Chris Graham resigned as a director of Rangers football club yesterday, three days after he was appointed, amid claims that he tweeted a sexually explicit cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to a radical preacher.
Rangers confirmed last night that Mr Graham was no longer a director. In a statement to the stock exchange, the club said: “Chris Graham has tendered his resignation as a director of Rangers International Football Club plc. This has been accepted by the board.” They added that they would launch a “robust investigation” into what had happened.
Mr Graham appeared to have tweeted a cartoon of the prophet engaged in a sex act to Anjem Choudary, an Islamist preacher. It was sent in January on the day of the attack on the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Last night Mr Graham issued an apology. “Freedom of speech is one of the foundations that our country is built upon,” he said. “However, with that freedom comes a responsibility to be sensitive to the views of all our nations’ communities. This tweet did not do that. For that I apologise unreservedly. I also tweeted my support for the Muslim community during exchanges that day but even so I accept that retweeting that cartoon was inappropriate.”
Mr Graham’s post came after Mr Choudary tweeted: “Freedom of expression does not extend to insulting the prophets of Allah, whatever your views on the events in Paris today!”
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In response, the image was sent from Mr Graham’s account with a message saying: “You probably won’t like this one of Prophet Mo.”
Asid Khan, the president of the Glasgow mosque, said: “With freedom of speech comes great responsibility to not offend other people. In this case, such a tweet is very offensive to a large proportion of the population, not only Muslims.”
Mr Graham’s short-lived directorship is an embarrassment for Dave King a week after his consortium took power on March 6.
Mr King — who must satisfy the club and the authorities that he is a fit and proper person before taking his seat as chairman — had promised to ensure that the club’s supporters were represented at director level after they backed his boardroom coup.
Mr Graham was nominated on behalf of the Rangers Supporters Trust, of which he is spokesman, while the RangersFirst member James Blair was handed the role of club secretary.