Minister: I fear for my life over race hate threats
Yousaf now carries alarm
SCOTLAND’S Transport Minister has revealed he fears for his life and carries a personal alarm following racist death threats and online abuse.
Humza Yousaf said he has been forced to step up security at his home and constituency office and no longer conducts surgeries alone following the threats.
Mr Yousaf was the first Holyrood minister to come from an ethnic minority background.
Yesterday, he told the Sunday Herald that he had been briefed by the police on security. This
‘Some of it can be very, very violent’
followed a constant wave of racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media.
This included a response to a picture of him and his family which said: ‘Yet another problem that a machine gun would solve’.
Mr Yousaf made the decision to speak out about the abuse he has suffered after Labour MSP Anas Sarwar last week revealed comments made to him by a party colleague.
Councillor Davie McLachlan was suspended as Labour investigates a complaint following Mr Sarwar’s disclosure that he was told ‘Scotland wouldn’t vote for a brown Muslim P***’. Mr McLachlan denies making any racist remarks.
Mr Yousaf said he receives abuse every week on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook, adding: ‘I get it every week and some of it can be very, very violent in terms of its manifestation.’
The Glasgow Pollok MSP said he was now ‘very reluctant’ to post pictures of his family online following a string of death threats against them.
He added: ‘I get worried about my family. I’ve had a private briefing from police on the back of reporting some incidents. They said these are the steps you might want to take to protect your constituency office and so forth. It’s not a place you want to be in – but I’ve had to take those steps.
‘I carry a personal alarm. I just do that as par for the course and carry it in my jacket. I shouldn’t have a need to carry it.’
Mr Yousaf said one of the repeated threats he receives is people calling for others to spit on him in the street.
He added: ‘The kind of stuff you are seeing more and more is stuff like people saying, “If you see him, spit on him”. It’s probably all mouth and no trousers, but at the same time, if I walk down Buchanan Street, I ask myself will some guy be spitting or gobbing on me. I have to look over my shoulder.’
Mr Yousaf claimed terror attacks in London and Manchester had led to a rise in threats against him. He said: ‘As soon as you hear of a terror attack on TV, my first instinct is sympathy to those who have lost their life.
‘The second is you are feeling tense because you are worried if an attack is carried out in the name of Islam, you face a backlash. That’s the second instinct I have – and it’s not healthy.’
Mr Yousaf also said the abuse and threats had increased following the Brexit vote.
He added: ‘During Brexit and post-Brexit it’s got worse, without a shadow of a doubt.
‘Frankly, part of it is not helped by the polarised debate around faith, whether that’s in Europe or across the Pond in the United States.
‘It has exacerbated things. Brexit is a horrible example of that, with the rhetoric and antiimmigration tone.’
As well as online trolls, Mr Yousaf revealed he had been abused faceto-face while campaigning.
He said: ‘Four or five months ago, someone said to me, “You’re not from Scotland, so why should I take notice of the Scottish National Party? Why should I take notice of you?”.
‘I tried to explain in no uncertain terms that I was from here. But they went into a cafe and that was the end of it.’