Milei adviser colonised by Islam claim stokes Falklands row
Santiago Caputo, chief adviser to Argentine president Javier Milei, claimed on social media that the UK is being 'colonised by Islam' and that Argentina must reclaim the Falkland Islands as 'a cause for the west'. Milei shared the post on X amid heightened UK–Argentina tension over the territory.
Union Jack flag on a flagpole beside a quieter residential street on an overcast morning
The claim and what Milei did
The milei adviser colonised by islam claim came from Santiago Caputo, who cited the election of Sagal Abdi-Wali to the UK parliament as evidence of the Islamisation of Britain and a reason for Argentina to press its claim to the Falkland Islands. Caputo, who reportedly takes a key role in Argentina's Falklands strategy, argued on social media that taking the islands was necessary to prevent the "interference of an Islamic state" in the region.
He wrote that the "United Kingdom was, in many ways, the cradle of modern western civilisation", but that it now posed a threat to the west. Seeing the UK colonised by Islam, he said, was a risk to the west and a historical tragedy.
"Reclaiming the Malvinas is not merely a national cause, it is a cause for the west."
That was how Caputo framed the sovereignty claim, pointing to the south Atlantic's strategic importance. Milei shared his adviser's post on X.
Who Sagal Abdi-Wali is
Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali was elected MP for Holborn and St Pancras in London this month, defeating Green party leader Zack Polanski, and took her seat on Monday. Caputo's post carried an image of Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee from Somalia, being sworn into parliament.
Rightwing Spanish journalist Javier Negre commented under the image: "Here is a Somali Muslim woman taking her oath of office on the Qur'an in the English parliament."
A sovereignty dispute under strain
The intervention lands amid heightened tension between Argentina and the UK over the British overseas territory 300 miles off the South American coastline. The Falklands row has intensified on several fronts:
- Milei has sought to criminalise executives in the islands' nascent oil industry and threatened to target the fishing sector on which the islands' economy depends.
- UK officials say the intensity of the Argentinian pressure has not been seen since the war 44 years ago, following the invasion ordered by then-dictator Gen Leopoldo Galtieri.
- The 1982 conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the surrender of Argentinian forces, costing the lives of 649 Argentinian military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders.
- The Foreign Office has written to Interpol seeking assurance that the agency will not respond favourably to requests to detain individuals working in the Falklands.
The UK response
The UK government has announced its intention to protect businesses in the Falklands. This week Andy Burnham restated that the UK would respect the wish of the 3,600 islanders to remain British - a position backed by the islands' own referendum record: in 2013, 99.8% of residents voted to remain a British territory, with only three votes against.
