What did he mean by it?

The Green Party is investigating a councillor who shouted “Allahu Akbar” after being elected and said on the day of the Oct 7 terror attacks that Palestinians had the right to “fight back”.

Mothin Ali won the Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds with more than 3,000 votes at Thursday’s local elections and said it was a “win for the people of Gaza”.

But the job is to be a councillor for the people of Leeds. Not Gaza, Leeds. Not Jerusalem, not Canterbury, not Mecca, not Rome, not Ayodhya, but Leeds.

The 42-year-old, a father of three who works as an accountant and runs a gardening blog, has previously described a Jewish chaplain at the University of Leeds who was forced into hiding by threats from protesters as a “creep” and a “kind of animal”.

During his victory speech on Friday, Mr Ali told activists: “We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu Akbar!”

Those two words have a sinister overtone to many people, but taken literally they’re just your basic monotheistic message. There is this one god, see, and it’s the one we call god, and he’s great. He’s male, obvs, and he’s great. Really really great; peak great; greater than anyone else’s god. There’s no need to fight about it, as long as you agree with us that he’s the one and he’s great.

That’s if you take it literally. In practice it doesn’t always mean that. All too often it means “our god is great and he’s going to smash you, all of you.” If you watch Mr Ali shout it he certainly seems to be shouting the threatening version.

After Mr Ali’s historic comments emerged, a Green Party spokesman said: “The Green Party is investigating issues drawn to our attention in relation to Councillor Mothin Ali, so cannot comment further. However, we are clear that we never support anything that extols violence.”

But why would we think saying “God is great” extols violence?

Probably because of all the supremely violent incidents in which somebody or many people were shouting it.