This is one win Donald Trump may not be crowing about.
A Muslim group in the U.K. named the Republican frontrunner the world’s worst Islamophobe on Saturday for his call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
His victory was announced during the ‘Islamophobia Awards’ in London, a satirical event held by the advocacy group Islamic Human Rights Organization (IHRC).
“It is bad enough that anyone can come out with such arrogant, unapologetic bigotry and hate speech but I think what is really frightening is that Donald Trump is supported by such a large number of voters in what is the most powerful nation in the world” IHRC’s Chairman Massoud Shadjareh said in an e-mail.
Trump’s rivals in the 2016 ‘International’ category included far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the country of Tajikistan, which has instilled a campaign to eradicate conservative Islam. British Prime Minister David Cameron won in the U.K. category for his “comments about Muslim women needing to learn English and being ‘traditionally submissive’” the organisers wrote.
In a statement, the group said that the awards aim “to subvert Islamophobia through comedy and revue while simultaneously addressing a serious and significant issue in a creative manner.”
The IHRC was criticized for insensitivity in 2015 for giving French magazine Charlie Hebdo the international Islamophobe award in 2015, months after 12 members of the magazine’s staff were killed in a terrorist attack.
“I think people misunderstood the award that was given to Charlie Hebdo, it wasn’t anything to do with the act of terrorism in Paris” says Shadjareh. “The point is this: if Charlie Hebdo says they have the right with satire to make fun of anyone, then why can’t we have the same right?”
Reports in Britain’s conservative media have also said the group supports Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia classified by the U.S. as a terrorist organisation, a claim Shadjareh says is “outrageous.”
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