Church minister who heckled Corbyn suspended over tweets
- Published
Rev Richard Cameron accused Jeremy Corbyn of being a "terrorist sympathiser"
The minister who heckled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Glasgow has been suspended while an investigation into controversial tweets is carried out.
Rev Richard Cameron shouted at Mr Corbyn as he entered a community centre on Wednesday.
It later emerged that he had made Islamophobic and homophobic comments on social media.
The Church of Scotland has confirmed he will not be allowed to work as a minister while inquiries continue.
A spokeswoman for the church said: "In accordance with our procedures Rev Richard Cameron has been administratively suspended.
"This is to allow us to carry out an inquiry in relation to the incident which took place earlier this week and the subsequent complaints about his social media use."
In one tweet Rev Cameron, the minister at Scotstoun Parish Church in Glasgow, 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."
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".
When initially alerted to the tweets, the church said it "deplored comments which were Islamophobic or homophobic".
Rev Cameron, who worked in pharmaceutical sales before joining the church, has been minister at Scotstoun since 2000.
The 60-year-old heckled Mr Corbyn during a two-day trip to Scotland, 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.
- Published13 November 2019
