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Abdullah Patel asked the five candidates whether they believed words had consequences and said he had seen first hand the impact of Islamophobic rhetoric on his community. But Mr Patel has now found himself under the spotlight after anti-Israeli tweets from his now-deleted AbdullahPatel94 account emerged. In one tweet unearthed by the Guido Fawkes website, Mr Patel wrote: “Every Political figure on the Zionist’s payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn. They don’t like him. He seems best suited to tackle them!”

His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn’t. I’m sorry Nicky Campbell

He also shared an image endorsing the relocation of Israel to the US as a way of solving the Israel/Palestine conflict. Mr Patel has taken down his Twitter account but previous social media posts from @AbdullahPatel94 published by the Spectator include comments accusing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of either “lying about wanting to protect freedom of speech, or they simply wish to undermine @jeremycorbyn”. He has also tweeted: “How long are the Zionists going to hide behind the Holocaust cry? It was a tragedy, but Gaza today is a repeat of the oppression.” The BBC said Mr Patel had been vetted but would not have been invited to participate in the debate had researchers been aware of his views prior to last night live broadcast.

Abdullah Patel

A spokesman said: “We carried out background research into the online and social media profiles of all our questioners for last night’s debate. “Following the debate, one individual reactivated a public twitter account he had previously deactivated, whose tweets were not visible during our research period. “Had we been aware of the views he expressed there he would not have been selected.” Sajid Javid, who took part in the debate, has criticised Mr Patel on social media. Mr Javid tweeted: “The Imam from #BBCOurNextPM debate should practice what he preaches. “Words do indeed have consequences. That applies to him as much as it does for leaders in public life.” Presenter Nicky Campbell, who had Mr Patel as a guest on his breakfast show on BBC Radio 5 Live todaym said the imam had made “extremely disturbing” remarks on Twitter, and that he was “sorry” the broadcaster had not checked beforehand. Campbell tweeted: “I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning. His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Abdullah Patel puts his question to the Tory leadership contenders

Mr Patel has now been suspended from his job as a deputy head teacher at Al-Ashraf Primary School in Gloucester and also from a mosque in the city. Yakub Patel, chairman of the al-Madani Educational Trust, said: “Following some of the comments attributed to Mr Patel in the media this morning, the Trust has decided to suspend him from all school duties with immediate effect until a full investigation is carried out. “The school and Trust do not share the views attributed to him.” A statement from the the executive members of the Masjid e Umar mosque where Mr Patel is an Imam said: "We are fully aware of that allegations made against our imam, Abdullah Patel, regarding the contents of historic tweets. "We have decided to act immediately and have chosen to give him some time away to allow us the opportunity to conduct a detailed investigation into this matter. "This is the official stance of the mosque's executive committee and we hope you respect our right to privacy as we conduct this deeply sensitive investigation."

Mr Patel said he was disappointed with the responses from Tory leadership hopefuls

Mr Patel told the BBC Asian Network the school was "within its right" to conduct an investigation but added: ”I don't wish to comment on their decision.” Speaking to BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Mr Patel insisted he was not anti-semitic and had a very good relationship with the Jewish community. He said: “The criticism was not of the Jewish community because if you go through my tweets, you'd see support for the Jewish community. "They're our brothers and sisters, and the Jewish community and I - especially in Gloucester - work very closely together. “We actually visited a synagogue just a while ago." Mr Patel said he stood by his criticisms of "Israel's policy".

The independent Al-Ashraf Primary School where imam Abdullah Patel is deputy head

In the debate, Mr Patel asked the five candidates whether they believed words had consequences, and said he had seen first hand the impact of Islamophobic rhetoric on his community. Boris Johnson said he was “sorry for the offence” his comments about veiled Muslim women looking like “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” had caused, while Michael Gove condemned Islamophobia as “repugnant” and attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for comments he claimed were “disgusting” and anti-Semitic. Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged all the candidates to commit to an external investigation into the issue within the Tory Party, and his rivals nodded in agreement. Writing on Twitter after the debate, Mr Patel said he had asked the question because he wanted the candidates to promise that “things would change”, adding: “The hate is real.” “As an Imam, I’m exposed to many incidents which happen in my community, and of course, as a visible Muslim, I also witness it first hand. I have received numerous incident reports of blatant racism against members of my community, from spitting and swearing at Muslim women ... to asking students coming to my mosque if they had bombs in their bags. READ MORE: TORY LEADERSHIP LATEST - CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES