And he dismisses claims Tory party is anti-Muslim (but gets a spiky reply from BBC’s Mishal)
Critical: Mishal Husain suggested Sajid Javid wasn’t engaging with Muslims
SAJID Javid yesterday condemned the ‘unrepresentative’ Muslim Council of Britain as he dismissed claims of widespread Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.
He issued the rebuke after the group demanded an inquiry into ‘racists and bigots’ in the party and highlighted a string of alleged incidents involving activists.
The Home Secretary also slapped down former Tory chairman Baroness Warsi – the first female Muslim Cabinet minister – who also backed a probe, saying the party was ‘in denial’ over the issue.
Mr Javid triggered a spiky response from BBC news presenter Mishal Husain. Referring to the council’s calls for an inquiry, she tweeted: ‘Rather than engage, Sajid Javid says they don’t represent Muslims in this country ( although they are an umbrella body for 500 organisations).’
Mr Javid said successive Labour and Tory governments had refused to deal with the Muslim Council of Britain because ‘too many’ of its members had made ‘favourable comments’ in support of extremists. In an interview on BBC 1’s The Andrew Marr Show, he pointed out that he was a Muslim who had been made Home Secretary in a Tory government – undermining accusations of Islamophobia.
He questioned whether the council, which represents more than 500 mosques, schools and associations, was a legitimate voice for the Muslim community.
Two years ago, a poll by the Policy Exchange think-tank discovered the group enjoyed ‘very little support’, reflecting the views of only 4 per cent of Muslims.
Mr Javid said: ‘I have got a lot of time for Baroness Warsi, but I am afraid I don’t agree with her. For a start just look at who the Home Secretary is in this country.’
Rejecting calls for an investigation, he said: ‘Who said this? It’s the Muslim Council of Britain. The MCB does not represent Muslims in this country. You find me a group of Muslims that thinks that they’re represented by the MCB.
‘I would be very suspicious of anything that they’ve got to say, not least because under the last Labour government and a policy continued by us, we don’t deal with the MCB and we don’t deal with it because too many of their members have had, you know, favourable comments on extremists and that’s not acceptable.’
He said there were issues of ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ as well as anti-Semitism in the UK.
In a letter to Tory chairman Brandon Lewis last week, the MCB claimed there were frequent occurrences of Islamophobia among the party’s representatives. It highlighted a string of incidents involving Tory candidates and activists ranging from allegedly offensive tweets to accusations of links to far-Right groups.
The letter alleged Harrow MP Bob Blackman was a member of Facebook groups containing Islamophobic content and that he retweeted jailed far-Right activist Tommy Robinson. He was also alleged to have hosted Hindu nationalist Tapan Ghosh, who has been accused of Islamophobia, in Parliament.
Mr Blackman has denied all allegations of Islamophobia levelled against him, including that he chose to join any Facebook groups containing Islamophobia.
MCB general secretary Harun Khan said there were ‘more than weekly occurrences of Islamophobia’ in April. Recent cases included the Wokingham mayor Peter Lucey who stood down last month after it was revealed he had ‘liked’ social media pages linked to Robinson and Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
Mr Khan also highlighted the campaign by Zac Goldsmith in his failed bid to beat Labour’s Sadiq Khan to become Mayor of London in 2016, saying there had been no action taken against those responsible for ‘shocking Islamophobia’ in the campaign.
Yesterday the MCB leader said the Home Secretary had ‘chosen to shoot the messenger’, adding: ‘If the response is to instead attack the MCB, it sadly indicates the party has no interest in dealing with this matter with the seriousness it deserves.’
A Conservative Party spokesman said last week: ‘We have suspended all those who have behaved inappropriately and launched immediate investigations.’
‘Favourable comments on extremists’