Conservative MP, Bob Blackman, has been accused of giving platform to bigots by sharing a story titles “Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white children 'part of their culture;” from an anti-Muslim website on his Facebook page.
Bob Blackman later deleted the post and apologised, stating it was his “error” in posting the article from the website Hardcore News USA.
The MP has previously been accused of excusing extremism after retweeting Tommy Robinson, as well as hosting the Indian Hindu nationalist Tapan Ghosh in parliament. Ghosh is said to have called for the UN to control the birth rates of Muslims, and also praised the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Burma. However, Blackman said that the retweet was “in error” and also said that he did not accept Tapan Ghosh's views on Muslims.
A spokesman from the Muslim Council of Britain said that Blackman sharing anti-Muslim materials revealed “a consistent record of giving a platform to bigots, but he still faces no censure by the Conservative Party. We now see he chooses to share anti-Muslim material from a site full of Islamophobia. If the Conservative Party claims to be a party for all, it cannot continue to tolerate and even reward such behaviour. It cannot give Islamophobia a free pass.”
Bob Blackman said he shared the story because “the subject matter is very troubling and I have a lot of engagement on it via social media and email recently because I raised the issue of child sex abuse and grooming in business questions in parliament. I deleted the link as I saw that the headline to the article was phrased inappropriately. I can confirm that I have never visited the website in question and am not part of any group related to it. I sincerely regret any upset caused to the Muslim Council of Britain or the wider community by my error”.
