London, United Kingdom – Azmat Khan, a British Pakistani taxi driver, shouldn’t be often a lot of a worrier.
However not too long ago, as he drives his cab at evening via London’s ice-cold streets, he has develop into more and more anxious.
“We’ve simply had a summer time of unrest with misinformation fuelling far-right activists on this nation, partly because of X, and now he’s again, fanning the flames once more,” Khan stated of the South-Africa born tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has used the social media platform he owns to rage about British sexual abuse convicts of Pakistani heritage.
“This man’s harmful, and sure, I’m frightened,” Khan, a 35-year-old father of three, informed Al Jazeera, sharing his fears of collective punishment.
“Our group has seen via this sort of scapegoating earlier than. However with Musk’s platform and sources, the risk has reached a wholly new degree.”
Khan tunes in to the heartbeat of town via his passengers and says he has seen a troubling shift in back-seat conversations.
Some passengers have talked about what they referred to as the “threats” Muslims and migrants carry to the UK.
That kind of discourse could possibly be linked to Musk’s inflammatory feedback about historic circumstances of kid intercourse abuse, Khan believes.
“That was a horrific time when the information first got here out greater than a decade in the past,” Khan stated. “However to carry it up once more now, whereas it’s being handled, and to finger-point at Pakistani Muslims particularly – it’s apparent he’s making an attempt to trigger hassle, a transfer in direction of the civil conflict he was making an attempt to fire up final summer time.”
In August final 12 months, after three ladies have been killed in Southport, on-line agitators blamed the assault on a Muslim migrant. However 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was sentenced this week to 52 years in jail, was neither a Muslim nor a migrant. The false claims led to widespread riots. Responding to footage posted on X of the riots, Musk posted: “Civil conflict is inevitable.”
In latest weeks, Musk has turned his focus to baby sexual assault circumstances that happened over a number of a long time in northern English cities similar to Rochdale, Oldham, and Telford.
In addition to relentlessly sharing grim particulars of the circumstances involving British Pakistani males, a number of of them taxi drivers, Musk has referred to as for a brand new nationwide inquiry, amplified posts that counsel twin nationwide convicts ought to be stripped of their UK citizenship, and focused Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour authorities, accusing politicians of a “cover-up”.
Whereas some baby intercourse abuse circumstances have concerned a number of males of British Pakistani origin, it’s unimaginable to counsel British Pakistanis usually tend to commit the crime.
Shabna Begum, head of Runnymede Belief, a racial equality assume tank, stated there was “no conclusive proof which demonstrates an ethnic disproportionality in those that perpetrate this violence”.
A UK House Workplace report in 2020 supported this view.
“By propelling misinformation, he’s creating distrust and a risky setting,” Begum stated. “It purposefully stokes concern, prejudice, and division with no take care of the victims and survivors of this violence, and makes no effort to handle the true issues of misogyny and baby sexual abuse.”
Based on the Centre of experience on baby sexual abuse (CSA Centre), in 2022, 83 % of defendants proceeded in opposition to for baby sexual abuse offences have been white, whereas 2 % have been of Pakistani backgrounds.
The centre used information from kids’s social care, policing, prison justice and well being departments to construct its report, however cautioned that the overrepresentation of white defendants “is prone to be associated to the general under-identification of kid sexual abuse in minority ethnic communities”.
However Musk appears intent on portray a distorted image, as an alternative doubling down on a divisive and deceptive narrative, stated Khan.
Musk has relentlessly pressured the federal government led by Starmer, a former chief prosecutor and head of the Crown Prosecution Service.
“Starmer was complicit within the RAPE OF BRITAIN when he was head of Crown Prosecution for six years,” Musk has posted on X.
The federal government has repeatedly dismissed requires a second nationwide inquiry. Nevertheless, final week it introduced a plan to fund 5 new native inquiries, together with one in Oldham.
The UK’s seven-year nationwide inquiry into baby sexual abuse (2014-2021) was one of the vital complete investigations of its type.
Its closing report, printed in October 2022, drew on in depth analysis, a number of investigations, and sufferer testimonies. The report revealed systemic failures in defending kids and made highly effective suggestions to enhance safeguarding and accountability.
Even so, critics argue that the true scale of abuse dedicated was uncared for for years.
“The true difficulty is making a society that protects younger ladies from predators of any background,” Khan stated. “However Musk isn’t fascinated with options – he’s fascinated with scapegoating one group. It doesn’t bode effectively for Britain and even Europe the place he’s additionally been meddling.”
In Rochdale, the place British Pakistanis make up about 14 % of the inhabitants, some are weary of being vilified.
“Most of us are working-class, sincere folks,” stated Mohammed Sheraz, a 48-year-old “Rochdalian”, as he described himself.
Born and raised within the city, he added, “We’re uninterested in being portrayed as troublesome Muslims or brown males to be petrified of. Sure, some males dedicated disgusting crimes, however they have been as removed from Islam as you will get. They’re criminals and ought to be handled as criminals. They don’t characterize us in any manner.”
Sheraz, who has for years run the Military of Kindness – a soup kitchen in Rochdale that serves individuals of all backgrounds – views Musk’s interventions as harmful.
“It’s like he’s sowing the seeds for some main anti-Muslim conflict,” he stated.
Rochdale remained calm over the summer time as xenophobic riots erupted elsewhere, a way of peace that Sheraz attributed to the resilience of the British public.
“Bear in mind what stopped these riots from escalating: Folks of all races and backgrounds stood collectively in opposition to the right-wing thuggery that Musk appears decided to assist.”
Musk’s endorsement of the jailed far-right activist Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, higher often called Tommy Robinson, has been significantly contentious.
A determine synonymous with anti-Muslim sentiment within the UK, Robinson is at present serving a jail sentence for contempt of court docket.
Musk has referred to as for Robinson’s launch and portrayed him as a champion of free speech, drawing widespread condemnation.
Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, who lead the populist Reform Celebration that Musk has beforehand flirted with, have distanced themselves from Robinson.
Even so, Musk’s rhetoric has emboldened fringe actions. His posts echo the language of far-right activists, conflating cultural integration with an increase in criminality.
His affect – as one of many world’s richest males and an adviser to the brand new United States administration led by President Donald Trump – worries Sheraz.
“Tommy Robinson has been to Rochdale earlier than in 2011 to stoke up hate, divide and conquer, it didn’t work. The group stood collectively to make sure our city didn’t go up in flames … However now Mr. Tesla is backing these of us. Who is aware of what’ll occur subsequent?”
‘Thinly veiled try and racialise a gendered difficulty’
Begum at Runnymede described Musk’s rhetoric as “harmful and irresponsible”, particularly following the “worst racist rioting the UK has seen in generations”.
“Victims of kid sexual abuse deserve justice, and naturally, all kids should be protected against sexual violence and exploitation – that goes with out saying,” Begum stated.
“What we’re witnessing are highly effective males exploiting horrendous sexual violence in opposition to girls to attain political factors and push their very own agendas.
“Specializing in Pakistani Muslim males and advocating for deportation or citizenship stripping is a thinly veiled try and racialise what’s essentially a gendered difficulty.”
Because the UK grapples with Musk’s rising affect, unity ought to be the strongest defence in opposition to a divisive agenda, stated Sheraz.
“We’ve confronted hate earlier than, and we’ll face it once more. However we’re British – we’ll stand collectively in opposition to this, too.”
