A senior Muslim politician has been accused of blaming Christians for most domestic violence because they get drunk.
Muhammad Afzal, the lord mayor elect of Birmingham, also allegedly told women’s rights campaigners that men were more likely to suffer from domestic violence and denied that forced marriage was a problem in Muslim communities.
Mr Afzal, 72, who is also chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, is facing calls to resign after he condemned David Cameron as an “Islamophobe”. He was accused yesterday of dismissing the threat of domestic violence during a visit by the Muslim Women’s Network UK charity to the mosque, one of the largest in western Europe.
Shaista Gohir, chairwoman of the charity’s trustees, said that Mr Afzal’s “misogynistic attitudes” made him unfit for positions of authority. In a letter calling for the mosque to ask Mr Afzal to resign as chairman, Ms Gohir claimed that at a meeting in December he argued that forced marriage was no longer a problem in the Muslim community as “women these days are strong and educated”. [The Times (£)] Read more
