DUP politician blasted for sharing 'offensive' tweet branding Sadiq Khan 'the enemy within'
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DUP politician blasted for sharing 'offensive' tweet branding Sadiq Khan 'the enemy within'

A DUP MLA has been slammed for retweeting a post branding Mayor of London Sadiq Khan "the enemy within".

Maurice Bradley MLA shared the message just a day after party colleague Ian Paisley Jr. apologised for retweeting an 'Islamophobic' tweet.

The retweeted message attacked Sadiq Khan over his refusal to support a total ban on the Islamist political group Hezbollah.

Mr Bradley appears to have deactivated his Twitter account after coming in for widespread criticism.

Labour MP John Grogan said the tweet was "deeply offensive".

He told BBC Good Morning Ulster: "Mr Khan followed government policy which is to ban the group's military wing but not to ban their political wing."

Mr Grogan, who sits on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said he hoped Mr Bradley would follow Mr Paisley's lead and apologise.

This morning, Dr Wasif Naeem of Belfast's Islamic Centre said he was happy to "move on" following Mr Paisley's apology.

"They are our MPs, they are are our leaders as well and it was very distressing to see those kinds of messages," Mr Naeem said.

"People were feeling quite anxious and quite worried, but now we are happy to tell people that he has apologised and we can move on."

SDLP MLA Claire Hanna said the DUP had a "massive problem".

She added: "This shows a total failure to accept that other people are different to you."

While Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie also condemned the DUP's recent retweets, saying that "some people are using rhetoric which is totally unacceptable".