Tory MP Supports Terrorists

The antics of Harrow East’s Tory MP Bob Blackman have featured previously on Zelo Street: his decision (along with his colleagues Mike Freer and Matthew Offord) to dabble in the racism of the Indian sub-continent in order to garner a few more votes, hosting hate preacher Tapan Gosh at the House of Commons, and his hypocrisy in then sitting on the advisory board of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, are all well-known.

Bob Blackman MP

Blackman was called out by the Murdoch Times in March, in another of those most unfortunate social media lapses: “Tory MP Bob Blackman attacked for anti‑Muslim Facebook post … A Conservative MP has been accused of giving a platform to bigots by sharing a story from an anti-Muslim website on his Facebook page”.

There was more. “Bob Blackman shared a story titled ‘Muslim Somali sex gang say raping white British children “part of their culture”’ late on Sunday night but had deleted it by yesterday morning. He has apologised for his ‘error’ in posting the piece from the anti-Muslim website Hardcore News USA”. “Error”? Blackman deliberately shared that post. Is he pretending that his fingers somehow slipped several times to cause him to do so?

But Blackman never learns from these mere errors. We know this as he has taken to endorsing the outpourings of Maryam Rajavi, whom he is unlikely to ever host at the House of Commons as she is banned from the UK. She and husband Massoud lead an organisation called the MEK, which has a history of murderous violence.

Indeed, as the Guardian has told, “The MEK ran a bombing campaign inside Iran against the Shah's regime the 1970s … A state department report in 1992 identified the MEK as responsible for the killing of six Americans in Iran during the 1970s … After falling out with Iran's new rulers, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, the MEK launched a bomb campaign against the Islamic government. In 1981, it attacked the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party, killing 74 senior officials including the party leader and 27 members of parliament. A few months later it bombed a meeting of Iran's national security council, killing Iran's president and the prime minister”. And there was more.

Maryam Rajavi

A report has told that “Since 1981 the [MEK] have claimed responsibility for murdering thousands of Iranians they describe as agents of the regime”. The MEK then joined forces with Saddam Hussein’s régime in Iraq, until the 2003 invasion disarmed them. So at least the MEK “has certainly abandoned violence, at least for now. But that is in part because it was forcibly disarmed by the US army in Iraq”.

When Maryam Rajavi Tweeted “I urge you,supporters of the Iranian Resistance, to convey the cries of the Iranian people to the peoples of the world by informing the Iranian exile community, by neutralizing the lobby and proponents of the religious dictatorship,and by stepping up your activities”, there was Bob Blackman to endorse her.

And despite being called out by Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain the following day, there was Blackman endorsing another Maryam Rajavi message only yesterday. If he had been an Labour MP, the right-wing press would have been all over this, especially given the MEK’s anti-Israel stance.

Bob Blackman is a disgrace to Parliament. But don’t expect his party to censure him.