A widely respected American Islamic scholar has been caught in a racism row over comments he made against the Black Lives Matter movement. Islamic Scholar Hamza Yusuf made the racist comments while speaking at ‘Reviving the Islamic Spirit’ event in Canada.

Yusuf dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement saying “a lot of the problems in the united states with the black community being shot by the police we have about 15,000 to 18,000 homicides a year, 50% are black on black crime, literally”.

Talking about U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, Yusuf said: “God is in charge, Trump is a servant of God”.

Yusuf also disregarded police brutality against blacks in America saying “there are twice as many whites that have been shot by police but nobody ever shows those videos, it’s the assumption that the police are racist.”

He further said: “Sectarianism is dangerous and violent. A sectarian mind negates intelligence,”. In the past, Yusuf himself has delved into sectarianism by declaring the persecuted Ahmadiyya Muslims as ‘Fitna’ (something that draws extreme hatred).