Boston Councellor to Visit Mosque to Discuss His Views about Islam

A Boston councillor who is accused of Islamophobia accepted an invitation to visit a mosque to discuss his views.

Councillor Mike Gilbert, who was denied the role of mayor due to historic posts he made on Facebook about Islam has accepted an invitation from the leader of Boston Mosque.

Gilbert was refused the role at a meeting of Boston Borough Council on May 22 due to the posts he made during the Qatar World Cup.

He denied the posts were racist and said he was highlighting aspects of Islamic doctrine.

During the discussion, Coun Dorrian, who served as mayor at the time and chaired the meeting, entered the debate by expressing her concern about the increasing prevalence of hate speech.

The National Secular Society later came to Coun Gilbert’s defence, and wrote to councillors stressing that critical views on Islam or any ideology “should not be automatically considered hateful”, and alleging Coun Gilbert had been “unfairly smeared”.

The Standard has since spoken to the Boston Imam – director of Boston Mosque and Islamic Centre, Abdul Hamid Qureshi, who gave his take on Coun Gilbert’s Facebook comments.

“My immediate understanding of the views expressed are that they are speculative and assumptive rather than factual,” he said. “Secondly they are out of context and selective.

“I would love to sit with the person and ask where these realities exist. How did he reach to these conclusions?

“I can’t comment on the political decision which the council has made but I could say that the views expressed are assumptions and selective with the most negative spin one could have.

He added: “I would love to invite the person to visit the mosque and discuss the views expressed based on knowledge.”

We asked Coun Gilbert, of the Blue Revolution party, if he would take the Imam up on his invitation. He told us: “I’ll take him up on the offer, I’m very happy to do so.

“It will be good to chat to him about ways to bring together what on the face of it seem like totally contradictory value systems – namely secular western society and Islam.

“I’m surprised my comments were described as ‘selective and out of context'. I’m looking forward to meeting the director to establish exactly what that means.”

Source: lincolnshireworld.com