An imam appointed as an adviser on defining “Islamophobia” in one of the last acts of Theresa May’s administration has accused Boris Johnson of having “legitimised the hatred that exists towards Muslim women”.
Qari Asim, claimed as a board member and trustee by the far-left HOPE Not Hate organisation which has received funding from billionaire plutocrat George Soros, made the accusation against Johnson in the wake of a column in which the Tory said the burqa made wearers resemble “bank robbers” and “letter boxes” — but should not be banned, as it is in many other countries.
“Boris Johnson’s comments have fanned the flames of Islamophobia,” the cleric insisted in late 2018, going on to claim there had been incidents of Muslim women in face veils being called “letter boxes” and that one woman in Bristol had been told to remove her veil by a bus driver — “So there are incidents that are already happening because I think what Boris Johnson has done [is] he’s legitimised the hatred that exists towards Muslim women who wear [face veils].”
I am humbled and honoured to have been appointed an adviser to establish a definition of #Islamophobia#AntiMuslimHatred creates a downward spiral of abuse and violence which affects all in a society.
1/3https://t.co/7A63s1CWus— Qari Asim MBE (@QariAsim) July 23, 2019
Asim’s social media output on Twitter also includes a number of Johnson-critical posts, including one reading “Boris Johnson’s Facebook page hosts hundreds of #Islamophobic comments after #burqa row” along with an article with a similar headine, and another sharing an article by far-left Guardian journalist Gary Younge titled, ‘Boris Johnson’s white privilege: imagine he was a black woman’.
Theresa May’s decision to appoint the imam to such an influential position shortly before her departure has been speculated in some quarters to be a deliberate jab at her successor, with the conservative Spectator magazine’s Mr Steerpike wondering “if the appointment of Qari Asim has more to do with Boris Johnson than ‘tackling burning injustices’ or the good of the country.”
“Is it possible that May was unaware of her new Islamophobia chief’s public distaste of Boris?” the pseudonymous gossip columnist asked readers.
“Or is it more likely that she was instead sending a parting shot at the next leader of the country?”
Boris Johnson’s white privilege: imagine he was a black woman | Gary Younge https://t.co/0pXGiXFcDo
— Qari Asim MBE (@QariAsim) March 4, 2018
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.