Six years ago, Tory Zac Goldsmith led one of the most bigoted campaigns in modern British history when he ran to be mayor of London. Rather than play straight, he concentrated on the religion of his Labour opponent, charging that Sadiq Khan was an apologist for "extremists" and thus unfit for office.
This policy of falsely portraying Khan as the pawn of sinister "Islamist" forces came right from the top of the Tory party. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron led the way when he smeared an innocent south London imam from the Commons despatch box as a supporter of the Islamic State.
So it's no surprise that elements inside the Tory party are once again using bigotry as a noxious weapon in the dirty war to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative prime minister. When Penny Mordaunt emerged as the surprise frontrunner, her rivals on the Tory right immediately looked for ways to destroy her.
In today's Conservative Party, that means playing the Muslim card. Remember that in a YouGov poll several years ago, more than two-thirds of the tiny group of Tory members who will decide this contest believe the conspiracy theory that parts of the UK are governed by sharia law. According to Hope Not Hate, the group that commissioned the poll: "From the grassroots to the great offices of state, Conservative members buy into racist myths, with almost half unwilling to have a Muslim prime minister."
This is the background to Monday's assault on Mordaunt in the Daily Mail, which supports her rival, Liz Truss. The front page splash reported that Mordaunt "faced fresh questions over her judgment for meeting a controversial Muslim group – despite it being subject to a government boycott".
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