Former Hounslow Mayor Accused of Making Anti-Semitic Comments

Labour councillor Nisar Malik reprimanded by MP but not expelled from party

Nisar Malik (centre of picture) recently campaigning with MPs Seema Malhotra and Ruth Cadbury

The on-going row over anti-semitism in the Labour party has reached the local borough with a candidate in the forthcoming local election reprimanded for making posts which have been deemed anti-Semitic.

Former Mayor of Hounslow, Nisar Malik, who was re-elected as a councillor for Hounslow Central in 2014, has removed posts from his Facebook page made on 16 April. In what appears to be a spell check malfunction, Mr Malik claimed that there is no debate about the treatment of the Palestinians because the 'Zaniest Lobby controls all the media'. He also disputes the veracity of claims of a chemical attack in Syria and claims that the agenda is to 'split Syria to please the Zaniest government of Israel'. He has earlier claimed that ISIS was created by Israel and the USA.

Cllr Malik's Facebook posts

Cllr Malik was Mayor of Hounslow for a year from May and was the first Muslim Mayor in the borough. The profile picture on his Facebook page, features Jeremy Corbyn on a visit to the constituency. The page is filled with his comments on politics and human rights issues principally relating to the Indian subcontinent.

The posts were originally highlighted in a Facebook page on Feltham, Hanworth and Bedfont Politics where Marina Sharma criticised the Councillor for being "anti-Semitic and anti India and also very anti America."

Labour MP for Brentford & Isleworth, Ruth Cadbury, told ChiswickW4.com she had been made aware of the posting by Cllr Malik and had spoken to the councillor about the matter.

"There was an element in the post that was unacceptable," she said. She added that Cllr Malik was apologetic and had said he would remove it. He could now face a reprimand from the Labour Constituency committee but there has been no indication at this point that he will not represent the Labour party in the election on 3 May.

There were a number of angry comments sent to Ruth Cadbury on Twitter with one saying "I think more needs to be done than just removing posts".

The issue of anti-Semitism has been controversial for the Labour Party for several months. In Tuesday’s parliamentary debate on the subject, a succession of MPs urged Jeremy Corbyn to act against offenders within the party. The UK’s former chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, has spoken of feeling ashamed while watching “too many good people doing nothing” to tackle the rise of anti-Semitism in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

Cllr Malik has been a councillor for 14 years. When elected Mayor in 2015 he said his ambitions were to bring communities together and engage with people young and old. He wanted Hounslow to be a “beacon borough” for community cohesion and he promised to work to reduce religious tensions.

Nisar Malik, who runs fifteen halal counters at a supermarket chain, arrived to London from Pakistan as a teenager in 1976 and worked his way up to running an import/export company, before opening a halal butcher's, near Hounslow.

He has not responded to our request for comment.

April 24, 2018