Britain's first Yemeni MP, Abtisam Mohamed, hit back at tech billionaire Elon Musk's comments on social media over the far right threat, which saw him claim “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.
Ms Mohamed, who was born in Yemen and came to the UK as a child, represents the South Yorkshire constituency of Sheffield, which is just kilometres away from riots which broke out in Rotherham at the weekend, and has seen first-hand the destruction being caused.
Mr Musk had hit out at Prime Minster Keir Starmer on his social media platform X saying: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” in response to Mr Starmer's address to the nation that he would not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities.
It has led Ms Mohamed to defend the government's stance and she responded to him on X saying: “We are rightly concerned about the current *actual* attacks on mosques and Muslims.”
An immigration centre in her constituency has been identified by far right activists as a target, where a source told The National staff were “very concerned and worried” about the situation.
On Sunday, Mr Musk wrote that a British “civil war” was inevitable.
“Use of language such as a 'civil war' is in no way acceptable,” said justice minister Heidi Alexander, branding Mr Musk's comments “deeply irresponsible”.
“We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly,” she told Times Radio.
On Tuesday, Mr Musk continued to goad Mr Starmer and posted a cartoon clip of a person being executed in an electric chair alongside the comment: “In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like.”
He then badgered him with images of grooming gangs asking if this was still taking place and then commenting on the first riot arrests over a social media post encouraging members of the public to protest outside a hotel.
“Arrested for making comments on Facebook! Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?,” Mr Musk wrote.
Director of think tank the Counter Extremism Project, Hans-Jakob Schindler told The National Mr Musk was being irresponsible.
“The statement of Elon Musk that 'civil war is inevitable' is a perfect example of the complete lack of responsibility of the owner of one of the key [social media] platforms,” he said.
“Rather than trying to minimise the damage that his platform is currently inflicting on British society, Mr Musk seems to prefer pushing his personal political agenda.
“The damaging effects of the dissemination and amplification of mis- and disinformation and violence-orientated extremist narratives by social media platforms and messenger services, including X, currently on display in the UK must lead to a fundamental re-evaluation of the regulatory approach towards this industry.”
Riots by anti-immigrant demonstrators have spread across England following the murder of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, north-west England, on Monday last week.
They have been fuelled by online disinformation that the stabbing suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. He is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain.
The rioters have attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, forcing the government to provide emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
A senior Labour MP told The National that Mr Musk’s tweets on the “civil war” gripping Britain were “disgraceful” and irresponsible coming from a person of his global influence.
“He is someone in a position of power with a huge following yet he lacks total responsibility saying things like that,” said Afzal Khan, who is a Muslim.
“It just doesn't help anyone and is nowhere near the truth as well,” said the Manchester MP. “The truth is that the overwhelming number of people, of whatever background, race or creed, are good British citizens and very decent people.”
He added that it was the responsibility of social media companies to ensure that “they specifically put a stop to the false information which is being pedalled” adding “you can't just simply make profits”.
Mr Starmer's representative said Monday there was “no justification” for the comment.
Technology Minister Peter Kyle met representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google and X on Monday and warned that social media users spreading misinformation will have “nowhere to hide”.
