LONDON (Bywire News) - An anti-racism organisation has urged the Conservative Party to suspend one of their MPs following a tweet describing Muslim pro-Palestinian protestors as "primitives".
In a now-deleted tweet showing a video of demonstrators clashing with police in London yesterday, Michael Fabricant, the Tory MP for Lichfield, wrote:
"These primitives are trying to bring to London what they do in the Middle East."
Despite immediately receiving criticism for the post, Fabricant initially refused to take it down - and even attempted to justify by saying:
"Whether they are Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, their behaviour is primitive and should not be seen in the UK".
However awful these acts (and they are awful), this does not justify this racist tweet.
— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) May 16, 2021
And it is racist. https://t.co/SNrO83Ubui
Aaaah. The Muslim Council again. The one which said vote Liam Byrne so increased Andy Street’s majority ten-fold.
— Michael Fabricant 🇬🇧 (@Mike_Fabricant) May 16, 2021
And watch the video of the attack on the London police. Whether they are Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, their behaviour is primitive and should not be seen in the UK
The anti-racism organisation, Hope Not Hate, described Mr Fabricant's tweet as "clearly racist" - and, in a letter to the Tory Chief Whip, Hope Not Hate called for the Lichfield MP to be suspended, writing:
"I am writing to draw your attention to a comment posted on Twitter yesterday by a Conservative MP, Michael Fabricant.
In his Tweet, Mr. Fabricant said of pro-Palestine protesters who could be seen in an attached video clashing with Met Police officers:
“These primitives are trying to bring to London what they do in the Middle East.”
Calling British Muslims “primitives” is clearly racist. Implying “they” are from the Middle East simply compounds the offense."
In their letter, Hope Not Hate also go on to claim that Mr Fabricant "has form when it comes to racist posts", before documenting two previous incidents in which the Tory MP posted "an Islamophobic image of the Mayor of London" and appeared to imply that Muslims are not British by using the phrase “Anglo-Muslim relations”.
And, in a Twitter thread, the Spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, Miqdaad Versi, slammed Fabircant for refusing to apologise, before listing a number of other incidents involving the Lichefield MP:
Conservative MP Michael Fabricant has deleted his racist tweet last night.
— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) May 17, 2021
He has not apologised.
Unsurprisingly, the Conservative Party declined to comment despite his history.
Threadhttps://t.co/Gi7WhlhIIH pic.twitter.com/6FfKOHtUvQ
Let's not forget what @FactCheck said about him i.e. that he worked for what was effectively an arm of the apartheid state in South Africa, which is apparently why he had an apartheid flag on his mantlepiece.https://t.co/d2z0NCcrpO pic.twitter.com/5hcjbrgXrP
— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) May 17, 2021
Apparently Mr Fabricant also misrepresents a Times article claiming that 100 anti-Jewish attacks are committed by "intolerant Muslims" when no such claim is made in the article. pic.twitter.com/I0XCIpNnDb pic.twitter.com/uMB7GCr7p3
— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) May 17, 2021
However, despite deleting his tweet describing protestors as "primitives", Mr Fabricant is still today attempting to justify it - blaming Twitter's character limit:
The problem with twitter is the 240 char limit. It was even worse at 120. It limits what can be expressed.
— Michael Fabricant 🇬🇧 (@Mike_Fabricant) May 17, 2021
The Conservative Party have not responded to Hope Not Hate's letter, and they have refused to comment regarding Mr Fabricant's tweet.
[Writing by Tom D. Rogers, editing by Jessica Miller.]