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Council Defends Decision to Invite Speaker Who Said Virgin Mary 'Wore a Hijab'
The council said the unpaid speaker was invited to challenge staff with different perspectives, while critics called the presentation misleading and politically motivated.
- North Yorkshire Council defended a 2025 York and North Yorkshire Hate Crime Conference presentation after criticism over Abbas Najib, CEO of Better Communities Bradford, claiming the Virgin Mary 'wore a hijab' during the seminar.
- Project Unity, a taxpayer-funded initiative receiving about $47,000, has reached more than 2,500 people across West and North Yorkshire with training on 'media and political narratives' and 'myths and misconceptions about Islam.'
- Training materials also claimed Jesus 'grew a beard' and the hijab 'was prevalent in the UK only 100 years ago' using early 20th-century British shawl images unrelated to Islamic practice, while Independent councillor Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff called the reference 'inaccurate and unacceptable.'
- Odette Robson, North Yorkshire Council's head of community safety, stressed the session aimed to 'expose staff to different perspectives and encourage debate' rather than promote views, and that Najib received no payment for the presentation.
- Better Communities Bradford received about $660,000 from the National Lottery Communities Fund for community work, while Najib defended his Virgin Mary reference by noting she was a Jewish woman living six centuries before Islam who may have worn head coverings.
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Virgin Mary 'wore hijab', council staff taught in taxpayer-funded Islamophobia lecture
Council staff involved in anti-terrorism work were told the Virgin Mary “wore a hijab” during a publicly funded presentation on Islamophobia.The example was used during a Project Unity training session delivered to North Yorkshire council staff, as part of a lecture that Islamic attitudes towards women were compatible with Western values.The presentation also told attendees that “Jesus grew a beard”, drawing a parallel with Islamic guidance for …
·London, United Kingdom
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Leaning Left0Leaning Right4Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Center, 50% Right
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources are Center, 50% of the sources lean Right
50% Right
C 50%
R 50%
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