by In 2023, several pictures emerged of Andrew Tate holding a copy of the Quran while still in police custody in Romania. Standing alongside his brother Tristan, Tate has been seen holding the religious book during his court appearance, usually in curls or surrounded by police and crying photographers or journalists.
Tate was very impressive with his imagery, the Quran tells many stories of people who were persecuted, it tells how to overcome hardship, it can also tell a change in one’s attitude and it says you are ready to begin anew and be a humble servant of Allah.
The photos were the first time Tate had endorsed the faith to the general public, but he had already claimed to have converted to Islam the previous year.
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A few months earlier, Tate had posted on microblogging site Gettr and said: “This is why I’m a Muslim. Any Christian who believes in good and understands the real battle against evil must convert. So be patient, Verily Allah’s promise is the truth” Quran 30:60.
The reaction was mixed, he was not taken seriously by many in the public, and his reputation as a master of rampant misogyny and trolling online. Tate was also the latest talking point from the dingy corners of the internet to convert to Abrahamic religion as a purported antidote to ‘wokeness’, using the religion as a shield for his positions on masculinity, gender roles and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Muslim women were understandably concerned about his interest in Islam and how he could use the teachings to distort perceptions of gender roles and views of Muslim women.
But Muslim women were not the target of the Tate, it was Muslim men. He started collaborating with prominent Islamic content creators like Mohammed Hijab and shared videos of him praying.
“We saw the initial video of him praying in the mosque with a brother called Tam Khan, and that confirmed that he really had a conversion, so after that video it was just pure happiness,” content creator Danzy, who makes TikTok videos on Islamic news, told ITV news when asked about Tate’s conversion to Islam.
Andrew Tate rose to fame as a kickboxer turned social media influencer. Over the years, it grew among young men with materialistic and misogynistic content.
In one video, Tate describes what he would do if a woman accused him of cheating, saying: “He pulls out the machete, there’s a boom in her face and a bite on her neck. Close up.”
In another video, explaining why he moved to Romania he said: “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want. I like to be cheap.”
His influence diminished when he, his brother and two female Romanian suspects were arrested following allegations of rape, human trafficking and organized crime. They all denied the charges and in March 2023, the Tate brothers were placed under house arrest pending a criminal investigation.
On April 26, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria and that a trial could begin but a date has not yet been set for the trial to begin.
‘similar phenomenon’
Despite the warnings, Andrew Tate managed to build himself a significant number of Muslim followers, started quoting scriptures from the Quran, founded a charity organization called ‘Tatepledge’ and started speaking out in support of people of Palestine amid the troubling conflict in Gaza.
Before starting a Muslim fan base, Tate had already managed to develop a following among the different circles that make up, and to some extent overlap, in the mansphere – from combat sports fans, to vaccine skeptics. And his reductive, toxic framing of masculinity also appealed to members of the far right and the alt-right.
Tate has a long history of speaking from the right wing. In 2023 he announced that he will be supporting Donald Trump during the 2024 election while speaking on his live-streaming podcast called Tatespeech.
During the session he said: “Yes, we all want Trump to win, that will be great for the culture.
“But then, while right-wing culture is hyper-competitive, that’s when real men rule the world again.”
During the general election he and his brother had a similar trend where Tristan showed his full support for Farage and the Reform party.
Although Andrew Tate did not go so far as to back Farage, he did outline Farage’s talking points which he agreed with during the stream, saying: “The second thing (Farage) said about the 50,000 boats, I completely agree. A Prime Minister who is willing to do the right thing and really stop these boats.
“But you can’t stop the boats with anything less than lethal force.”
Meanwhile, Farage described Andrew Tate as an ‘important voice’ for men and said he and Tate were part of a ‘similar phenomenon’. In fact, both used social media to increase their audience.
After the general election, a YouGov poll showed that more people aged 18-30 voted for the Reform Party than the Conservatives. A YouGov poll of 35,000 found that 12 per cent of men aged 18-24 supported Amendment, compared to 6 per cent of women who voted. And among all those with GCSE qualifications or below, almost 23 per cent of voters supported Amendment.
A reform of social media – mainly TikTok, the same place where Tate was viewed more than 11 billion times before the launch of the platform for “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against a person or group , or otherwise dehumanises” – credited by political commentators as a key factor in his younger vote The right-wing party has the biggest following on the app among political parties with 257k followers.
In terms of reform, this year’s election campaign was also notable for the repeated allegations of Islamophobia faced by those associated with the party. And for a long time, Tate’s outburst would see him accused of inciting people with inflammatory tropes of his own.
Stimulating agent
When the horrific incident that led to the gruesome deaths of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King, rumors began to spread about the identity of the killer being a Muslim immigrant. Instead of asking for a period of mourning, peace and space to allow the authorities to do their work, Andrew Tate took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to further spread the misinformation about the suspect to his 9.8 million followers.
Tate had a decision to make. Stand up to his newfound brothers and sisters who welcomed him into the Islamic religion – and even put him on a platform – or peddle far-right talking points.
On July 29, Tate released a video titled “IMIGAL IMGRANT STABS 6 LITTLE GIRL. WAKE UP.’
In the video he says things like: “The soul of the west is so broken when the invaders kill your daughters, you will do nothing,” and “If you don’t pull the trigger you will never have a border. if you’re not willing to use live ammunition, you’ll never have a limit.”
He continued the video by posting an AI image of an Asian-looking man on a leash with silver paws in one hand and a knife in the other. The caption was ‘A typical Cardiff man’, and Tate was mocking the efforts of the police to quell the rumors which were becoming dangerous.
Videos like Tate’s only confirmed the tendency of a rotten mob in search of a scapegoat.
Since the days of far-right riots on our streets, ethnic minorities, especially Muslims, have been in fear following attacks on mosques and hotels of refuge. If Tate were to announce that he is this great intellectual, he would surely understand what such divisive and violent language can do to the rising Islamophobia and prejudice that lumps everyone who is considered to be ‘ other’ together – being held together. responsible for individual crimes.
Andrew Tate may still be a Muslim but his actions did little to show that he fully understood what a Muslim is. In Islam, worshipers have a responsibility to others and how they treat them.
The Quran says that man should live in harmony, work together and that everyone is created equal. Life is sacred in Islam, and a true Muslim is distinguished by loving humanity for the sake of Allah and not allowing a political agenda to interfere with that.
Tate has since denied any claims that he incited the riots but accepted that it was wrong to label the suspect as an illegal immigrant as it was not quite right during an interview with Piers Morgan. In the interview he says: “I already responded by saying that it was wrong to say that he was an illegal immigrant, that he was a migrant.”
He then said: “However, illegal immigrants have committed a large number of crimes and I think the country is not safe as long as they are allowed to come into the country.”
During the same interview, Tate asserts that he has never mentioned the suspect’s religion, that he says he has ‘no hatred in his heart’ and that he has seen very little animosity towards his actions from members of the Muslim community.
“I never said he was Muslim, I never said he was Syrian, I never said he was on the MI6 watch list. The only thing I could be wrong about is that he is an undocumented migrant. ” he said to Morgan.
He then said: “I pray for my brothers and the responses and information I saw were not hateful from the Islamic community.
“I want to make it very clear. I lead with love in my heart. The Islam that taught me is one of peace and tolerance. There is no one alive who can force me to take sides or to hate anyone else.”
Unfortunately, the damage is done. Security guards are being deployed to local mosques across the country for safety fears and Muslim women are clearly second guessing whether they will leave their homes after recent events.
To me, Tate’s actions showed a man who knew his influence and still decided to throw us to the wolves.
