Glasgow church minister who heckled Corbyn in Twitter storm

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Corbyn in Glasgow
Image caption,

Jeremy Corbyn was visiting Glasgow when he was heckled by the Church of Scotland minister

The Church of Scotland has said it will "take seriously" any complaints about controversial tweets by a minister who heckled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Rev Richard Cameron, the minister at Scotstoun Parish Church in Glasgow, shouted at Mr Corbyn as he entered a local community centre.

It later emerged that Rev Cameron had made Islamophobic and homophobic comments on his Twitter account.

The church said there had been "significant concern" about the posts.

In one tweet, Rev Cameron compared homosexuality to incest, describing them as "unnatural".

"Both cause harm by breaking sensibly held taboos," he added.

In September, he tweeted: "Christ has the power to help and change anyone. Obviously many gays hate this because want to carry on their perversion."

Image source, Twitter/@thebiblestrue

He also shared a series of controversial views on Islam, describing terrorism as "a problem Islam needs to deal with", a full face veil as "oppressive and unBritish" and the Prophet Muhammad as "a violent man".

In another post, he said: "The best way to defeat Islam is to preach Christ".

Image source, Twitter/@thebiblestrue

In response, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland said it deplored comments which were Islamophobic or homophobic.

"At this stage all we can say is that there is a formal complaints process and that any complaints we receive in relation to this matter will be taken seriously and addressed," she added.

Rev Cameron, who worked in pharmaceutical sales before joining the church, has been minister at Scotstoun since 2000.

Earlier, he heckled Mr Corbyn during a trip to Glasgow, branding him a "terrorist sympathiser".

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As Mr Corbyn was telling reporters about a scarf given to him by the Who Cares? Scotland charity, Rev Cameron shouted that he thought the Labour leader would be wearing an "Islamic jihad scarf".

"Do you think the man that's going to be prime minister of this country should be a terrorist sympathiser, Mr Corbyn?" he added.

"Who's going to be the first terrorist invited to the House of Commons when you're prime minister?"

The Labour leader did not react and he was ushered into the community centre by Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.

Mr Cameron then accused Mr Corbyn of "running away".

The Church of Scotland rebuked Rev Cameron for the way he approached the situation, saying: "Whilst we may occasionally robustly challenge policy issues with which we disagree, we always intend to do that in a way that is polite and measured and allows for reasoned debate."

Meanwhile Who Cares? Scotland, which works with care experienced young people, criticised the minister for taking the focus away from their clients.

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