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More than 120 examples of Tory Islamophobia handed to Equality and Human Rights Commission

A REPORT containing 120 examples of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party has been handed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission by a discrimination watchdog.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric spread by 60 Tory ministers, MPs, mayors, councillors and candidates over the past five years is included in the dossier submitted to the commission by charity Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend).

Mend has made a formal request for a standalone inquiry into Islamophobia — rather than racism in general — which the Conservative Party has refused to carry out.

The most senior politicians mentioned in the report, titled From “Letterboxes” to “Ragheads,” are PM Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel.

Mend says the examples — many found by an investigative journalist using the social media handle @MatesJacob — “maintain stereotypical tropes.”

These include beliefs that Muslims are inherently evil or criminal, are a security threat, deserving of violence and discrimination or are incompatible with being British.

It comes as the Conservatives refused to suspend Hastings and Rye parliamentary candidate Sally-Ann Hart over alleged Islamophobia, homophobia and anti-semitism ahead of tomorrow’s general election.

Shadow women and equalities minister Naz Shah said: “No-one who promotes this prejudice and spreads these vile far-right conspiracy theories is fit to be an MP.”

Mend’s report condemns PM Mr Johnson for using “derogatory, racist, and Islamophobic rhetoric” during his career as a journalist.

Chancellor and former home secretary Mr Javid is accused of having used his Muslim heritage as a “defence against accusations of Islamophobia within the Conservative Party” and for backing the Israeli government in its assault on Palestine.

And Ms Patel is profiled in the report for, among other reasons, supporting Indian PM Narendra Modi — who headed Gujarat’s state government when thousands of Muslims were killed there in 2002 and whose party fields candidates that have called for the expulsion of Muslims from India.

This year it emerged that Conservative councillors Martyn York and David Abbott, alongside Conservative candidate Dorinda Bailey, were moderators and administrators of the Facebook page named Boris Johnson: Supporters’ Group.

This group had members that advocated bombing mosques in Britain and referred to Muslims and refugees as “ragheads” and “cockroaches.”

Other users referred to London mayor Sadiq Khan as a “conniving little muzrat” and said that Labour’s Ms Shah — who was born in Bradford — should “piss off to [her] own country.”

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