Home Secretary Sajid Javid has denied that the Conservative Party has an Islamophobia problem.
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr’s show this morning Javid presented his appointment as Home Secretary as evidence to the contrary.
He was responding to a request by the Muslim Council of Britain for the Tories to launch an inquiry into Islamophobia in their midst.
Former Tory cabinet Minister Sayeeda Warsi also recently commented that: “There is a simmering anti-Muslim underbelly of Islamophobia within the party.”
Mr Javid, who is not a practising Muslim, said: “I’ve got a lot of time for Baroness Warsi, but I’m afraid I do not agree with that. For a start, let’s look at who the Home Secretary is in this country. As you described me, my name is Sajid Javid. I am the Home Secretary in this country.”
The Home Secretary then took aim at the Muslim Council of Britain, saying: “The Muslim Council of Britain does not represent Muslims in this country. You find me a group of Muslims who think they are represented by the MCB.
“Secondly I would be very suspicious of anything they’ve got to say, not least because under the last Labour government, in a policy continued by us, we don’t deal with the MCB, and we don’t deal with them because too many of their members have had favourable comments on extremists and that’s not acceptable.”
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The Muslim Council of Britain wrote to Conservative Party Chair Brandon Lewis this week requesting an inquiry into Islamophobia within the party.
The MCB said their letter came after a stream of Islamophobic incidents from Bob Blackman MP was revealed without any action being taken.
According to the MCB, Blackman has re-tweeted an anti-Muslim post by the far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, has hosted the anti-Muslim extremist Tapan Ghosh in Parliament, has shared an anti-Muslim post on Facebook and this week was found to have been a member of a number of Islamophobic Facebook groups.
The MCB said that last month there were more than weekly occurrences of Islamophobia from candidates and representatives of the Conservative Party.
