TV presenter Adil Ray has opened up about the “horrendous” abuse he’s faced since tensions surrounding migrant hotels and debates surrounding immigration have heightened in recent weeks.
The Good Morning Britain star, who has overseen his fair share of debates on the topic on the ITV show in recent weeks, called on politicians to do more to “reassure” British Muslims that the country is with them following spats of anti-Islam incidents.
On Friday’s show, Mr Ray and co-host Kate Garraway were speaking with former Labour MP Caroline Flint and broadcaster Salma Shah about the news that an Epping asylum hotel resident had been found guilty of sexual assault.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl and a woman.
After discussing the intricacies of the case, Ms Flint stated: “I think someone who comes to her seek asylum and commits an offence like this and is found guilty, I think they should be returned.”
Mr Ray then weighed in: “We are going to be debating that later because then the complication becomes what kind of a country are we returning them to, but we’ll be debating that later.”
The 51-year-old then turned his attention elsewhere: “One thing I wanted to pick up on, and when you step out of the country, I’ve been out of the country for a few days, and you do try and avoid social media, but you do inevitably (check), a lot of the messages I’ve been getting…
“This migrant issue – I don’t think this has been talked about enough – the vast majority of these asylum seekers we’ll be talking about will be Muslims, they’re coming from Muslim countries.
“I think a lot of people are seeing a rise in anti-Muslim hate crime,” Mr Ray added, which prompted Ms Garraway to interject: “You’ve experienced it.”
Mr Ray confirmed: “I’ve experienced it, I’ve had people DM me on Instagram talking about remigration, I’ve had threats to watch myself on the streets.
“I know very senior politicians have had violent threats, Muslim politicians, against them. I had a woman message me only yesterday, saying in a town in the south that she’d received racial abuse as a Muslim woman, and she’s afraid to go out.
“I know people who work here have said they have friends who are Muslim, who are visibly Muslim, don’t wanna go to the mosque anymore. I mean, this is horrendous what’s going on.
“Mosques, we know, we haven’t had it corroborated, but mosques have been attacked. Ballymena in Northern Ireland, racist attacks there… the thing that strikes me about this is that no one seems to be talking about it.
“These are anti-Muslim hate crimes, but there doesn’t seem to be any politicians standing up and actually reassuring millions of Muslims in this country that the country is behind you, and this has been going on for weeks now. That is deeply concerning.”
Shah was inclined to agree, claiming: “I think there is an issue here where a lot of these kinds of offences go under-reported and they just become part of the mainstay for the British Muslim.”
When she went on to claim these offences are exacerbated by things like asylum hotel controversies, Ms Garraway highlighted that the Epping hotel attacker claimed to be a Christian.
While Mr Ray didn’t refer to a specific time or incident that prompted the abuse he faced, he has faced his fair share of criticism for his moderation of a number of migrant debates on the ITV show recently.
Last month, Mr Ray faced calls of “bullying” by angry GMB viewers over his grilling of the Schools Minister, Catherine McKinnell MP, about the subject of Epping hotel, The Bell.
He also found himself embroiled in a fiery clash with Conservative MP Chris Philp in August when the pair locked horns in what was described as a “car crash” debate by viewers.
However, he isn’t the only GMB star to have caused a reaction, having gone toe-to-toe with Mr Philp over the issue of immigration. Co-star Susanna Reid hit headlines for her row with the Conservative MP earlier this week.
