Ayoub Khan on Maccabi Tel Aviv ban: 'False smears put my family in danger'

Independent MP Ayoub Khan has said that false accusations by politicians over his backing of a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have put his family in "danger".

Khan is a key supporter of a West Midlands Police ban on fans of the Israeli club from attending a 6 November fixture against Aston Villa in Birmingham.

That position has attracted anger from British politicians from across the spectrum despite large segments of the British population supporting the ban, according to a YouGov poll.

"It's been quite vile," Khan, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, told Middle East Eye.

"It's quite upsetting for the family, in particular children. No parliamentarian should find themselves in this position but it's been driven there because of the false descriptions of my position."

In the House of Commons on Monday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy falsely said the ban recommended by West Midlands Police "chooses exclusion" of Jews. 

Khan denounced what he called a "deliberate, disingenuous move by many to make this a matter of banning Jews, and to conflate matters of policing with those of religion".

'The false narrative spewed out by members of parliament and the media has put me and members of my family in danger'

- Ayoub Khan MP

"Those who are not welcome in Aston are the hooligans who have a long history of violence and vile racism," he added, referring to the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan base's well-documented track record of violent rampages in European cities.

Nandy responded by claiming "it is entirely disingenuous to say that you respect cohesion and inclusion when you are seeking to divide and exclude".

Khan told MEE: "The false narrative spewed out by members of parliament and the media has put me and members of my family in danger. It's obvious that I'm standing for equality, and for isolating nations responsible for human rights violations.

"My argument is consistent in terms of its principles and it's being misrepresented."

Tory MP Jack Rankin falsely claimed last week that Khan "thinks that Jews should be banned from football matches".

Rankin called him an "unintegrated, racist antisemite".

Khan had said when the ban was announced that "it was clear that there were latent safety risks that even our capable security and police authorities would not be able to fully manage."

'We are being singled out'

Prominent LBC journalist Iain Dale called Khan an "anti semitic racist c**t" in an X post that he later deleted and apologised for.

Independent MPs were joined by others - including fellow member of the Independent Alliance Jeremy Corbyn, and Green Party, Scottish National Party and even some Labour MPs - in supporting the ban.

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But the Muslim independents were singled out for accusations of "sectarianism" and antisemitism.

Corbyn insisted in parliament on Monday that the ban was "absolutely not about banning Jewish people" and that "everybody -whether Jewish, Muslim or anything else - must be safe to walk the streets of this country".

Nandy responded that "he might make that point to the people he now associates with on his left and right [Corbyn's fellow Muslim independent MPs], because that is not what we have heard from them in the last few weeks."

Khan told MEE he raised a point of order to call for more measured language.

"We are being singled out only because we are Muslims," he said.

"If the chief constable [who defended the ban] was a Muslim, my goodness - wouldn't they have gone for him."

Adnan Hussain, a fellow independent MP, told MEE: "The hostility my colleagues and I faced in the chamber yesterday was appalling."

'That our leading political and media class are using these labels and accusations to shut down debate is a threat not just to us but also to the very foundations of these democratic processes'

- Adnan Hussain MP

"The debate around the topic, by people holding a lot of influence, including fellow parliamentarians, has been shocking.

"Referring to us with terms such as 'sectarian' and 'Islamist', and inviting others to lose all inhibitions when expressing their racist viewpoints against us, is a dangerous and slippery slope."

Hussain added: "A democracy allows for safe and open debate, for disagreement and opposing opinions to be expressed, that our leading political and media class are using these labels and accusations to shut down dialogue and debate is a threat not just to us but also to the very foundations of these democratic processes.

"That they are doing all this to protect a genocidal state from criticism is extremely alarming."

Speaking in parliament on Monday, Iqbal Mohamed - another independent MP - denounced "the conflation of antisemitism with the banning of football hooligans who happen to come from Israel, and the abuse that I and other people have received for supporting the ban on safety grounds".

Nandy responded by falsely claiming that there had been no such ban on all away fans from a game in the past 20 years. 

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In fact, in November 2023, Aston Villa banned fans of another club, Legia Warsaw, from attending a match on the advice of West Midlands Police, after supporters of the Polish club engaged in violence.

Nandy then said: "And I would just gently say to him that if he is conflating everybody that supports an Israeli team, the vast majority of whom by definition will be Jewish, with being violent football hooligans, then he should consider whether he can really stand in front of this house and say that he is not behaving in a way that is antisemitic." 

On Monday night Maccabi Tel Aviv announced it has decided not to sell any tickets to its fans for the 6 November fixture against Aston Villa in the English city of Birmingham.

Maccabi Tel Aviv's fans have a long track record of using hate speech and causing violence and disruption in European cities.

Amsterdam City Council recently banned Maccabi Tel Aviv from the Dutch capital after the club's fans caused mayhem by rampaging through the city in November, before and after their Europa League match against Ajax.