Brothers and sisters, comrades and
friends,
uh first the next counselor for little
Horton, a very happy birthday.
He's only 30.
This campaign has aged him already,
but he's thrown himself into this
campaign with such heart, such ver.
He's like a man of 25 and I'm sure that
it's going to be rewarded inshallah with
a great victory on the 22nd of May. We
did come here to meet. We also came here
to eat. Thanks for your invitation for
that. I myself I'm hungry. Uh and I'm
sure the brothers are too. Uh so I'll be
brief. I had to take time out from
election hearing today to visit the
mosques that were attacked uh on
Saturday afternoon by a formation called
Britain First, which is a breakaway from
the BNP,
uh a vicious right-wing fascist
breakaway whose sole purpose is to
provoke and fight Muslims in Britain. If
you look at their website, their Twitter
feed, if you look at their activities in
other places, then you can see very
clearly uh what they are about. For
those of you who don't know, up to 10
mosques on Saturday afternoon in
Bradford were attacked by two carfuls of
10 people, nine men, one woman, who've
put their own pictures on the internet
inside the mosques that they attacked
and desecrated
and have caused fear and alarm,
trepidation
across the whole community. Actually,
elders who would normally go to the
mosque in the afternoon are now afraid
to do so. Doors that were normally left
open from late in the night until very
early in the morning are now locked.
Uh women who were used to putting their
children into the madrasa while they
attended to their daily tasks are now
afraid to do so.
These people acted with a semi-ilitary
precision.
Their operation was brilliantly planned.
No other group like them has ever done
such a thing before. This is the first
time in the history of this country that
10 mosques have been successfully
invaded without uh opposition and the
mosque desecrated. people walking around
inside the mosque with their shoes on,
uh, handing out Bibles in the mosque and
handing out leaflets, accusing
Pakistanis and Muslims in general of
pedophilia and grooming and all the
other uh,
hobby horses that they have. The fact
that the vast majority of such crimes
are not committed by Muslims but by
others. The fact that the vast majority
of such crimes are not committed by
Pakistanis but by others. Jimmy Sabo was
not a Pakistani. He was not a Muslim.
All these big cases that are in front of
the high court now are not cases
involving Pakistanis and Muslims. Of
course, such vice exists in all
communities and we are absolutely
committed to rooting it out. But these
leaflets were a deliberate provocation
being tossed around in mosques attacking
Muslims, attacking Pakistani Muslims in
particular. They acted with precision
almost as if they knew exactly what they
were doing. They chose a time when there
would be few people in the masids to
repel them, to force them out. Uh, and
the the public relations operation that
they mounted immediately afterwards,
showing their pictures and their videos
from inside these mosques was a very
real provocation to us. And worse,
they've promised to come back again.
And when we met the chief, the commander
Atkin of the uh police today, we made
this point clear to him. The police and
the home office for that matter who've
been utterly silent since Saturday
afternoon until now
have to protect the people and have to
protect the religious property of the
people. And if they don't, the people
will have to protect themselves,
excuse me, and protect the property
themselves. And how will that look? How
will that look to the public? It will
say that we have no confidence in the
police. How will it look for the police
that they're unable to protect tens of
thousands of Muslims here in Bradford?
We don't want that because it doesn't
look good for us either.
But we will not be bullied. We will not
allow the mosques to be invaded and
Islam to be insulted and the people of
Bradford to be insulted. So we made it
clear to the police and we just have now
to Theresa May the home secretary in a
letter which we will release later this
evening made it clear that this is
completely unacceptable and the silence
of the mass media has been unbelievable.
Can you imagine, God forbid, if two
carfuls of Muslims had invaded churches,
handing Qurans around the churches,
desecrating the holy places in the
churches? Can you imagine? It would be
the number one item on the television
news. Well, this hasn't even been on the
television news.
Hasn't been in a paper. Whilst if the
book had been on the other foot, it
would have been the front page lead of
the Sun and the Daily Mail and the
likes, day after day, which would would
be in danger of being invaded and
occupied
by the British and the Americans if such
a thing had happened. God forbid that it
ever would. And no real Muslim would
ever dream of doing such a thing.
So the silence, the shame and the
silence of the government and the media
in this uh speaks volumes. When they
when they discovered that Subway was
selling halal uh chicken in its
sandwiches, it became a national issue.
Whilst here are mosques, 10 of them
perhaps being invaded and desecrated
without a cheap publicity.
We have no intention of making this
issue bigger than it is. We don't want
the boys out on the streets burning
tires. It's the 25th anniversary of the
Rushi matter coming up very soon. We
don't need that. We don't want that. But
neither will we collaborate in making it
smaller than it is because that would
merely be to invite more such attacks
and worse attacks. Imagine if they had
come when the mosque was full, the
trouble that would have ensued. It might
have ended up with burning tires. Now,
they knew the time they chose, which is
interesting in itself. They obviously
studied the timets of the salah uh to
choose their time carefully.
So, we will not make it bigger, but we
will not make it smaller because nothing
like this has ever happened before. And
the fact that it's happened here
where we're so strong is a real
provocation to us. They're saying we can
strike you where you're strong and we
will strike you again. And who knows
what their tactics will be next time.
What we waiting for? or are we are we
going to wake up one morning and
discover they've been in the mosques and
committed some heinous acts uh in the in
the mosques and film them and
photographed them. It's as serious as
that. So, everyone has to be very
vigilant. These people have promised on
their website and on their Twitter to
come back and we have to be vigilant and
ready. You've got the strength uh to
help. But not every mosque. I mean, I
was speaking to some old men in the Abu
Bakr mosque there who were terrified by
the whole thing. Really terrified. And
now in the mosque scared. They saw us
white people in cars coming today and
they were scared. That's how bad uh this
is. So we have to be vigilant. We have
to be ready. But above all, we have to
be demanding that the uh political class
takes this very seriously. Indeed, there
has been total silence from city hall.
The MP, the Labour MP for Bradford South
is on holiday and doesn't even appear to
know that it happened. I don't know why
he's on holiday cuz Parliament's
sitting, but he's on holiday. David Wart
has been silent as far as I can see. If
I'm doing him an injustice, I apologize
for that. But the council leaders have
said nothing and done nothing at all.
And that
is a reason for our existence. That is a
reason for the fact that we are all here
and that we're all fighting this
election campaign because our civic
leadership
is so poor, so weak, so vacasillating
that frankly we need to change them.
They're not good enough to be our
leaders. We deserve better leaders than
them and we intend to uh provide it. So
that brings me back to my final point.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the
death of the late John Smith.
20th. Imagine the the last labor leader.
The last man that deserved to be called
a labor leader in that 20 years. Labor
has gone from the defender of the people
to I don't know how you would define it,
but it's certainly anything but labor.
And I'm the only person commemorating
the 20th anniversary of John Smith's
death. Labor hasn't said a single word
about it. It tells you all you need to
know about the Labor Party today. So,
we'll eat quick if we may after your
speeches. Uh because uh we have other
election work to do. I'm going to tour
all the wards where our candidates are
out with their workers and uh do my uh
bit. Uh and then I'm going to Scotland
in the morning and the next day I'll be
back here. So, I'll be back here
campaigning on Wednesday and on uh
Saturday and part of Sunday and then
into the final week. Uh so, it's a big
push. We've still got lots of work to
do. Even in award like this where I'm
convinced that we're winning, there's
still work to do right up to 10:00 on
polling day itself. There's still always
one more voter that we could have got to
the polls. And remember this ward was
won by how many votes last time? 17. 17.
17. One of the narrow. Yeah. 17. One of
the narrowest in the city. And of course
the head that we chopped that day was
the leader of the council himself. And
now we're going for the former Lord
Mayor. Uh we specialize in
in such operations. So the best of luck
to all of you. Uh Ron is here, my
assistant Selma, I brought her up from
London to strengthen the team uh today
and tomorrow and over the next few days.
Uh so if you need anything, badger on
them. If they're bad tempered, never
mind. Uh they'll get over it. Uh they
they can't work miracles. And people do
have to pay. By the way, leaflets are
not free. Uh people are demanding
posters, leaflets and so on. Not you, of
course, but uh not not many others have
yet paid their way. They have to. But
badger them by all means. That's what
they're here for. Um sorry, Ron to uh
invite more badgering. But uh it is
important that we fight this right up to
the wire. And if we do, we'll have a
famous victory again here in Bradford.
[Applause]