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Thursday, 7 March 2019

The Tories’ Islamophobia will not be stopped from within | Fiyaz Mughal

Anti-Muslim hate has flourished in sections of the party. Help from outside is the only way to root it out

The news that 14 Conservative members were suspended this week, alongside the reinstatement of Peter Lamb, a Conservative council candidate in Harlow (who then resigned on Tuesday), demonstrates that the party has a significant amount of work to do to counter anti-Muslim hate. Lamb had previously tweeted: “Islam [is] like alcoholism. The first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.” Yet he was reintroduced into the party to be a council candidate.

Sadly, as the founder and former director of the hate-crime reporting project Tell Mama, I know that views such as these have been picked up and circulated among groups that vehemently dislike Muslims. There has been a steady drip of cases of anti-Muslim bigotry in statements made by party members and councillors. Serving Conservative councillors such as Hashim Bhatti have talked about a deeper problem within the party, and the chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, said that the party has failed to take action against anti-Muslim bigotry.

Related: The Tories’ response to raging Islamophobia? Turn a blind eye | Miqdaad Versi

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from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2NNtdwH

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