I’ve been away from the keyboard for a few days, but I’ve been away for a good reason, all spare time has been spent on preparing for my son’s fifth birthday party. This included trying, in vain, to prevent my wife from going ‘Full Jewish Mother’ (never go full Jewish mother LOL ) and laying on enough food to satisfy at least 20 hungry Royal Marines. The event went very well although Laughing Boy overdosed on cake and chocolate and my ears rang for hours afterwards because of the sound of 20+ five and unders happily screaming on an almost room filling bouncy castle.

However, whilst on my enforced absence from the keyboard, I didn’t ignore the world around me and one story caught my eye. Although this story is at about a week old, not exactly breaking news, it does show the futility of trying to work with Islamic groups. This is the case even when the purpose of this work was to show support for Chinese Muslims who are being kept in what could reasonably be described as concentration camps.

What has happened is that the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) wanted to hold a joint meeting at London Central Mosque which would have included not only those from this mosque but also the Government’s advisor on ‘Islamophobia’ and representatives from the World Uighur Congress. Personally I think that this is morally the right thing for the BOD to do. Even though Islam the ideology is both a personal enemy and also an enemy of my nation and faith, I have to call out wrong when I see it. To be frank shoving Muslims, many of whom have little or nothing to do with extremism, into harsh and punitive reeducation camps, as the Chinese Communist Party has done, looks a bit wrong to me.

Unfortunately this laudable initiative by the BOD and others ended up being moved from the mosque to the Palace of Westminster, not because of pressure from the Chinese Government or the actions of some ‘far right’ bogeymen, but because of some Muslim groups vehement hatred of Israel. This story, which was featured on the Five Pillars Islamic website, shows us that the hatred that many Muslim organisations and individuals have for Jews and Israel is so all encompassing that it prevents Jews and Muslims getting together to help Muslims in distress. It also shows us that it is utterly futile for Jewish groups to work with Islamic groups where there is common moral cause, such as freeing those Muslims who’ve been enslaved, as Islam’s hatred for Jews will always come first.

Here’s part of the Five Pillars article along with my comments. As is usual policy for this blog the original text is in italics whereas my comments will be in plain text.

London Central Mosque has cancelled an event with the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews after a letter from several mosques and Islamic centres was sent to the masjid in protest.

The event at the mosque (also known as Regent’s Park Mosque) on January 30 – “A Warning for Humanity” – was due to focus on the dire situation of the Uyghur Muslims in China.

The World Uyghur Congress was also due to participate as well as the government’s adviser on Islamophobia, Qari Asim.

In my opinion Britain no more needs a government advisor on ‘Islamophobia’ than it needs an advisor on ‘naziphobia’. This is because Britons do not dislike Islam the ideology for irrational reasons but for sound and rational ones. It’s rational to be suspicious of Islam, whilst at the same time not hating individual Muslims, just as it was rational to hate Nazism when it ran Germany but to not hate individual Germans.

But the Board of Deputies, which is a proudly Zionist organisation, tweeted last week that the meeting would now take place on the same date at the House of Commons. There was no mention of London Central Mosque in the tweet.

The news came after a letter of complaint was sent to London Central Mosque by several British Muslim institutions.

The letter, which was addressed to mosque director Ahmad Dubayan, said: “The Board, and not the British Jewish community, actively support the Israeli government – an Israeli government that is involved in human rights abuses, colonisation, apartheid policies and disregard for UN Resolutions.

The letter went on to make the Board of Deputies sound like some British equivalent of a bunch of far right supporters of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, something very far from the truth when it comes to the BOD which in reality is dominated by the middle class Left. The letter whinged on about ‘apartheid’ in Israel and about President Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to the nation’s capital in Jerusalem. The letter was also laced with a large amount of the usual anti Israel stuff that we have often seen coming from the lips of Islamists and the far Left. Oh and as for the claim that Israel has disregarded resolutions from a rabidly anti Israel United Nations, if Israel obeyed every resolution from this increasingly ethically bankrupt entity then there would be no Israel at all.

For me one of the most laughable parts of the letter from the various ‘community leaders’ and mosques to the Central London Mosque, was the extract below. In this section the letter writers attempt to play fast and loose with statistics, as I will explain later.

The letter said:

“It is important to remember that the Board’s views are not representative of all British Jews and in March 2018, more than 500 Jews added their names to a petition telling the Board that they ‘deeply misrepresented’ them over the reaction to Palestinian deaths and their one-sided reaction to the violence in Gaza.

The letter writer did not mention that as of the 2011 Census there are just under 270,000 Jews in Britain, which means that the 500 Jews that they are claim are the ‘opposition’ to the BOD’s position on Israel are in no way representative of the community. I’ve just crunched the numbers and 500 out of 270,000 translates as less than one half of one percent of British Jews. Those who criticised the BOD for defending Israel’s right to defend themselves against Arab violence, are a tiny minority. In short, this five hundred are the far Left ‘Jews for Jeremy’ types whose views are rarely supported by the rest of the community and who are often equally rarely seen in the synagogue.

The Central London Mosque could have used the incident of the letter to show some quality and good judgement. They could have ignored the ranters behind the letter and pushed ahead with what would have been a significantly positive move to bring Jews and Muslims together to deal a humanitarian problem. Unfortunately the Central London Mosque did not show such admirable qualities and cancelled their involvement in the discussion, which was moved from the mosque to the Palace of Westminster. Next time I hear Imams from Central London Mosque bang on about ‘togetherness’ and ‘working together’ I’ll file these statements under the heading of ‘bullshit’ as they had an opportunity to face down extremists, Jew haters and similar, but blew it in a most spectacular and indeed cowardly manner.