Haitham al-Haddad – Vote SADIQ Khan or PUNISH Labour
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Quick question. Lots of people are saying, look.
What do we do for the London mayoral
elections? Because we're in a tough position. We
want to punish Labour because of their condemnable
stance against the ceasefire,
because, centrally, the Labour Party has been supporting
Israel and its genocide and give it diplomatic
support and political support. But at the same
time, you know, what do we do in
London? Because it's a very, very tight race
between
London's
current mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is Labour,
and also someone who is, you know, has
been openly Islamophobic and,
against Palestinian, rights and so forth. So how
would you advise people, though? How do you
how do we balance that? The the desire
to punish labor, but also, you know, get
someone in who is going to help Palestinian
actors and help the the Berlin system guards
as much as we can in London. Okay.
Yeah. I think this is a very good,
question. And,
I I don't think that this question is
limited to the mayoral
election, but
also,
it covers the general election.
Now see, brothers and sisters,
one big mistake
in the democratic
process or if you want to say the
democratic
game,
yeah,
is that
don't vote
based on emotions.
It doesn't work.
The harm of it
overweighs,
yeah,
the the the benefits of it, if there
is any benefit or if there are benefits.
So
I think,
the premise here, which is we want to
punish labor,
yeah, is the wrong premise.
Even if we say that it is a
strategic decision,
that should not be the premise. The premise
is we want to
to have a strategic decision
by not voting, for example, in this case,
labor
because the other option
is better.
So there is a Russian behind it. There
is a strategy, not just we want to
punish
this candidate, that candidate. We want to punish
labor,
and we and then,
we should vote anyone else,
or we should abstain from voting.
I'm talking about the it as a general
concept.
See, I am in Istanbul now. Okay?
And
I'm meeting different people,
and yesterday, I was saying to some
close people to me without mentioning their name.
I said to them,
are you happy that,
AK party lost now?
They said,
no. I said, but you used to say
that we will we want to punish Erdogan.
We want to punish AK party.
And then
some of those people that I spoke to,
including the students,
they said, no. We didn't vote actually. Neither
for Jhepe,
the winning party in this in most of
the cities actually,
in this
yeah. Okay. Local elections,
and,
we didn't vote. I said,
well done. Okay.
You didn't vote. Actually,
you voted for who?
Actually, my niece,
who is young, she realized this. She said,
yeah. You are right, Antu.
Those who didn't
many, they didn't vote, and they get paid
supporters, they won't have voted.
Okay?
That's it. So brothers and sisters,
in conclusion,
don't just use punishing
as the deciding factor for your,
for your,
voting or for your I mean, to be
fair, when we say punishing labor, it's it's
really it's actually sending them a message that
you can't,
take our votes for granted. You can't treat
us with contempt. So it is a stretch
strategic thing. It it it does have some
thinking behind it. I think it's just quick
and easy to say punish labor.
The okay. Yes.
Now
if we were to say this, okay, we
need to think of the other possibilities.
So
okay. I agree with let me agree with
you.
Then we would be rewarding another party.
Is that true or not?
So we will punish labor,
and we will reward other parties that maybe
if they were empowered, they will be worse
than Labour.
And that's why
in the world of elections and democracy,
you need to what? You need in fact
in fact, this is an Islamic principle.
Don't insult the,
gods of the disbelievers.
If they are going to insult as a
retaliation,
if they are going to insult
Allah
This means that look at the bigger picture.
Think of the consequences.
The scholars of Ursud Al Firk, they used
to say,
are connected to the outcome of that. Therefore,
before I think of punishing
Labour, am I
rewarding
any other party
that is going to be worse than
Labour?
Yeah. Am I going to punish this candidate,
this particular candidate,
and reward another candidate?
And don't say that we will abstain from
voting,
or we will vote for independent,
okay, or some of our, you know,
independent,
candidates
because
that in of itself, if it is not
done
based on statistics
and and facts as much as we can,
then that is considered to be what?
Rewarding
another party
that is
worse than labor.
Yeah? So I would like to add, if
you allow me, I would like to add
for this statement that you used, which is
don't we want to punish
labor. We want to send them a strong
message. Let us add to it. Okay. Punish
labor, but
don't reward
those who are worse than labor.
Yeah?
This is the key, point. Now in terms
of that mayoral election,
do we have other options other than,
forget about the labor? Do we have other
options other than Saad Khan?
Yeah?
Other
viable options.
Do we have that?
Okay. And brothers and sisters,
in, again, in politics
and
in the the democratic,
process,
you don't evaluate
a person
based on his statements,
his,
maybe tactics,
etcetera.
No. You, number 1, you evaluate
the party or the individual
based
on
his strategy,
not tactics.
And there is a difference between tactics
and strategy.
Number 1. And strategy
is decided by his past.
Yeah?
Deciding by his other
achievements,
his his failure,
contextualizing
those achievements,
contextualizing
those failures.
Yeah.
Also studying
his,
his manifesto or his future.
Okay? This is how to evaluate him. Now,
also,
when you evaluate
him, you need to evaluate the other candidates
if they were in the position.
Are they going to
do better?
Yeah? Yeah. Okay. And now are you telling
me, doctor Selma, yeah,
that if
the conservative
were in power,
will they,
condemn
Israel?
Probably the opposite. But, I mean, in terms
of Will they not no. No. Just a
just a minute, sir.
I know you are playing the devil's advocate,
so called the devil's advocate.
Okay. Will they condemn?
Okay. The
Zionist, will they They want them. They'll Will
they condemn
the occupation?
No. They'll support them even more. It's clear.
Will they,
vote for ceasefire?
No. Absolutely not. Okay. Now some people say,
no. We know you need to go for
independent.
Yeah? Yeah. Okay.
Or Greens or the Green Party or Or
the Green. You know? Is that but if
they can win,
yeah, if there is a possibility for them
to win, then go for it. Yeah? According
to the party,
by voting for them just a minute. By
voting for them, actually, you are rewarding
certain parties.
Yeah. They get simple. And by the way,
the doctor Salman,
you know, I'm not saying, okay, we need
to,
vote labor because for GLA, for example, Greater
London Authority,
don't vote labor.
Yeah. Show them that we are not happy
with them. So the DLA is the is,
the kind of committee that holds the mayor
to account and Yes. Yeah. And
some some some things. Okay. You don't want
labor.
Don't want labor. Yeah. And you know that,
I'm working with the brothers from the Muslim
vote. Okay? And we never agreed
to vote labor.
Yeah. We said we need to check what
is the best for each
community, for each constituency.
Yeah.
That is For the general election for the
general election, it's it's,
it's clear it's gonna be more of a
case by case thing. Different candidates looking at
their records and giving recommendations and so forth.
Yeah.
And we look forward to, you know, getting
more and more reviews for that. But for
the London mayor in particular, it seems just
to be devil's advocate
or Sadiq Khan's advocate.
It
seems that he's too big in terms of
if he was a non Muslim mayor, who
wasn't part of labor, it would have been
an absolute no brainer. In terms of policy,
I remember you said before in an article,
we need to think of policies over people.
I think Yeah. Saadiq Khan's biggest weakness
is, my son of a I'll just say
this, is that is his Muslimness because
lots of people are upset that being a
Muslim, he's doing lots of things that might
consider,
you know,
not
correct behavior for Muslims and so forth. But
not they they are not. They are not.
Okay? Certain things that he did. They are,
of course, on Islamic. We agree. We know
about that. Yeah. But that that mean that
the the his, what opponent
will do Islamic things.
Yeah. Yeah.
So in terms of policies,
that's a kind of a no brainer in
terms of,
you know, homelessness,
feeding the poor,
you know, policing,
housing,
headquarters, policing.
Yeah. Supporting Gaza ceasefire, for example, being the
the earliest
people.
I don't like praising him. I don't you
know, I'm not really a a huge fan
of him anyway. But just to be to
be to be fair, he has been at
odds with the the central Labour Party in
terms of the on the the stance in
the ceasefire, and he's he's the earliest on
the earliest people to condemn Israel and so
forth.
But, again, obviously,
lots of people Muslim people might be upset
with his advocacy for LGBT ideology
Yeah. Instead of not just LGBT rights,
in certain in certain, kind of areas that,
you know, pushing certain ideologies and so forth.
But, again, when it comes to the the
horses in this race, it's a very, very
close thing between
and the polls suggest at least between him
and the conservative party candidate
who's made no kind of,
you know,
secret about her opposition to, you know, Muslims
and the Palestinian demonstrations and all that good
stuff.
So Yeah. Yeah. What example
You know, doctor Talmaq,
do you think that the
conservative or the Turey
candidate
will be,
forget about pro Palestine
issue or pro demonstrations,
will be,
will will will will will the candidate be
just
in terms of
allowing those demonstrations
and protest,
or, is the candidate going to work,
actively
to, to to suppress or to stop those
demonstrations.
Because
is just come out and and criticize it
being demonstrations saying that they should be,
shouldn't be allowed, if I'm if I'm not
mistaken. Yeah. Okay.
So this is a this is a critical
thing because now London is the hub of
those demonstrations.
And if we are not allowed to,
demonstrate in London, forget about just Palestine issue.
Anything that this is the key issue, and
that's why even for the non Muslims, they
need to understand this, that once we are
supporting
demonstrations
for Palestine or we are actually supporting the
administrations
for
the people's choice,
which is, as they say, the heart of
the democratic game. Now,
unfortunately,
the the the establishment
or many elements of the establishment,
they don't want any opposition
to their agenda, to their policies.
Yeah. And
they they want to suppress
any,
agenda,
sorry.
Not agenda, any opposition for their agenda.
So that's why we say even to non
Muslims, you need to support us in this
issue because it became iconic.
You know? It it became an icon for
those who want to,
to demonstrate
for their independent
choice for their
true freedom,
true freedom,
yeah, for their true choice for the true
democracy. Yeah.