Musk blowing 'every conceivable dog whistle of Islamophobia': Omar Suleiman

Omar Suleiman has called on Elon Musk to stop blowing political "dog whistles of Islamophobia" and invited the world's richest man for a conversation if Musk is unintentionally spreading anti-Muslim narrative on his social media platform.

Suleiman, a globally renowned imam, theologian, human rights activist and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, on Tuesday charged Musk of sharing "dangerous" and "dishonest" tweets about Islam.

"When one of your Teslas kills someone while self-driving or explodes on fire and the media charges your vehicles as unsafe, you point out sampling bias, share all kinds of statistics, and allege that the media is either accidentally or deliberately misrepresenting statistics to promote a vindictive agenda," Suleiman wrote on his X handle, tagging Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX space tech firm and Tesla automotive company.

"Yet, for the past week, you have blown every conceivable dog whistle of Islamophobia, by highlighting a select group of (horrifying) incidents supposedly in the name of Islam. Your barrage of tweets aimed at Islam have been as dangerous as they are dishonest about a faith practiced by over 2 billion people."

Suleiman expressed readiness to engage with Musk if the latter "genuinely" wants a clarification.

"If you don’t know you are doing this and genuinely want clarification, I and many others easily accessible to you are willing to have a conversation. If this is a deliberate smear campaign, then you are indeed every bit the hypocrite you once condemned," Suleiman wrote.

Musk ignores white British men

Musk, who is set to serve Donald Trump's new administration as an outside adviser, has waded into UK's political affairs.

He has sparked a massive row about gangs of men who groomed and raped girls in England over several decades, focusing on the Muslim and Pakistani heritage of some of those involved in the crimes while ignoring the majority of white British who had been involved in those crimes.

The cases have been used by far-right politicians to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse opponents of cover-ups.

The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an erratic interest in British politics since the centre-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demanded UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer be imprisoned.

On Monday he posted an online poll for millions of his followers on the suggestion: "America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government."

Musk's allegations are in contrast to the studies of England, Scotland and Wales conducted by the previous UK government that have already dispelled the myth of "Asian grooming gangs" popularised by the British far-right and others.

According to research sponsored by the British Home Office in 2020, the majority of child sexual abuse gangs are made up of white men under the age of 30.

"There is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented," the research added.

At the time, Nazir Afzal, the ex-chief crown prosecutor in North West England, who brought prosecutions over the Rochdale grooming gangs, welcomed the report.

"It confirms that white men remain the most common offenders, which is something rarely mentioned by right-wing commentators," he had said.

In February 2024, the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse think tank analysed ethnicity data from defendants and found that despite making up 9 percent of the population, men of Asian descent, in general, were involved in 7 percent of the cases of child sexual abuse, whereas white men, who make up 83 percent of the population, were involved in 88 percent of such cases.