A Muslim man was arrested after he made alleged threats to a candidate in a by-election in the United Kingdom for the candidate's pro-Israel views.
A video message with death threats was sent to Simon Danczuk, who is one of 11 candidates running to be Rochdale’s MP, earlier this week. The election was made after the death of the former MP, the Labour Party's Sir Tony Lloyd.
The man in the video refers to Danczuk, who was formerly in the Labor Party, as a "white devil" and threatened to “put one in his head." The Muslim man in the video became angered that Danczuk had as a tagline, "Vote for Rochdale not Gaza," on a campaign flyer.
Danczuk said that the video message has “caused lots of concern and distress” for him to the point where he will have two security guards with him for the rest of the campaign, according to the Guardian.
“It’s just unacceptable. They stopped me from speaking at a hustings meeting, I’m receiving death threats, and now we’ve got to have security personnel as a candidate going round in an election," he added.
“I’ve been doing politics for 35 years and I’ve never known it. It’s outrageous. This isn’t how British politics should work.”
Greater Manchester police received the video on Monday and then had the 23-year-old Muslim man arrested by Tuesday. Authorities said they got wind of "an online threat in the run-up to the Rochdale byelection."
