Where the War Is Still Raging
	The battle over Iraq has finally spread to Britain's ballot boxes
	By HELEN GIBSON | London

Posted Sunday, May 1, 2005; 12.03 GMT
Bethnal Green and Bow is one of the poorest constituencies in Britain, and backed Labour with a 10,000-plus majority in the last election. But incumbent M.P. Oona King is fighting for survival. One issue has shaken the political kaleidoscope in this multi-ethnic area of east London: Iraq. Police were called in to protect candidates after George Galloway, whose Respect party is running on an antiwar ticket, was threatened by Muslim extremists and King, who supported the war, was pelted with eggs.

Galloway, a former Labour M.P. for Glasgow, founded his Respect party and chose to contest a constituency where 40% to 50% of the electorate is Muslim precisely because he wants to create a stir and capitalize on his antiwar credentials. He was a frequent visitor to Iraq and in 1993 laid a wreath at the shelter where 300 were killed by a U.S. bomb. In 1994, he greeted Saddam in the name of "many thousands" of antiwar Britons. He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 after comments that included advising British troops to refuse to obey "illegal orders" to fight.

But in Bethnal Green he hadn't reckoned with al-Ghuraaba, an apparent offshoot of a disbanded radical Muslim youth organization, which denounces voting as un-Islamic and, Galloway says, threatened his life. Galloway was forced to retreat to his car after youths disrupted a tenants' meeting he was holding. King, too, has been intimidated. The daughter of a British Jew and a black American civil-rights activist, she was pelted with eggs and had her tires slashed when she attended a memorial for Jewish war dead. She and Galloway first blamed each other for inflaming the situation, but later tried to defuse it.

Bethnal Green is one of around 10 constituencies across the country with large Muslim populations where Iraq is still a raw, immediate issue rather than just another reason to distrust Tony Blair. The turmoil around Galloway and King has encouraged challengers to step up their campaigns. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are fielding Bengali candidates in a constituency where some 30,000 voters trace their origins to Bangladesh. "Oona took it for granted that people would vote Labour," says Mohammad Belal Ahmed, chief editor of the Bengali Surma News Group, whose headquarters is in the constituency. "She was arrogant. She should have consulted before she voted for the war, or at least she could have abstained."

Galloway — or Gorgeous George as he is known, thanks to his expensive suits and big cigars — intends to capitalize on sentiments like that. He strolls along the streets, refusing to respond to the abuse of one white man who calls him a "F___ing traitor!," greeting robed women outside a school with "Salaam alaikum," and muttering "Respect" to black youths, who enjoy the street cred of his party's name. "I'll vote for him," says Gulamali Yussuf, a 45-year-old shopkeeper. "He has always been solid in whatever he has said and done."

Yet the war is by no means the only issue in this deprived, high-unemployment area, which has housed waves of immigrants since the 17th century. In a launderette full of suspicious white people, Galloway is challenged to address some key concerns. "What can you do for us?" manager Angie, who refuses to give her surname, asks aggressively. Galloway talks of how he will fight poor schooling and the drug scene, and the "privatization of housing" that he claims will push out long-term residents. "I'm a working people's champion debater and I could be a champion for you," he says.

Meanwhile, the Conservative candidate — Shahagir Bakth Faruk, a long-time local resident and small businessman — is canvassing a run-down local-authority block full of Bengali immigrants. "Galloway is here to [politically] exploit these people," says Faruk. "He does not know this area." The truth is, as editor Belal Ahmed remarks, "it won't be an easy ride for any of the candidates."

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