“Boris Johnson is an animal who spouts Islamophobia and racism” heard attendees at a meeting of the campaign group Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) on Tuesday evening at Islington Town Hall.
The comments were made by student organiser Naima Omar in relation to the controversial remarks made about burqas by Johnson in August this year and what is seen by the group as a lack of government action to combat a ‘rise in far-right racism affecting Muslim people’.
The panel, hosted by the Muslim Welfare House on Seven Sisters Road, saw Ms Omar begin the discussion by saying “Theresa May does not support us. She supports the likes of Donald Trump, who she let into this country.”
Mohammed Kosbar, chair of the Finsbury Park Mosque, which was targeted in a terrorist attack by far-right supporter Darren Osborne in June 2017, joined the panel to share his fear for young people, saying “we are living in a very dangerous world, where a platform is given to those who hate.”
“To read about it in the news and then go on with your daily life is very worrying. We are normalising Islamophobia” he added.
The campaign group encouraged attendees to join SUTR’s counter demonstration against a march on 13 October by the ‘racist far-right’ Democratic Football Lads Association. Paul Holborow, co-convenor of SUTR, said “the larger our side is, the more demoralised the other side will be”.
