London – A Jewish lawmaker from the greater London area said he
has received death threats because he is Jewish, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Lee Scott, the Conservative MP for Ilford North, said he has had five
death threats in the past year, telling the British Parliament during a debate
on anti-Semitism on Tuesday that he received a phone call telling him he should
be “stoned to death.”
“Being Jewish is my
religion, that’s the end of it,” Scott told BBC London. “I was born a
Jew, and that’s what I’ve chosen to practice.”
“I would never enforce my
religious beliefs on anyone, so why should I have that for just my
religion?” he asked. “Some will like me, others won’t; some will like
my party, others won’t. But whether they like me or not, it’s not a reason to
try and kill me.”
Scott said his constituents have told him they are increasingly
concerned about anti-Semitism, the BBC said.
It cited Britain’s Metropolitan Police as reporting a 92 percent
increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the course of a year, spiking to 322 in
the period between October 2013 and the same month this year, nearly double the
167 incidents between October 2012 and October 2013.
