THE reverend who heckled Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended by the Church of Scotland.
Richard Cameron, who branded the Labour leader a “terrorist sympathiser” outside a campaign event in Glasgow, was yesterday dropped as chaplain for Scotstoun Primary School after offensive social media posts emerged.
He has now been officially suspended by the Church of Scotland, who will carry out an investigation.
A church spokesperson said: “In accordance with our procedures Rev Richard Cameron has been administratively suspended.
“This is to allow us to carry out an enquiry in relation to the incident which took place earlier this week and the subsequent complaints about his social media use.”
Cameron branded Islam a “religion of violence” and accused gay people of celebrating “perversion” in social media posts.
In its initial response, the Church of Scotland said they “deplore any comments which are Islamophobic or homophobic” and promised any complaints into the matter would be “taken seriously and addressed”.
Parents of pupils at Scotstoun Primary School have received an email from the head teacher saying Cameron will “no longer be engaged” with the school.
READ MORE: Reverend who heckled Jeremy Corbyn dropped as school chaplain
The minister confronted Corbyn as he kicked off his 48-hour tour of target Scottish seats ahead of the December 12 election.
While Corbyn was being asked about the scarf he was wearing, which had been given to him by a charity, the minister shouted: “I thought you’d be wearing your Islamic Jihad scarf?”
In front of the gathered press, Cameron continued: “Do you think the man that’s going to be prime minister of this country should be a terrorist sympathiser?"
Here’s a video clip of the moment Jeremy Corbyn was heckled in Glasgow pic.twitter.com/ALiSjiZ77W
— Tom Rayner (@RaynerSkyNews) November 13, 2019
Subsequently, tweets from an account connected to Cameron's Scotstoun Parish Church emerged in which Islam was called a "religion of violence".
Posts also called for the Archbishop of Canterbury to "ban gay priests", accused gay people of celebrating "perversion" and claimed homosexuality causes "harm by breaking sensibly held taboos".
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer accused the minister of talking "bigoted nonsense".
He tweeted: "Bigoted nonsense directed at Corbyn today doesnt represent the @churchscotland. The bigoted tweets surfacing certainly don't. Do I wish the Kirk were robust in rejecting fringe figures like this guy? Yes. We must do so much better to say this isn't who we are & isn't acceptable."
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