A councillor has been condemned after his Twitter account was used to post a series of offensive and Islamophobic posts.
The social media account of Clr Ray Bray, Conservative member for Shelley on Kirkburton Parish Council, has published a number of offensive comments over the last few weeks.
On April 20, Clr Bray’s account @rayjbray messaged Redcar MP Anna Turley, following her tweet criticising the government’s bid to open more grammar schools.
Mrs Turley wrote: “When Labour was in government, Every Child Mattered.”
Clr Bray’s account responded: “You’re a fool. What you are saying is complete and utter rubbish and how you can say it is in v/bad taste. Lab 2 blame for Muzzie rapists.”
When the Examiner asked Clr Bray about the message he claimed to not remember doing it.
A post on his Twitter account later said he had been hacked.
When asked if the Conservative party was anti-Islam he said: “Not as far as I’m aware.”
But when the Examiner contacted the Conservative party they said they had launched an investigation and Mr Bray had been suspended.
The offensive tweet about “Muzzie (Muslim) rapists” has since been deleted - eight days after it was posted.
Clr Bray’s timeline has produced a number of other posts which have been labelled as inappropriate.
On April 25 his account responded to a post about Muslim Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, commenting: “Honour killings, wife beatings, and FGM along with terrorism are part and parcel of his faith.”
Another anti-Islam tweet by Clr Bray’s account said people should boycott all taxis and takeaways run by Muslims.
The tweet was in response to outrage on Twitter that a Huddersfield taxi firm had collected some of the 29 mostly Muslim defendants from Kirklees Magistrates Court in the high profile child sexual exploitation case heard on April 12.
Responding to the tweet on April 13 to “Boycott Huddersfield Taxis...”, Clr Bray’s account wrote: “And their takeaways etc. Its [sic] our money they are after, not to share our country and embrace what it gives.”
On April 19 one of his re-tweets included “Ban building any more Mosques or madrasses [sic]”.
On April 20 further tweets dubbed funding for places of worship to tackle hate crime as “a waste of money” while another entry said Muslims were “Not here to integrate”.
Clr Bray’s account also re-tweeted a meme that claimed the word Islamophobic was a “Bull**** term invented to vilify and silence anyone being honest about mankind’s most violent supremacist culture”.
Another re-tweet said: “I’ll see your Jihad and I’ll raise you one crusade”.
Clr Bray is a long serving member of the parish council and is also thought to be member of the Dewsbury Conservative Association and so was expected to be on the campaign trail in the Kirkburton area in a bid to defeat incumbent MP Paula Sherriff at the General Election on June 8.
Ms Sherriff, said: “The language used on this Conservative councillor’s account is absolutely abhorrent.
“This blatant Islamophobia has no place in society, even more so when the country needs to be coming together and standing up against the rise in hate crime we have seen in the last year.
“Is this opinion indicative of the Dewsbury Conservative Association?”
A number of the posts on the account have since been deleted but some are still on view including a re-tweet seemingly endorsing right-wing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and another re-tweet that says “Islam is truly evil as are those that follow it...”.
A Conservative spokesman said: "Mr Bray has been suspended from the party pending an investigation."
