British Muslims are being targeted with WhatsApp messages from a group urging them to vote out 14 Conservative candidates they accuse of “supporting Israel”.
The messages also allege that the Tories — who are each fighting to hold onto marginal seats with significant numbers of Muslim voters — are “Islamophobes” and “supporting Modi’s assault on Kashmir”, although no evidence is provided for these assertions. Home secretary Priti Patel condemned the WhatsApp campaign, telling BuzzFeed News it was “shocking and divisive”.
The messages are part of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee's "Operation Muslim Vote", which is encouraging Muslims to vote for the Labour Party. MPAC has previously been criticised for its record on anti-Semitism. A crowdfunder page for the campaign on the FundAmal website says: “Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a row as though they are a single structure joined firmly.”
The campaign is the latest controversial attempt to use WhatsApp to target religious groups during the election. Earlier this month, it was reported that Hindu voters had received WhatsApps encouraging them to vote against Labour, claiming that the party was “anti-India”, “anti-Hindu” and "anti-Modi". The messages were widely condemned for seeking to inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims ahead of the election.
MPAC’s effort to target Muslim voters uses comparable tactics, but instead urges Muslims to vote against 14 Tory MPs. One of the messages seen by BuzzFeed News said: “This is the Muslims’ opportunity to kick Islamophobes out of power!
“We intend to mobilise the Muslim communities and punish the Tory party for their blatant Islamophobia.
“We have targeted 14 Tory marginal seats who have MPs that have a record of enabling Islamophobia, supporting Israel and/or supporting Modi’s assault on Kashmir.
In ALL of those seats, Muslims can vote them out of power and hit the Tories HARD!”