THE NEWLY elected leader of Ukip has been slammed for Islamophobia after a footage emerged of him saying it should be illegal to publicly distribute the Quran in the UK.
Last month, Richard Braine was filmed at a hustings in Grantham, Lincolnshire, saying handing out copies of the holy book should be illegal under incitement laws.
“We have laws against incitement, and yet there are people handing out Qur’ans in Leicester Square off a trestle table – a book which tells people to kill us to please God. We’ve got to stop incitement in public places like that,” said Braine.
He went on: “We’ve got to stop bigamy, welfare abuse. We’ve got to educate people in this country so they understand what the Qur’an says, what Islam really is, so they understand that it contains a hundred instructions to maim and slaughter innocent people – homosexuals, the infidel, women, apostates. So we need to understand what is in that book, we need to educate ourselves and our children about that.”
The Ukip leader also said certain towns and cities in the country were becoming Islamic and it has reached a point where non-Muslims were not welcome there.
Reacting to Braine's comments, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said “Ukip’s continued descent into even greater depths of bigotry is only matched by its growing irrelevance and obscurity."
"Virulent Islamophobia was not a successful tactic under the previous Ukip leadership, and will not be this time. Our nation knows better,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Braine replaced Gerard Batten as the leader of the anti-immigration party at the weekend. In a ballot of members, Braine received 53 per cent of the vote, more than double of his closest rival.
Speaking after his victory, Braine said his aim was to establish Ukip as the "far-moderate voice of common sense" in Britain.
"We have got a great future and we are coming back. I am very excited and looking forward to leadership of this party, bringing the members together and delivering better results," he said.
Congratulating Braine for his "decisive win", Batten urged his successor to reform the party, increase membership and raise funds.
