Mehdi Hasan on Geert Wilders:
This morning I engaged in a so-called “red-line” debate on Sky News about whether or not the right-wing Dutch Islamophobe and professional controversialist Geert Wilders is “welcome” in the UK. He is not. How can a man who views the faith of nearly two million British citizens and residents as a “totalitarian ideology” and a “retarded, dangerous one“, and claims that “there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam’“, be welcome in our multicultural, multiracial, multi-faith nation?
…
This is a man who not only abuses free speech but also makes a mockery of it in his home country of Holland, where he has advocated the banning and outlawing of the Quran, which he ludicrously considers to be a “fascist” book. This is the man who hides his anti-Islamic bigotry behind the notion of free speech — and campaigns against Muslims’ own right to free speech by advocating the outlawing of the Muslim holy book.
How ironic. And disgusting.
Mehdi Hasan on Raed Salah:
He was dubbed a “vile miltant extremist” and an “anti-Semitic preacher of hate” by theDaily Mail, a “hate preacher” by the Sun and an “‘anti-Semitic’ speaker” by the Jewish Chronicle. He was arrested and detained on the orders of the Home Secretary Theresa May while MPs and peers from across the political spectrum queued up to denounce him. The Community Security Trust (CST) “welcomed” his detention and provided a dossier of his alleged “hate speech” to the Home Office.
But over the long weekend, Sheikh Raed Salah, the Palestinian leader of the largest civil society body in Israel, who had been visiting the UK at the invitation of the London-based, pro-Palestinian group, Middle East Monitor (Memo), received a letter from the Upper Immigration Tribunal stating that the decision to detain him appeared to have been “entirely unnecessary” and that his appeal against it had succeeded “on all grounds”.
How ironic. And disgusting.
Note: no acknowledgement by Mehdi Hasan, and indeed no concern, Raed Salah preaches that Jews bake the blood of children in their “holy bread“.
(hat tip: Ziggy)
