Regular readers may remember a previous post about Akmed Yakoob, the independent candidate backed by George Galloway and the Morning Star, standing against Labour’s Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham Ladywood.
Yakoob, a very wealthy criminal defence solicitor, has no record of left-wing or labour movement activity. His website profile (now, it seems, unavailable) said: “He’s become a social media sensation” and is “arguably the most renowned lawyer on digital media”.
We noted that Yakoob had used social media to spread a false allegation of racism against an entirely innocent young teacher, resulting in death threats against her (he belatedly retracted the allegation and issued a half-hearted apology).
We also noted that his participation in a misogynistic podcast recorded while he was running in the West Midlands Mayoral election and exposed by the website ‘Roll On Friday’ (ROF). It was an episode of the ‘Minted Minds’ podcast billed as as an “emergency meeting” of “influential voices” to talk about Palestine, but over the course of the two-hour conversation the subject turned to masculinity and women. Yakoob and five other men praised the misogynist Andrew Tate and extolled “the essence of true manhood” against the supposed threat posed by women who are not sufficiently subservient.
It now turns out that the podcast was even nastier than we reported. The Guardian of 20 June published a transcript of a section of the podcast that we had not located and which was edited out of the final cut put out by ‘Minted Minds’. Apart from Yakoob, the participants were Shakeel Ahmed, now running as an independent candidate in Birmingham Hall Green and a leading protester against LGBT teaching in Birmingham schools; Dr Asif Munaf, presently suspended by the General Medical Council over allegedly antisemitic posts on social media; and Coventry-based restaurant owners ‘Sunny’ Sarnwall and ‘Vic’ Mohammad.
Podcast transcript:
Dr Asif Munaf: From a Muslim point of view, Dajjaal [a false messiah who leads people astray] and all this, we know the majority of his followers will be women. If you empower women so much, when they start following him, society will start following him as well.
Akhmed Yakoob: 70% of hell is going to be women.
Speaker off camera: We don’t want to get cancelled!
[…]
Yakoob: Look, as I said, I’ve got nothing against women, I love women, (men laugh and Sarnwal says: “Yeah, I bet you do”) I love my wife. But everyone has got a role in society, everyone has got a role in the household. In my household, I’m the man, I’m the king. I call the shots, and my Mrs, Alhamdulillah, listens to me and is appreciative
Munaf: Because women want men. Women want men.
Yakoob: Women want real men who go out and provide so she can be the queen, and she can look after the children and look after our kids, the household as well.
[…]
Yakoob: How much can you lower your gaze? If any one of us was to come with our wife who is tarted up to the nines, it’s natural for a male to look at her and think: “She looks all right.”
Munaf: And if you don’t, you’re not a man, you’re a eunuch.
Yakoob: It’s natural for men to be attracted to females, so keep our queens at home.
[…]
Sarnwal: The mothers need to worry about their daughters. Because if she is dressing like a slut, your daughter is going to dress like a slut. The man needs to understand his daughter is going to be the production of his wife. So if he doesn’t control his wife, how is he going to make sure his daughter is safe?
[…]
Mohammed [talking about women making money from TikTok]: Getting back to masculinity, I personally would give her a backhander. I’m not joking.
Afsar: We do not advocate any physical violence against anyone.
Sarnwal: He’s right though, what he’s saying.
Yakoob: Brother, are you saying if she comes up in your personal space you will defend yourself?
Sarnwal: If she throws a punch, you can defend yourself.
Off camera: One of the men quotes Yakoob’s professional tagline: There’s a defence for every offence, bro.
**
The Morning Star of 1-2 June carried an article by former Corbyn adviser and leading member of the Communist Party of Britain, Andrew Murray, giving Yakoob uncritical support. Murray interviewed Yakoob in his office and tactfully avoided raising the false “racism” claim or the misogynistic podcast (some of which by then had been publicised by ROF . Murray did, however quote Yakoob stating that Mahmood “can’t actively campaign in certain areas in Ladywood … That’s how frustrated people are with her.” Who exactly these “people” are and what form their “frustration” takes was not made clear.
Murray closed his fawning little piece thus: ” ‘Lend Gaza your vote’ was Mr Yakoob’s mayoral pitch — and it may be enough to seal Ms Mahmood’s fate”.
Will Murray and the Morning Star continue to back this unsavoury shyster now the full depth of his misogyny has been exposed?
Shiraz Socialist (Second Run) 