Thread by @OzKaterji

This is a common tactic, because “actually our critics are the racist ones” was the one of the most common responses to Labour’s antisemitism crisis. When it could no longer be denied by reasonable people, this was the only option left for these cranks to assert authority.

https://twitter.com/adamlangleben/status/1468149470332440576

I was repeatedly subjected to vile Islamophobic harassment by pro-Corbyn trolls throughout 2015-2019. If I hadn’t blocked over 20,000 accounts over those years I would likely still be subjected to it on a daily basis.

They weren’t just satisfied smearing me as racist, they wanted people to believe I was an Islamist fundamentalist and a terrorist. This eventually culminated with me receiving a phone call from British anti-terrorism police.

During that period, I received next to no support from prominent Corbynite figures who were not only aware of the abuse & followed the accounts in question, some, including writers for the Guardian & senior former Corbyn aides, justified & defended that Islamophobic abuse

I wish I could say I was exaggerating about any of this but I’m not. As a queer Muslim journalist I was repeatedly smeared as a terrorist & Salafi-Jihadist by Corbyn supporters because I took a stand against antisemitism. This happened.

Here’s the @guardian’s @AllyFogg explicitly defending his friend repeatedly calling me an Al-Qaeda supporter from behind several anonymous accounts (all since banned by Twitter for abuse and harassment) & denying there was anything racist about it.

Anyway, I assure you, I try not to spend too much time thinking about this stuff, but I will never, ever forget what happened over those years and who stood complicit in it.

I will also remember that a small few, like Abi Wilkinson, saw that abuse and condemned it publicly. It was a small gesture but one that meant the world to me at the time because nothing could have prepared me for how I had to face that racism alone.

https://twitter.com/ozkaterji/status/1468158398403334150

If any other group of people had smeared a Muslim journalist as a terrorist & instigated a harassment campaign that eventually resulted in an investigated by counterterrorism police, the outpouring of solidarity would be huge. But because this came from the far left, I was alone.

https://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/1468158396847341568

To this day I still see occasional tweets from these individuals condemning abuse targeted at Zarah Sultana, without it ever dawning on them that they participated in the exact same type of Islamophobic abuse they are pretending to condemn. The cognitive dissonance is insane.