THE chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques has condemned anti-Semitism as having no place in Islam.

The comment comes after two East Lancashire councillors were suspended by the Labour Party for alleged remarks about Israel.

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Former Blackburn with Darwen mayor Cllr Salim Mulla and senior Burnley councillor Shah Hussain had their membership of the party temporarily taken away while their alleged comments on social media were investigated.

The move followed the growing controversy engulfing Labour over allegedly anti-Semitic comments by former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Bradford West MP Naz Shah, both suspended by the party.

Daneshouse with Stoneyholme’s Cllr Hussain said he would contest his suspension.

He said: “I will try to clear my name. I would like to make it clear to your readership and the people of East Lancashire that I am not anti-Semitic. I was responding to an exchange of tweets between footballers Joey Barton and Yossi Benayoun about events in Gaza in 2014 when there was a conflict going on.

“Jewish Labour politicians including Gerald Kaufman MP have made similar comparisons between the treatment of Palestinians by specific Israeli governments and the Nazis' treatment of the Jews.”

Queen’s Park’s Cllr Mulla, who suggested Israel was behind the rise of IS and should be moved to the US, did not respond to a request from the Lancashire Telegraph to comment but is quoted by Conservative blogger Guido Fawkes as saying the alleged offensive posts were "probably just forwarded to me".

Cllr Mulla is quoted as saying: “I do not agree with Zionism at all. I have very, very many Jewish friends.”

Mr Qureshi, who succeeded Cllr Mulla as Lancashire Council of Mosques' chairman, said: “I am not aware of the details of these councillors’ suspensions. Anti-Semitism has no place in Islam. We have no criticism of the Jewish people, the Jewish faith or Jewish culture. Salim’s only role in the Lancashire Council of Mosques now relates to halal and he has many other hats.

“Anti-Semitism is a form of racism which we condemn. Muslims must be careful when they criticise the actions of specific Israeli governments regarding Gaza and the Palestinians that they do not allow it to be perceived as anti-Semitism.”