THE REALLY PECULIAR POSITION OF LIVINGSTONE TOWARDS ISLAM WAS SHOWN IN THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT. THERE WAS MUCH COMMENT ON THIS AT THE TIME
Now I wonder if anyone will ask Ken about his views of what his friend Sheikh Qaradawi said here about the Holocaust in this sermon last Friday which was aired on Qatar TV?
The governments must be pressured to demand that the U.N. adopt a clear resolution or law that categorically prohibits affronts to prophets – to the prophets of the Lord and His messengers, to His holy books, and to the religious holy places. This is so that nobody can cause them harm. They enacted such laws in order to protect the Jews and Judaism. Like some Danes have said: ‘We can mock Jesus and his mother.’ They were asked: ‘Can you mock the Jews?’ Here they stopped. The Jews are protected by laws – the laws that protect Semitism, and nobody can say even one word about the number [of victims] in the alleged Holocaust. Nobody can do so, even if he is writing an M.A. or Ph.D. thesis, and discussing it scientifically. Such claims are not acceptable. When Roger Garaudy talked about it, he was sentenced to jail, according to the laws. We want laws protecting the holy places, the prophets, and Allah’s messengers.”
Roger Garaudy is of course one of the most notorious of Holocaust deniers, whose claims inter alia that the gas chambers did not exist have repeatedly been demonstrated to be pseudo-scientific nonsense.
We all know that Ken regards the Holocaust as “the worst crime in history”.
So what does he think about his friend Sheikh Qaradawi only regarding it as alleged? And what does he think of his friend suggesting that no-one is allowed to question the number of victims? And of his choice of Roger Garaudy as his reference point?
ABOVE can be found on http://adloyada.typepad.com/adloyada/2006/02/ken_livingstone.html
This small paragraph, an extract from much more, is enough to show the irony involved in Livingstone defending Qaratawi:
Dr al-Qaradawi sanctions domestic violence in certain circumstances.
“If the husband senses that feelings of disobedience and rebelliousness are rising against him in his wife, he should try his best to rectify her attitude by kind words, gentle persuasion, and reasoning with her. If this is not helpful, he should sleep apart from her, trying to awaken her agreeable feminine nature so that serenity may be restored and she may respond to him in a harmonious fashion. If this approach fails, it is permissible for him to admonish her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and other sensitive areas.”
4international 