(ANTIMEDIA) United Kingdom – A bigoted petition claiming “immigrants” and “foreign citizens” are trying to turn Britain into a Muslim country is to be debated by the U.K. Parliament.
Instead of debating the very real problem of Islamophobia in Britain, the House of Commons Petitions Committee will hold a debate on October 19th, since the xenophobic petition has received the more than the 185,745 signatures required for discussion. The three hour debate will be led by Conservative MP Paul Scully and will include speeches from all the main parties and as many backbenchers as time will allow.
Entitled “Stop Allowing immigrants into the U.K.” and initiated by someone called Kieran Worrallo, the petition makes several demands:
“The U.K. government need to prevent immigrants from entering the U.K. immediately! We MUST close all borders, and prevent more immigrants from entering Britain. Foreign citizens are taking all our benefits, costing the government millions!” The petition continued to claim that “many of them are trying to change U.K. into a Muslim country!”
Seemingly oblivious to the biggest global refugee crisis since World War II, Kieran’s factually incorrect catastrophizing states that if the government fails to act, Britain may take in 12 million more “immigrants” by 2060.
His anxiety at what “may’’ happen in 45 years time is compounded by footage he claims to have seen of“foreigners destroying British soldiers graves,” which he says is hugely disrespectful.
The anti-Muslim bigotry and intolerance fuelled by far right groups like the BNP, EDL, and Britain First comes in many guises and has resulted in a 70% increase in hate crimes against Muslims in Britain.
Discussing the petition, Selly Oak Labour MP Steve McCabe said the debate highlights the problem of the government agreeing to a debate if there are enough signatures. “It is a licence for bigotry, and that is what we are witnessing here,” he told the Birmingham Mail.
While Kieran and over 185,000 others will be pleased to get their debate, many others across the U.K. would rather see MPs use the debating time to explore some of the vile attitudes permeating Britain today.