By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-30 09:51:01 | Updated at 2026-09-30 12:07:18
2 hours ago
Council staff involved in anti-terrorism work were told the Virgin Mary “wore a hijab” during a publicly funded presentation on Islamophobia.
The example was used during a Project Unity training session delivered to North Yorkshire council staff, as part of a lecture that Islamic attitudes towards women were compatible with Western values.
The presentation also told attendees that “Jesus grew a beard”, drawing a parallel with Islamic guidance for Muslim men, and claimed that “the hijab was prevalent in the UK only 100 years ago”.
Images of shawls worn in early 20th-century Britain were used to illustrate the point, although the garments shown were in no way connected to Islam.
Project Unity is a programme designed to address Islamophobia and concerns that Muslim beliefs are incompatible with British values.
Its material has also been delivered to students, police officers and civil servants involved in the Prevent counter-extremism programme, according to the Telegraph.
The session was delivered by Abbas Najib, a former police officer who is now chief executive of Better Communities Bradford, the charity behind the programme.
As a Jewish woman living in first-century Judea, Mary may have worn a head covering, and later Christian art frequently depicts her wearing a veil or shawl.
The example was used during a Project Unity training session delivered to North Yorkshire council staff,
GETTY
However, she lived roughly six centuries before the emergence of Islam, and the even later-developed Islamic rules concerning the hijab.
The presentation also included material defending Sharia, describing it as comparable with other religious traditions.
One slide stated: “Sharia is not a foreign threat. It is a moral tradition – like any other – shaped by faith, reason and a commitment to human dignity.”
Another said that Islamic practice required that “children cannot be struck on the face, cannot be marked, and must freely consent to marriage”.
Project Unity material also addresses political demonstrations supporting Palestinians, describing them as “protesting genocide”.
The programme has received £490,000 in public funding from the National Lottery Communities Fund since 2019, including a £35,000 grant specifically for the rollout of Project Unity.
The training attracted scrutiny after footage emerged of a Project Unity-based talk given at a North Yorkshire Police hate crime conference last year.
The force stressed that the session was not part of its formal training programme and was not delivered by a police employee.
As a Jewish woman living in first-century Judea, Mary may have worn a head covering, and later Christian art frequently depicts her wearing a veil or shawl
During that presentation, Mr Najib compared remarks by Nigel Farage with a racially aggravated offence, and asked the audience to consider the “harm” caused by his statements on Islam and incompatibility with UK values.
Mr Najib said: “Sitting in a national news studio and saying ‘Jews hate Britain’, he’d be locked up before he left the studio – and too right, too.”
The presentation also criticised descriptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”, referring to comments by Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick - both since becoming Reform MPs.
Abbas Najib told GB News: “Project Unity exists to reduce anti-Muslim hostility and to strengthen trust between communities.
“In my view, generalisations of that kind about an entire faith community are Islamophobic and fuel anti-Muslim hostility. I asked delegates to consider how the same claim would be treated if it were made about Jewish people.
“My assessment was, and remains, that it would be treated far more seriously and could well attract criminal consequences. That is not simply a matter of perception.
“The law gives stronger protection against the stirring up of racial hatred than religious hatred, and Jewish people are protected as a racial group while Muslims are not.
“Asking delegates to reflect on that inconsistency is exactly what hate crime training should do, and I stand by it. Every community in Britain deserves the same protection from hatred.”
