Racist Tories

Jonathan Lis
@jonlis1

We’ve already forgotten Zac Goldsmith’s nakedly Islamophobic campaign. It included an op-ed which painted Sadiq Khan as a friend of terrorists and was illustrated by the 7/7 bus. Boris Johnson joined the campaign wholeheartedly and wrote that Khan is ‘pandering to extremists’.
Replying to
@jonlis1
Zac’s team sent me a campaign leaflet clearly targeted at Hindu Londoners, promising to protect my gold (!!) and protect me from those terrible Muslims. It seems they wrongly assumed I was Hindu because I’m Indian, when in fact I’m Muslim. Those pesky segmentation models!

BREAKING: The Conservative candidate for Luton South, Parvez Akhtar, calls on his party leader Boris Johnson to apologise for Islamophobia in the party.

“The Conservatives have a blind spot when it comes to Muslims”.

But will their racism affect their chances of winning the election?

clear as a bell- for sure. Two wrongs never make a right- but the refusal of the Tories and in particular, Johnson, to investigate Islamophobia as promised - says it all.

As an ignorant northerner, I don't understand why references to north London and the phrase "stab Britain in the back" are seen as anti-semitic or racist. All of north London isn't a Jewish sector, is it?

Gove was said to have stabbed Boris in the back before May became leader. Isn't it a fairly commonly used expression when you've spoiled something (in that instance Boris's chance of becoming Tory leader)?

Please note I'm not defending anyone or anything in this post, just asking for explanations.

baggs it is dog whistle politics. Beloved by the far right.

I don’t understand the reference to north London either!

There is prejudice everywhere but sometimes I wonder if verbal attacks are turned against the offender by making a charge of racism against them.

I was accused of being racist in the late 1960’s by a black guy, when I wouldn’t go out with him, not withstanding that the boyfriend at the time was also black!

The Tory party and BJ do nothing to investigate racism within their party but they love to bang on about others. IMO they are upper class hooligans who get away with it whilst others are pilloried relentlessly.

They are disgusting specimens!

BJ's letterbox comments were pretty low.

The letterbox comment was poor, but if you read the whole article BJ was defending the right of Muslim woman to wear whatever they like in public, even if many do consider it OTT covering your face. His point was it is a free country in the UK and you can walk about in whatever you like.

I understand that the chancellor is Muslim- how does that fit with anti Muslim tories?

OK, that totally proves it doesn't it. A Muslim in power, they must be totally all for equality of opportunity.

There was a “significant spike” in Islamophobic incidents after Boris Johnson compared women in burkhas to “letterboxes” in his Daily Telegraph column, according to an anti-racism organisations

No ,he wasn't defending Muslim women.

www.stylist.co.uk/life/boris-johnson-prime-minister-terrifying-prospect-muslim-women-letter-box-islamaphobic/273741

Pantglas if that was proof then presumably for you the fact that Ed Milliband was Labour leader proves that the LP is not anti-semitic?

He was defending their right to wear the burkha.

Business publication listing Johnson’s, racism, misogyny and much more.

www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-record-sexist-homophobic-and-racist-comments-bumboys-piccaninnies-2019-6

Yup goes both ways for me .....

Does anyone have a link please to the article where BJ defends the rights of Muslim women? I have tried but I can't find it.

I'll see if I can find the article in question but eazybee is correct. The comment about burkas on people resembling letterboxes was in a whole passage about people being free in this country to wear what they like but also people being free in this country to say something was ridiculous if they thought so.

If I wore a burka the whole effect would be of a black letterbox and it is a ridiculous garment in my opinion. I had a brown cape in my teens that made me look like a mushroom too.

Well, I thought the letterbox thing was funny.

Here are the two most relevant paragraphs (out of 12) from an article by BJ published in the Daily Telegraph 5 August 2018:

If you tell me that the burka is oppressive, then I am with you. If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree – and I would add that I can find no scriptural authority for the practice in the Koran. I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any – invariably male – government to encourage such demonstrations of “modesty”, notably the extraordinary exhortations of President Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya, who has told the men of his country to splat their women with paintballs if they fail to cover their heads.

I am against a total ban because it is inevitably construed – rightly or wrongly – as being intended to make some point about Islam. If you go for a total ban, you play into the hands of those who want to politicise and dramatise the so-called clash of civilisations; and you fan the flames of grievance. You risk turning people into martyrs, and you risk a general crackdown on any public symbols of religious affiliation, and you may simply make the problem worse. Like a parent confronted by a rebellious teenager determined to wear a spike through her tongue, or a bolt through her nose, you run the risk that by your heavy-handed attempt to ban what you see as a bizarre and unattractive adornment you simply stiffen resistance.

But surely it is not for BJ to be telling Muslim women that a garment of clothing " is oppressive". Or that it is " weird and bullying" to expect women to cover their faces.

Has he spoken to any?Has he asked?

Gonegirl, in what way did you find the letterbox comment funny?
Probably not terribly funny to those experiencing the hate crime that followed his article.

In what way? Ummm. It made me laugh.

There was no reason any hate crime should have followed that comment. Blame the haters. Any excuse for a punch-up.

We do still have free speech in this country you know.