Anti-racism writer in online hate row
Cops investigate novelist over ‘far-right’ posts
POLICE are investigating reports an anti-racism campaigner sent anti-semitic web abuse.
Shazia Hobbs has penned a novel about the struggles of a mixed-race girl growing up in Britain, based on her upbringing with a white mum and Pakistani dad.
But she allegedly attacked a member of an anti-semitism awareness group, including a picture showing a Nazi salute and the words “raise your hand if you are tired of” (the alleged victim).
The 50-year-old writer, from Glasgow, is reported to have been banned from Twitter after spouting hate and now posts on
Telegram and Gab forums. She allegedly shared content featuring swastikas on Telegram and accused a Holocaust survivor of being a liar on Gab. The author’s book contract has been cancelled over the allegations, her Gab profile claimed.
Hobbs has been pictured at an event run by the far-right group Patriotic Alternative, run by Mark Collett, who was kicked out of the British National Party after praising Adolf Hitler in Channel 4 documentary Young Nazi and Proud.
And last summer she defended a blogger who was jailed for making anti-semitic comments on radio and online – saying there was “strong evidence of a conspiracy against” her.
The Metropolitan Police said: “Police received an allegation of malicious communications relating to content of an anti-semitic nature that had been posted online. Officers are in touch with the complainant. Inquiries are ongoing. There have been no arrests at this stage.”
Asked for a comment, Hobbs said she had received many death threats and had a good relationship with police.
She added: “I have campaigned tirelessly against the racist grooming of white girls at the hands of Muslim sex gangs.”
When her novel first came out seven years ago, Hobbs was praised by readers for highlighting “racism and sectarianism” and “how it feels to be an outsider” growing up mixed-race in Glasgow.
The title of the book, The Gori’s Daughter, refers to a Punjabi word for a white woman.
Talking about the book, Hobbs told an interview: “It was difficult trying to fit into either race and never being able to, always struggling with the identity of being mixed.”
The author said she rebelled against her upbringing after an arranged marriage, adding: “Society today is a lot more tolerant than it was when I grew up.
“The mixed-race babies being born in today’s society are the fastest-growing minority and hopefully they will grow up reading about characters similar to them.”