Boris Johnson said Islam put the Muslim world ‘literally centuries behind’ the West

Boris Johnson, pictured yesterday, arguied a decade ago that Islam had held the Muslim world ‘literally centuries behind’ the West

Boris Johnson argued that Islam and its ‘fatal religious conservatism’ had held the Muslim world ‘literally centuries behind’ the West, a newly uncovered essay revealed today.

The Tory leadership favourite also claimed ‘Muslim grievance’ was a factor in virtually every global conflict.

His words emerged today in an essay written a decade ago and published in a 2007 edition of his book on Roman empire.

The Muslim Council of Britain today demanded to know if the man expected to be the next Prime Minister still believes ‘Islam inherently inhibits the path to progress and freedom’.

Mr Johnson wrote: ‘There must be something about Islam that indeed helps to explain why there was no rise of the bourgeoisie, no liberal capitalism and therefore no spread of democracy in the Muslim world’.

He added Islam was held back by ‘fatal religious conservatism’ and the Muslim world had ‘fallen behind, the more bitterness and confusion there has been, to the point where virtually every global flashpoint you can think of – from Bosnia to Palestine to Iraq to Kashmir – involves some sense of Muslim grievance.’ 

He wrote: ‘It is extraordinary to think that under the Roman/Byzantine empire, the city of Constantinople kept the candle of learning alight for a thousand years, and that under Ottoman rule, the first printing press was not seen in Istanbul until the middle  of the nineteenth century. Something caused them to be literally centuries behind.’ 

But in the essay he also admitted Christianity had shown ‘disgusting cruelty’ over the course of history and said: ‘It wasn’t so long ago that we were burning books and heretics ourselves. These Muslims are not some alien species .’ 

The Tory leadership favourite's book accompanied his 2006 BBC TV series: "Boris Johnson and the Dream of Rome"

The Tory leadership favourite’s book accompanied his 2006 BBC TV series: ‘Boris Johnson and the Dream of Rome’

‘You simply cannot use that kind of language’: Boris blasts Trump’s call for ethnic minority congresswomen to ‘go back where they came from’ 

Boris Johnson has condemned Donald Trump’s ‘totally unacceptable’ language after the US President called for four non-white Democrats to ‘go back’ to their supposed home countries – but refused to call him racist.

The Tory candidate – who has found himself in hot water over alleged racist comments in the past – said last night that world leaders ‘simply cannot use that kind of language’.

However, he stopped short of calling Trump a racist when pressed by Tory debate moderators – as did his rival Jeremy Hunt in their final head-to-head leadership debate.

Theresa May had taken aim at Trump’s ‘completely unacceptable’ comments earlier in the day, but the President has refused to back down despite a furious backlash.

Mr Johnson said: ‘If you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural society you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back to where they came from.

‘That went out decades and decades ago and thank heavens for that so it’s totally unacceptable and I agree with the Prime Minister.’

Pressed on whether the comments were racist, he said : ‘I simply can’t understand how a leader of that country can come to say it.’ Pressed again, he added: ‘You can take from what I said what I think about President Trump’s words.’

He also said that Turkey’s ‘far from perfect’ record on human rights was ‘one of the most important reasons for keeping the Turks on the tram tracks to EU membership, surely, that we thereby help the progressive forces in Turkey and stop the country drifting backwards’. 

During the 2016 referendum campaign he warned of Turkey joining the EU as a reason to leave. 

Mr Johnson said last year he did not want Britain to follow European countries like Denmark which have banned the burka and niqab in public places.

But he drew criticism after he described the burka as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘weird’ and said women wearing them looked like letter-boxes or bank robbers. 

He refused to comment on his words today – but at last night’s Tory leadership debate with Jeremy Hunt he Mr Johnson was reminded by the host of the head-to-head debate about a 1998 column in which he wrote about ‘tank-topped bum boys in the Ministry of Sound’.

He replied: ‘If you are going to excavate and disinter every single quotation from the millions of words I have (written), you can of course twist things one way or the other.’ 

His essay on Islam has been blasted by faith groups.

The Muslim Council of Britain said in a statement to the Guardian, who uncovered the essay: ‘We, of course, are of the view that Islam has a role to play in progress and prosperity, be that in the Muslim world or here at our home in the west.

‘Many of us would be interested to find out whether Mr Johnson still believes that Islam inherently inhibits the path to progress and freedom, and whether he still thinks Turkey should be admitted to the European Union, especially after the extraordinary and false claims made about Turkish and Muslim immigration during the Brexit campaign.’ 

Ex-chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, said he had risked ‘actively promoting hatred of Muslims’. 

How Boris Johnson’s columns, poems, essays and rants have sparked rows in the past

Boris has had repeated scrapes with the French - including with former President Francois Hollande

Boris has had repeated scrapes with the French – including with former President Francois Hollande

France

In June this year it emerged Boris Johnson had accused the French of acting like ‘turds’ over Brexit.

The former foreign secretary faced a backlash yesterday after the Daily Mail revealed he had been recorded making the crude remark as part of a fly-on-the-wall documentary.

In January 2017 he was condemned by the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator after comparing then French president Francois Hollande to a Second World War guard administering ‘punishment beatings’.

His remark was made during a visit to India, when he was asked about a reported comment from one of Mr Hollande’s aides, who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe from outside the EU.

The Foreign Secretary responded: ‘If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anyone who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don’t think that’s the way forward.

‘It’s not in the interests of our friends or our partners.’

Libya

Boris Johnson’s comments directed towards a Libyan city landed him in hot water in 2017.

The Foreign Secretary said Sirte, the coastal city where former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed during the 2011 civil war, could become the next Dubai once it had cleared away the dead bodies.

Turkey

Recep Tayyip Erdogan - Boris penned a poem calling the Turkish leader 'a w****erer' from Ankara

Recep Tayyip Erdogan – Boris penned a poem calling the Turkish leader ‘a w****erer’ from Ankara

In May 2016 Mr Johnson won a £1,000 competition run by the Spectator magazine to write the most offensive poem possible about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He composed a satirical limerick describing the key regional power broker having sex with a goat and calling him a ‘w******r’, to rhyme with the Turkish capital, Ankara.

It said:

There was a young fellow from Ankara

Who was a terrific w***erer

Till he sowed his wild oats

With the help of a goat

But he didn’t even stop to thankera

Barack Obama

In April 2016 he was criticised for describing the then-US president Barack Obama as a ‘part-Kenyan’ who harboured an ‘ancestral dislike’ of Britain.

He made the comments in a newspaper article after the US’s first black president came out in favour of the Remain campaign during a visit to Britain.

Palestine

In November 2015 local officials axed a visit to Palestine on safety grounds after the then-London mayor told an audience in Tel Aviv that a trade boycott of Israeli goods was ‘completely crazy’ and supported by ‘corduroy jacketed, snaggletoothed, lefty academics in the UK’.

Palestinian officials accused him of adopting a ‘misinformed and disrespectful’ pro-Israel stance and said he risked creating protests if he visited the West Bank, although Mr Johnson claimed his comments were ‘very much whipped up’ on social media.

Japan

Boris Johnson clatters a child in Japan

Boris Johnson clatters a child in Japan

In October 2015 he made a more light-hearted gaffe when he was filmed wiping out a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy during a game of street rugby on a visit to Tokyo.

The images, which were shown widely, saw burly Boris take out Toki Sekiguchi as the politician raced down the mini turf pitch.

Toki Sekiguchi said afterwards: ‘I felt a little bit of pain but it’s OK.’

Commonwealth countries and the Congo

In 2008 Mr Johnson apologised for a Daily Telegraph column written six years previously, while MP for Henley, in which he described the Queen being greeted in Commonwealth countries by ‘flag-waving piccaninnies’ – a derogatory term for black children.

The same column mentioned then prime minister Tony Blair being greeted by ‘tribal warriors who will all break out in watermelon smiles’ on a forthcoming visit to the Congo.

China

In August 2008 he offended his hosts while visiting the Beijing Olympics, when he said it was a misconception that table tennis had been invented by the Chinese, and it had in fact developed from a Victorian English game called ‘whiff-whaff’.

During a party to celebrate the handover from Beijing to London, he said the game was invented on the dining tables of 19th century England, and told the Chinese that ‘ping pong is coming home’.

Hillary Clinton

In a November 2007 column in the Daily Telegraph he described Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate to replace Mr Obama, as having ‘a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital’.

The piece, which described Mrs Clinton as the best candidate to replace George W. Bush in the 2008 presidential election, also described Mr Obama as ‘plainly brilliant’.

Papua New Guinea

In 2006 Mr Johnson was forced to apologise for upsetting the island state after linking it with ‘cannibalism and chief-killing’ in remarks made in another Daily Telegraph column.

He wrote: ‘For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour Party.’

Liverpool

Boris used to be editor of The Spectator

Boris used to be editor of The Spectator

In October 2004 Mr Johnson was famously ordered to Liverpool by former Tory leader Michael Howard to apologise to the people of the city after publishing, as editor of The Spectator, an editorial accusing its citizens of wallowing in pity after engineer Ken Bigley’s killing in Iraq.

Portsmouth

In 2007 he caused fury after he described Portsmouth in a GQ magazine article as ‘too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs’.

 

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