Bob Blackman, a Tory MP accused of Islamophobia, has been invited by the Conservative Muslim Forum to speak at their Eid reception on 24th October.
Bob Blackman, a Tory MP accused of Islamophobia, has been invited by the Conservative Muslim Forum to speak at their Eid reception on 24th October.
Bob Blackman, a Tory MP accused of Islamophobia, has been invited by the Conservative Muslim Forum to speak at their Eid reception on 24th October.
Blackman has come under fire for Islamophobia multiple times.
In October 2017, Blackman hosted an anti-Muslim Hindi extremist in Parliament. Tapan Ghosh, who has previously praised the Rohingya genocide, called for Muslim migrants to leave their faith and claimed that Islam has massacred over 669 million non-Muslims since the 7th century, was the keynote speaker at an event titled ‘Tolerating the Intolerant’. At the event, he said, “Your girls and daughters are threatened by grooming, but in our country, our land is threatened and our existence is threatened.”
In March, the Harrow East MP shared a news article from the Islamophobic far-right website Hardcore News USA, titled “Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white British children ‘part of their culture’.” Blackman later deleted the Tweet and apologised after backlash from the Muslim Council of Britain.
Blackman has previously retweeted an anti-Muslim Tweet by Tommy Robinson. He said this was “in error”.
One Muslim community leader said,
“I know when I speak for others when I say I am most disappointed to see that Bob Blackman is to be attending an Eid reception. Mr. Blackman has voiced and amplified the voices of flagrantly Islamophobic members of the public.”
There have been calls for investigation into Islamophobia in the Conservative party after a series of Conservative politicians were found to have made or shared offensive comments about Muslims. Baroness Warsi, who co-chaired the party under David Cameron told Business Insider regarding the issue,
“It’s very widespread. It exists right from the grassroots, all the way up to the top… I don’t think it’s something that Theresa [May] is a part of, but I do believe it is something the leadership feels can be easily ignored.”
She added that there is a general sense in the country that Muslims are “fair game”.
Multiple Muslims organisations have written to the Conservative Muslim Forum voicing their concerns.
