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Labour MP Reed receives written appeal from mosque leaders

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Peaceful protest for peace: members of the Croydon Federation of Mosques gathered outside Labour MP Steve Reed’s constituency office last night

It’s a simple enough question.

“Members would be keen to understand why you feel that the killing of 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children, can be justified as part of Israel’s self-defence.”

The question was posed to Croydon North’s Labour MP Steve Reed, in a letter delivered by hand last night by a delegation of around 20 people from the Croydon Federation of Mosques.

Hand-delivered: Ansari drops the letter to Reed through the door of the constituency office

The letter was posted through the letterbox of Reed’s constituency office on London Road, Thornton Heath, by Dr Anwar Ansari, who had signed the letter as president of the community organisation for Muslims.

Reed’s constituency office was closed at the time of the gathering (it is open to constituents for less than 10 hours each week), although there was an unmarked police car with plainclothes police parked nearby. Dr Ansari thanked the officers for their service.

As Inside Croydon reported last month, more than 200 people attended a meeting organised by the Federation held at Purley Mosque where another Croydon MP, Tory Chris Philp, who represents Croydon South, and politicians from other parties (but not Labour) listened to residents’ concerns about the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

Many of the speakers had relatives living, and dying, in Palestine.

The meeting included condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli settlements on October 7. But it also accused the Israeli government of war crimes by deliberately attacking innocent civilians, while cutting off fuel, food and water supplies to Gaza.

The situation in Gaza has only got much worse in the subsequent weeks, with hospitals targeted by the Israeli military, thousands more being killed, including many workers from international aid agencies.

Yet still the position of the parliamentary Labour Party is to refuse to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The word on the streets: one of the stickers seen in Reed’s Croydon North constituency

Neither Reed nor his party colleague, Sarah Jones, both members of Keir Starmer’s shadow team at Westminster, have joined the growing call for a ceasefire.

And neither Reed nor Jones have responded to appeals from the Muslim communities in their constituencies to attend meetings organised by the Croydon Federation of Mosques to meet their constituents and hear their concerns.

Starmer and Reed’s growing notoriety in refusing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza has seen stickers and posters begin to appear around Croydon North with their image and a legend: “I stand with genocide”.

The Croydon Federation of Mosques’ letter simply requested that Reed should reconsider attending a meeting.

The letter said: “I wonder whether you might be able to reconsider your decision not to come to a Croydon Federation of Mosques sponsored meeting with residents in your Croydon North constituency.

“The Croydon Federation of Mosques aims to lobby those in Croydon civic society on matters of interest to its 22 mosques members.

“Members would be keen to understand why you feel that the killing of 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children, can be justified as part of Israel’s self-defence.”

It’s a simple enough question.

Read more: Demo threat sees Labour fund-raiser for MP Reed ‘postponed’


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