Local British politician who called Islam a cancer resigns

Twelve days after he won a seat in local elections, councilor Eric Kitson of Britain’s right-wing UKIP (the United Kingdom Independence Party) announced Tuesday that he would resign amid harsh criticism for anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim statements he posted on Facebook.

The 59-year-old Kitson, who won a seat in Stourport, Worcestershire with 1,385 votes, said he didn’t see how he could carry on in politics after comparing Islam to a “cancer” needing “to be treated with radiation” — a statement he posted on Facebook accompanied by a picture of a nuclear explosion, making his meaning clear.

In the past, Kitson has expressed support for far-right, anti-Islam groups and parties calling for “the entire free world” to “unite against Islam,” such as Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

He has posted several offensive images and statements on Facebook, such as a picture of Muslims being roasted over Qurans used as fuel and a statement saying Muslim women should all be hanged. “Hung em all first, ask questions later,” he wrote.

He also asserted that Adolf Hitler was part of the “Rothshild conspiracy,” a group of Jewish bankers who supposedly run the world.

Despite such statements, Kitson remained adamant Tuesday that he was not a racist, saying what he had written was “stupid, but it wasn’t racist.”

Stressing that he was “the only white guy” on his local football team and had “wonderful” Muslim friends, he said that he had only posted the “foolish” statements and images in order to “show people this is bad, this is wrong,” but was at fault for failing to indicate that he found them offensive.

“I thought I could handle politics, but I can’t,” he concluded.

“I’m not a politician. I’m a bit of a fool, really, aren’t I?”, he told the BBC.

In response, UKIP chairman Steve Crowther said the party believed Kitson was “an honest man who has made, by his own admission, some serious mistakes, by posting or reposting offensive material on his Facebook page which he should never have associated himself with.”

The Independent quoted Crowther as saying that Kitson regretted his actions “enormously, and rightly so … His decision to resign is, under the circumstances, the right one. Ukip deplores racism or religious intolerance in any form, and this is a stark demonstration that people who are careless, unthinking or foolishly provocative in their online activity can both give great offence to others and severely damage themselves.”