Britain’s largest Muslim group has written to the Conservative party to call for an investigation into “structural Islamophobia” within the party’s ranks.

In a letter addressed to the Conservative chair, Richard Holden, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said Islamophobia in the party was “institutional, tolerated by the leadership and seen as acceptable by great swathes of the party membership”.

The secretary general of the MCB, Zara Mohammed, wrote that “Islamophobia was on public display this week” and highlighted inflammatory comments made by the former home secretary Suella Braverman, the former Tory party deputy chair Lee Anderson and the former prime minister Liz Truss.

The letter said Braverman’s article in the Daily Telegraph, in which she wrote that “Islamists … are in charge”, fell into a “well-trodden Islamophobic path”.

The letter also addressed Anderson’s comments on GB News where he claimed “Islamists” had “got control” of London and the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan. Anderson, who had the Conservative whip withdrawn from him after refusing to apologies, was criticized by the MCB for engaging in “Islamophobic tropes”.

Khan said Anderson’s comments were “Islamophobic, anti-Muslim and racist” and that they “pour fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred”.

Mohammed said the MCB had shared the letter with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to encourage Holden “to take this complaint seriously and take actions”.

Tell Mama, a charity that records anti-Muslim incidents, said there were 2,010 cases of Islamophobic hate during a four-month period from 7 October – a steep rise from the 600 recorded in the same period of the previous year.

Continue reading at: The Guardian