A British MP says his newborn baby was subjected to “vile” racism and hate online, just hours after being born.
Adnan Hussain, an independent MP for Blackburn, became a father over the weekend and said the flood of abusive responses under a pixelated picture he posted on X was “beyond depraved”.
Posting on the social media platform after removing the image, Mr Hussain wrote: “I shared a photo of my newborn daughter, and many of you sent beautiful messages. Thank you. But I’ve had to delete it. The vile racism and hate directed at an innocent soul less than a day old was beyond depraved.
“To these people; you are a sickness,” he continued. “Our children deserve better. I’m more determined than ever to fight for that future. Not just for my daughter but for every child growing up in this country.
“This is our home, mine, and now hers. I will not be silent. I will not back down. I will fight racism wherever it hides: in our institutions, on our streets, and online. Because no parent should have to shield their child from this kind of hatred. Enough is enough.”
Mr Hussain is part of Jeremy Corbyn’s Independence Alliance of MPs and won his Blackburn seat in 2024 on a pro-Palestine campaign.
He said he posted the picture “out of sheer excitement and happiness”, just wanting to share the good news with his constituents, but also making sure to take precautions to protect his daughter’s identity by pixelating her face. But the MP said he was unprepared for the level of abuse.
On Facebook, the post was mainly positively received with congratulatory messages, but on X the Islamophobic and hateful replies began to pour in.
The sexist and racist comments began to call Mr Hussain’s Britishness into question and said his daughter should be deported alongside him to their “ancestral homeland”, despite the MP being born in Burnley, Lancashire, and his daughter also being born in the UK.
Speaking to The Guardian he called out “very strong forces” he said were leading society down “a very dark abyss of hatred and despair”.
“Day by day, the atmosphere around us is darkening, be that online or out on the streets, and maybe even workplaces,” Mr Hussain told the newspaper. “The hatred those in positions of leadership and power are allowing to fester and go unchecked is having very real, very dangerous, real-world consequences.”
Tell MAMA, a UK charity which records Islamophobic hate crimes, has documented 913 anti-Muslim hate cases between June to September this year. There have also been 17 cases of mosques and Islamic institutions targeted with attacks and threats.
Speaking on some of the highest numbers of cases the charity have seen, surpassing the 2023-2024 figures of over 6,000 cases, the Director of Tell MAMA, Iman Atta OBE said: “We are looking at a serious problem of anti-Muslim hatred that is pervasive in parts of our country. This comes at a time when real political leadership on this matter is missing.”
