Muslim groups and individuals have flooded the British Council with complaints after learning that one of its senior press officers allegedly wrote controversial Sunday Telegraph articles attacking “the black heart of Islam”.
They appeared under the byline “Will Cummins”, which the Sunday Telegraph later described as a pseudonym.
Muslim organisations say the comment pieces incite racial and religious hatred, and the British Council describes the articles as deeply offensive.
But the Sunday Telegraph has refused to rule out publishing further contributions from the author of the articles. Its editor, Dominic Lawson, told the Guardian that he did not regret printing them.
The allegation is deeply embarrassing for the British Council, which works to improve relations between communities.
“Will Cummins” has compared Muslims to Nazis and argued that Muslim voters have a “global jihadi agenda”. One of his articles states: “All Muslims, like all dogs, share certain characteristics.” Another argues: “It is the black heart of Islam, not its black face, to which millions object.”
Other articles by the author have claimed that “Muslim foreigners … have forced themselves on us”, and that “Christians are the original inhabitants and rightful owners of almost every Muslim land and behave with a humility quite unlike the menacing behaviour we have come to expect from the Muslims who have forced themselves on Christendom”.
The author described voters in Leicester and Birmingham as “local Janjaweed” - in a reference to the atrocities committed in Darfur, Sudan - and claimed that Islam is “sanctified by the principle … that any civilisation, however repulsive, has the same value as any other”.
The British Council’s director general, David Green, has told the Muslim Council of Britain: “There is no place in the British Council for people who publish such hateful utterances.”
Con Coughlin, the Sunday Telegraph’s executive editor, told the Guardian in an emailed statement: “We have no idea whether or not we will use him [Will Cummins] in future.”
British Council in row over articles
Nice you have a council which promotes good relations with overseas countries and one of its official is a rabid anti muslim. To be honest he probably represents the Government in Power in the UK which is anti muslim as all can see in there policies towards muslim countries!