New allegations made by the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani are the latest evidence of endemic Islamophobia in Boris Johnson’s party, reports Adam Bienkov
Boris Johnson on Monday announced that the Cabinet Office will investigate allegations of Islamophobia made by Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani against the Government.
Ghani alleges that a Government whip told her that she had been sacked from Boris Johnson’s Government in 2020 due to colleagues feeling “uncomfortable” about her Muslim identity.
The Conservative MP and prominent supporter of Johnson, Michael Fabricant, deepened the row on Sunday by making further inflammatory comments about Ghani.
Fabricant, who has previously faced allegations of Islamophobia himself, suggested that Ghanis’s claims “stinks”. He told Sky News: “For her to say that someone had said it’s because she’s a Muslim – I mean she’s barely someone who is obviously a Muslim. I had no idea what religion she is.”
Ghani’s allegations are just the latest in a long line of claims of Islamophobia levelled at the party and the Prime Minister himself.
Here are some of the key incidents that show how Islamophobia has become endemic in the Conservative Party.
Boris Johnson Called Muslim Women ‘Letter Boxes’
The Prime Minister has a long record of making bigoted comments about Muslim people and Islam.
In 2018, the then Foreign Secretary wrote a piece for the Telegraph comparing Muslim women to “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”.
He wrote that “it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes”, adding that any female student who appeared at school or in a lecture “looking like a bank robber” should be asked to remove it.
There was a surge in hate crimes towards Muslim people in the UK in the weeks following his column, according to data compiled by the group Tell Mama.
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Boris Johnson said ‘Islam is the Problem’
In the wake of the London bombings in 2005, Johnson questioned the loyalty of British Muslims and insisted that the country must accept that “Islam is the problem.”
“It will take a huge effort of courage and skill to win round the many thousands of British Muslims who are in a similar state of alienation, and to make them see that their faith must be compatible with British values and with loyalty to Britain,” he wrote.
“That means disposing of the first taboo, and accepting that the problem is Islam. Islam is the problem.”
In particularly inflammatory comments he added: “What is going on in these mosques and madrasas? When is someone going to get 18th Century on Islam’s medieval ass?”
Boris Johnson said Islamophobia is ‘Natural’
In 2005, Johnson wrote in the Spectator magazine that he believed it was only “natural” for the public to be scared of Islam.
“To any non-Muslim reader of the Koran, Islamophobia – fear of Islam – seems a natural reaction, and, indeed, exactly what that text is intended to provoke,” he said.
“Judged purely on its scripture – to say nothing of what is preached in the mosques – it is the most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers.”
Zac Goldsmith’s ‘Dog Whistle’ Campaign Against Sadiq Khan
In 2016, the then Conservative candidate for London Mayor Zac Goldsmith ran what some Muslim colleagues in his party labelled a “disgusting” campaign against Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
During the course of the campaign, senior Conservatives accused Khan of associating with supporters of ISIS, labelled him “radical” and even suggested that he supported Sharia law.
Goldsmith, whose campaign sent out leaflets to other ethnic minority groups falsely suggesting that Khan would put their family jewellery at risk, described the Labour candidate as a “real danger to London”.
On the eve of the election, an editorial by Goldsmith was published in the Mail with a headline urging Londoners not to hand victory to a party “that believes terrorists are its friends” – accompanied by a photo of a blown-up London bus.
This attempt to play on fears about Khan’s Muslim identity was pushed by senior figures in the party, including David Cameron and Theresa May.
Following criticism of the tactics, the current Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch dismissed them, posting on Twitter: “Why should Sadiq Khan get a free pass from hanging out with extremists just because he is a Muslim?”
Goldsmith was later made a life peer in the House of Lords by Boris Johnson.
Islamophobia Goes ‘Right Up to the Top’ of the Conservative Party
In an interview with me in 2018, the Conservative peer and former co-chair of the party said that Islamophobia goes “right up to the top” of the Tory Party.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who served in David Cameron’s Government, said that Islamophobia was “very widespread” in the party but was being deliberately ignored for electoral reasons.
In comments that echo those made by Ghani at the weekend, Baroness Warsi also said that she was told that her Cabinet colleagues felt “uncomfortable” with her presence in Government.
“I remember