Senior Redbridge Tory denies Islamophobia allegation after Facebook posting

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The deputy leader of Redbridge Conservatives has denied allegations of Islamophobia after mistakenly sharing a controversial quote on Facebook.

Cllr Howard Berlin explained he attempted to share posts from a private Facebook group on his wall, meaning that to non-members only the group’s public cover photo appeared.

The group ‘United with Israel UK’ – which describes itself as “An unapologetic group for friends showing solidarity with Israel” – features as its cover photo a quote commonly attributed to former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us”.

Cllr Berlin explained he was attempting to share two posts about Mick Jagger performing in Tel Aviv and about an Israeli Arab saying he is proud to serve in the Israeli army.

A complaint was made to both Redbridge Council and the Conservative Party last year but concluded with no further action when Cllr Berlin deleted the posts and issued a private apology.

However, the controversy resurfaced on March 28 in a post titled “Islamophobia with Redbridge Conservatives” on the Facebook page of the Ilford Islamic Centre.

It reads: “As far as we are aware, neither the Redbridge Conservative Group nor Cllr Berlin have offered a public apology for the offensive posts.

“As such, we now feel that we have no other option but to send out this press release so that the entire Muslim community in Redbridge is aware of how the Conservatives have, in our opinion, tried to brush this incident under the carpet.”

In response to the post, Cllr Berlin said the Conservative leadership was invited to the Islamic Center for a public meeting.

He said he declined to attend the meeting because it would be in public and would include a person who had previously posted “anti-Semitic stuff” on a local Facebook group.

He added: “They want me to attend this public meeting, to apologise, to resign as a chartered surveyor and give up my business.

“I have done everything possible to mediate something, to explain who I am and what my values ​​are. All the way along I’ve tried to put community cohesion above everything.

“People who know me know who I am and what I believe in. They wanted me to meet them but unfortunately all they wanted was their agenda.“

Linda Hugget, Conservative Group leader said: “We said we would be willing to go along but not have a public meeting, this was not a public matter.

“We said we would have a private meeting with the chair of the center to explain to them that this was a private matter and we had issued an apology through the council.

“We’ve got the most diverse set of candidates that we’ve ever had in elections, from all different communities.

“I’m really, really proud to come together like this, I always said as group leader my intention was to make sure we have a diverse group.

“I didn’t want to have this individual making allegations that were unfounded. They are trying to escalate matters that were closed by the council.”

A Redbridge Council spokesperson said: “This matter was assessed in line with the council’s Member Code of Conduct process and we advised the member concerned.”

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