(MORNING STAR ONLINE) MUSLIM groups have said they do not trust the conclusions of a report into racism in the Tory Party, which they said failed to acknowledge the term Islamophobia.
The indendent report has been branded a whitewash by campaigners and Muslim organisations after its author Professor Swaran Singh concluded no evidence of institutional racism in the party was found.
The fallout from the report, published on Tuesday, continued today as calls grew for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to launch its own investigation into racism in the Tory Party.
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) said the report had followed the deeply concerning Conservative Party approach of not acknowledging the term Islamophobia, instead placing it in inverted commas.
“This alone removes any trust in the independence of this internal party process,” the group said in a statement today.
MAB added that the report, which had a narrow remit limited to investigating the party’s complaint procedure, failed to question key witnesses or members, despite a YouGov poll finding more than half harbour negative views towards Muslims. “In doing so it fails to assign responsibility or hold to account those involved in engaging and allowing Islamophobia to grow within the party,” the group said.