and Labour’s stance on Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza saw an unprecedented shift towards pro-Palestinian candidates, both running as Independents and within… pic.twitter.com/FbohY2MJx8
— Friends of Al Aqsa (@FriendsofAlAqsa) July 5, 2024
Apart from Friends of Al Aqsa, Shockat also received support from The Muslim Vote (TMV). The organisation openly directed Muslim voters to vote for the candidates who have been supportive of their ideology. Because of the influence of such organisations, Labour MPs in several constituencies face challenges in the elections. Even Muslim candidates including Labour MPs Naz Shah, Rushanara Ali and Shabana Mahmood faced challenges as they were labelled as “pro-genocide” for supporting Keir Starmer’s party.
Interestingly, Jewish News revealed that thousands of unlabelled posters were circulated before the elections that were anti-Ashworth. Posters reading “Vote for Genocide Vote Labour” were made to letterboxes of the voters, thanks to paid distributors.
Coming back to Shockat, he gave the impression that his campaign was not based solely around Gaza. Promises like “Protect our NHS” and “Champion affordable housing” were part of his pledge. However, his official website read, “Our opposition, the media and specific Zionist organisations are behind attempts to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations in the country”. He added, “Weaponising terms like antisemitism, a heinous prejudice in itself, are used and abused to smear any objector of the actions of the Israeli military.”
Who is Shockat Adam Patel?
Shockat Adam Patel is an Indian-origin MP who won 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 votes.
“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. In a recent report, OpIndia revealed how he is connected to a radical Islamic outfit named ‘Muslim Engagement and Development’ (MEND) for quite a long time, even holding the position of ‘Leicester Chair.’ MEND was exposed as early as 2017 by the ‘Henry Jackson Society’ as “Islamists Masquerading As Civil Libertarians.”
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.” 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.
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.”
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.”
