Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain condemned a wave of abusive comments on X after announcing his child’s birth, calling the online attacks “beyond depraved.”
The British MP claims that within hours of his baby's birth, his newborn was the target of "vile" racism and hate speech on the internet.
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.”
A pro-Palestine movement helped Mr. Hussain win his seat in Blackburn in 2024. He is a member of Jeremy Corbyn's Independence Alliance of MPs.
In addition to wishing to share the good news with his constituents, he claimed to have released the photo "out of sheer excitement and happiness," taking care to pixelate his daughter's face to protect her identity. However, the MP claimed that the degree of harassment caught him off guard.
The post was mostly met with congratulations on Facebook, but hostile and Islamophobic comments started to flood in on X.
Even though the MP was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and his daughter was born in the UK, the sexist and racist remarks started to cast doubt on Mr. Hussain's Britishness and suggested that his daughter should be sent back to their "ancestral homeland" with him.
He denounced "very strong forces" that he claimed were guiding society toward "a very dark abyss of hatred and despair" in an interview with The Guardian.
“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.”
Between June and September of this year, 913 anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported to Tell MAMA, a UK NGO that keeps track of Islamophobic hate crimes. Additionally, there have been 17 instances of threats and violence directed towards mosques and other Islamic establishments.
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."
How has local reaction in Blackburn responded to the abuse against Adnan Hussain?
The reaction in Blackburn to the abuse against Adnan Hussain and his new baby girl has been one of support and condemnation of the hateful messages seen online.
Hussain himself said that while the hateful responses on X were "beyond depraved," including layers of sexist, Islamophobic, and racist abuse, he received a great deal of goodwill and supportive messages from people with different political views, in the main through other social media, Facebook in particular.
Many local residents and local figures have supported Hussain, indicating solidarity with him and his family against the racist and Islamophobic abuse that arose following his post about becoming a father.