Posted on 01/22/2005 4:45:50 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this weeks commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the holocaust of the Palestinian intifada.
He said similar events held in other European countries was an inclusive day that commemorated deaths in Palestine, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the former Nazi death camps.
We wrote to the Home Office three or four weeks ago. We said the issue of the Holocaust is not really the concern. But we have now expressed our unwillingness to attend the ceremony because it excludes ongoing genocide and human rights abuses around the world and in the occupied territories of Palestine, he said.
Home Office officials have told the council, which represents more than 350 Muslim organisations, that they are considering the request. But officials have no plans to broaden the remit of the occasion because they fear it would infuriate the Jewish community.
The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Tony Blair will attend the ceremony in Westminster Hall this Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, in which more than 6m Jews were exterminated.
More than 600 Holocaust survivors living in Britain, together with British soldiers who helped liberate the Bergen-Belsen death camp, will be at the event. Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and Prince Edward will fly to Poland for a ceremony at Auschwitz.
This weekend the boycott by the leaders of Britains 1.2m Muslims was condemned by Khalid Mahmood, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr. Im proud to be a Muslim. But if people are boycotting this then I think its a mistake. People who were exterminated in the Holocaust were not just Jews. There were Romany gypsies as well. Anybody who is interested in human rights should support this remembrance.
The boycott is an embarrassment for Clarke, who as the cabinet minister responsible for faith communities is the events official host. It has also angered the Jewish community, which sees it as a snub to the memories of Holocaust victims and to survivors.
Blair said: It is our hope that Holocaust Memorial Day will provide a focus for reflecting on that tragic event, and on our shared and individual responsibility to work for a more just and tolerant world.
Most Moslems were complicit with the Axis in the Haulocaust!
Real men don't whine.
Well. . DUH. . .
1. The Palestinians had no part in the Holocaust. . .except maybe cheering it on from afar. . .
2. Why must EVERYTHING revolve around the Palestinians ??? A nation that does not, and never did exist other than a British Protectorate, which does not, and never did have a distinctive government, culture, or language, and primarily exists today because other Arab nations have refused to assimilate these "refugees" (who left of their own accord to make the supposed conquest of Israel easier. . .).
I guess the Muslims don't want any more reminders of their war record against the Israelis.
"the holocaust of the Palestinian Intifada"
That was a holocaust, all right. They killed as many Jews as they could. Emulating their hero, Hitler.
The Mufti of Jeruselem(in the years of WW 2) was one of Hitler's buddies.
Does Iqbal Sacranie also boycott every other day of the year because they don't specifically include the holocaust of the Palestinian intifada?
It's all to the good. Inviting Muslims to the Holocaust Memorial would be like inviting the KKK to the NAACP Convention.
Correct me if I am wrong, but was Arafat's uncle some highly positioned person in the muslim contingent of the Nazis...under whom Arafat was mentored?
Why would they want to mourn the death of those sweet souls--when the guilt of those deaths can be laid at their feet.
Islam will die. The civilized world will kill it!
Wake up Islam. Time to die.
There was a long, but interesting article about this recently on FR.
It would also be *nice* if these ceremonies openly acknowledged that gypsies, Poles, Catholics, homosexuals, astrologers and any other group Hitler didn't like were also killed in the holocaust. Somehow those numbers are never mentioned.
Suspected collaborators murdered
Suicide bombers
Suicide bombers' innocent Palestinian bystanders
Palestinian gunmen killed in fire-fights
Arafat's political executions
Internecine fights among Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Innocent Israeli Children blown to bits
Innocent Israeli Women shot by snipers
Innocent Israeli Men abducted and beheaded
Honor Killings of Palestinian Women
Forced suicide bombing instead of honor killing of Palestinian women
Old American Jews tossed off the side of ships
Israeli atheletes murdered at the Olympics
Civil War in Jordan
Civil War in Lebanon
Innocent Palestinians killed when used as human shields
Gee....I think they're right. There needs to be a full exposition of dead in the Palestinian conflict.
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