THE head of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has slammed "institutional Islamophobia" and called for an inquiry after Nusrat Ghani MP said she was sacked over her "Muslimness".
The UK-wide body says it's crucial to determine "if any breaches of the law have taken place".
Ghani lost her ministerial job when she was reshuffled out of Westminster's Department for Transport in February 2020.
Now she's told the Sunday Times that her "Muslimness was raised as an issue" by a government whip who said she was "was making colleagues uncomfortable".
Conservative chief whip Mark Spencer has said he is the whip she is referring to but her claims are false and defamatory, while Downing Street says Ghani did not take up Boris Johnson's invitation to begin a formal complaint process.
Now Zara Mohammed, the Scottish secretary-general of the MCB, has said: "Institutional Islamophobia in the Conservative Party has gone on with impunity for far too long."
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Last May the Singh report found two-thirds of reports to the complaints team at Conservative HQ referred to allegations of discrimination against Muslims.
It said that team was "under-resourced and inadequately trained", while comments by Johnson and others "give the impression to many that the party and its leadership are insensitive to Muslim communities".
But it said claims of institutional racism were not supported by the available evidence.
The MCB was critical of elements of that report and now says Ghani's account is "the latest example in a string of cases exposed by the Muslim Council of Britain and others".
Mohammed said: "Nusrat Ghani’s testimony of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party is shocking, but not surprising. That she is experiencing this as a Muslim woman at the top of the party only reinforces the deep-rooted nature of the problem."
She went on: "Islamophobia should have no place in our politics. If Muslim members of the Conservative Party or any other party are facing prejudice and discrimination, then there is a critical problem. Our political landscape must be fair and inclusive for all."
Speaking to Sky News, Deputy Prime Minister Domonic Raab said: "We have absolutely zero tolerance for any discrimination, any Islamophobia, in the Conservative Party."
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