This weekend we saw the proof of the rise of sectarian politics. Things are about to get bleak - Stuart Fawcett

Radical Islam already has political a foothold. Now it is preparing for a full-scale incursion at next year’s local elections.

In perhaps the most on-brand twist of the whole affair, Zarah Sultana effectively protested and boycotted her own party conference.

Then came the naming fiasco. Some imagined the vote might signal a wider realignment on the Left, perhaps even a merger with the Greens. Instead, it revealed something far stranger: a shotgun marriage between factions who have almost nothing in common beyond a shared grievance against the Labour leadership - and likely any ordinary British voter.

On one side stands the increasingly dominant sectarian bloc, whose rhetoric and priorities mirror the identity politics of Islamism reminiscent of middle eastern conflicts. On the other side sits the hyper-activist ‘trans rights’ mob, determined to turn every policy debate into a culture-war purity test.

It is less a coalition and more a collision.

The crowd told its own story. A striking number appeared to be university-age, many draped in keffiyehs and chanting slogans about a conflict I imagine few could locate on a map, let alone explain in historical context. I couldn’t help wondering where some of these young activists might study - I’m curious as to whether any of these institutions receive funding that could perhaps leverage ideology that’s being imprinted on impressionable minds.

Imported conflicts make poor foundations for British politics. Yet here we are: whole segments of a new party wrapped in the symbols of causes they barely understand, demanding that Britain reorder itself around them.

We cannot detach this rhetoric from its real-world consequences. On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded and murdered more than 1,200 people in Israel - the proportional equivalent of over 13,000 Britons. I’ve visited the sites of slaughter and seen the footage: civilians gunned down in their homes, families slaughtered, attackers shouting praise to Allah over the bodies they beheaded. This is a lesson in why politics matters. Gaza voted for Hamas and this is what they carried out. That is where the language of “resistance” leads when it is allowed to go unchallenged. It ends in murder alongside the cheering and excusing of terrorism.

Activists echoing the call to “globalise the intifada” in Britain are, in effect, calling for this here.

That is why I found MP Ayoub Khan’s remarks about Birmingham banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a football match so disturbing. Whether framed as “community safety” or “local concerns,” the effect is the same: it normalises the idea that Jewish identity - or any association with Israel - is a public-order threat.

When elected representatives start endorsing the exclusion of football fans based on geopolitical identity, something has gone badly wrong. This kind of rhetoric does not calm tensions; it stokes them. It introduces antisemitic suspicion into everyday life and gives it a veneer of political legitimacy.

To our shame, normalised antisemitism has taken root in Britain, but I also fear for British Muslims almost as much as for British Jews. Sectarian politics forces a false choice - British or Muslim.

When religious identity becomes a primary organising force in political movements, the result is division, grievance and parallel societies.

Previously, British Muslims have overwhelmingly resisted and rejected this. By virtue of their British identity, they have accepted they have far more in common with their Jewish, Christian or even atheist neighbours than with activists trying to import the political tensions of Gaza and the West Bank into Birmingham, Bradford or Leicester.

Sectarianism does not protect communities; it fractures them.

It will take courage from Muslim communities across the UK to stand up to the attraction of this sort of politics purporting to represent their best interests. They are being painted into a corner of binary choice between being British or being Muslim in their politics and identity.

However, to me it is clear: those wanting to embrace true British values and join the fight against this extremism have the opportunity to do so by rejecting sectarianism and the politics Your Party is seeking to advance.