The victory by George Galloway in the West Bradford by-election was a political shock for Britain’s major parties and particularly the British Labor Party.
Parties in opposition are not expected to lose seats in special (or by) elections to fill a parliamentary seat. Galloway, who was elected in the East End in 2005, had been expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 for calling then Prime Minister Tony Blair a war criminal for the invasion of Iraq.
The election is being viewed as a repudiation of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and most particularly. Labour, which had held that seat for 42 years.
Galloway had twice met with Saddam Hussein. expressed his respect for the Iraqi tyrant and formed a charity that was intended to highlight the suffering of the Iraqi people due to Western sanctions against Sadam’s regime. This charity was surreptitiously backed by the Iraqi regime and, according to documents found after the invasion of Iraq, Galloway appears to have personally profited from his political involvement.
Before entering his candidacy in the heavily Muslim constituency, Galloway had been a presenter on Iran’s Press TV where he had good words for Ahmedinejad. “Ahmadinejad commands the loyalty of the poor, the working class and the rural voters whose development he has championed.”
Although he ran against Imran Husayn, a candidate of Pakistani extraction, Galloway claimed that he was actually the better Moslem, would not be seen in a pub and had paid a personal price for defending the Muslim ummah against its oppressors.
Since 1976, when he engineered a twinning between Dundee, Scotland and Shechem (Nablus), Israel Galloway has been pro-Arab and an enemy of what he refers to as the “so called” or “apartheid” State of Israel.
After operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009, he claimed that Israel’s actions were the worst the world had seen since the Second World War. He tried to bring a convoy to Gaza, but was forced to do so via Egypt.
He has been married or romantically involved with Arab women, although the relations have been unstable, given Galloway’s record of infidelity. That record earned him the nickname of “gorgeous George” in the ’80’s. This did not affect his relations with extreme Muslim groups, such as the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), which wants to create a sharia state in Europe. Fidelity is not a known Islamic value.
After his election and the day after, he continued to give his voters the rabble rousing they sought. His victory, crowed Galloway, represented meeting Muslim “wajib [duty] to care about the Aqsa [Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem], about the people under occupation in Kashmir, about the massacre in Kandahar.”
He developed the theme the next day, saying: “Neither will I forget those who are bleeding elsewhere in the Ummah. We have problems here in Bradford, but the people of Gaza have even more problems.”
Labour has promised to learn the lessons of its embarrassing defeat. Hopefully, this does not mean that they will try to compete with Galloway in appealing to Moslem voters.
