MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN TO COMMEMORATE HOLOCAUST DAY
From Muslim News. Respect councillor, Salma Yaqoob played a pivotal role in getting this policy changed.
MCB ends boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day
By Inayat Bunglawala
Earlier this month, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) voted to end its non-participation in the annual Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).
Ever since the inauguration of HMD in 2001, the MCB had turned down the invitation to attend and had argued instead for a more inclusive title such as Genocide Memorial Day which would clearly signal that we honour the lives of all victims of genocide equally, whether Jews, Rwandans or Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
The decision not to attend HMD in previous years had always been a very controversial one with the British Muslim community divided right from the outset over the issue. Some argued that the HMD would be misused by Zionists to try and garner support for the policies of the Israeli state. They pointed to works such as Norman Finkelstein’s The Holocaust Industry in support of their position.
Others said that the reasons for non-attendance would not be properly understood and that it would be an own goal and would give the MCB’s many detractors, not least in the media, an opportunity to portray the MCB as being insensitive to Jewish suffering and anti-Semitic.
The MCB, with its several hundred affiliates, reflected those divisions. The only national poll that was carried out on this issue - it was commissioned in 2006 by the Jewish Chronicle - found that 52% of British Muslims supported the MCB’s hitherto position of non-attendance - showing that British Muslims appeared to be almost evenly divided on the issue.
In October 2006, Ruth Kelly, who was at the time Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, launched a widely publicised attack on the MCB, saying: “I can’t help wondering why those in leadership positions who say they want to achieve religious tolerance and a cohesive society would choose to boycott an event which marks, above all, our common humanity and respect for each other.”
Now this was, of course, pure cant. After all, if the HMD event really does set out to mark “our common humanity and respect for each other” then what was the objection to renaming it as a Genocide Memorial Day? The MCB had been putting this question to the Government - which funds HMD to the tune of over £500,000 every year - for over five years and had not received a single intelligible answer.
Ironically, it is my belief that the MCB would have voted to attend HMD last year if Ruth Kelly had not intervened in such a cack-handed manner. Her ill-advised remarks merely served to increase the determination of many senior MCB members not to be seen to be caving in to pressure from the Government.
So, this year’s MCB’s decision to now finally attend HMD will certainly have some critics among British Muslims.
On the whole, however, I believe the MCB made the right decision and it sends a welcome and positive signal about its commitment to a shared future in a multi-faith Europe. In previous years, I too had argued for non-attendance but a number of discussions with sympathetic figures from the world of politics and media convinced me that the MCB was actually doing itself far more harm than good by its refusal to attend the HMD.
It is notable that not a single prominent figure in the UK publicly agreed with the MCB’s previous position of non-participation. The MCB had been out on its own and a fair question to be asked after all these years was what had British Muslims achieved by the MCB’s decision to stay away from HMD? Indeed, the reality was that on the ground each year more and more Muslim organisations - including many of the MCB’s own affiliates - were participating in local HMD events across the country making the MCB seem increasingly out of touch with grassroots Muslim opinion on this issue.
In a comment piece for the Guardian last year, the Birmingham Respect Councillor, Salma Yaqoob - who also happens to be a member of the MCB’s central working committee - argued that the Nazi holocaust: “…embodies the reality of fascism in power. As fascists once again make political inroads across Europe - increasingly with Muslims as their target - it is all the more necessary that new generations are never allowed to forget that reality…refusal to participate in Holocaust memorial events is an own goal. We rightly want to draw attention to those for whom there are no official commemorations, and whose oppression is barely acknowledged; but we have instead allowed ourselves to be further isolated, and allowed the false smear of anti-Semitism to be directed at us.”
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who is no friend of pro-Israel lobby groups, welcomed the MCB’s decision to attend the HMD, saying: “Every community has an interest in marking Holocaust Memorial Day, both in memory of those millions who were murdered, and in ensuring that no such racist crime is ever allowed to happen again. Londoners from all faiths and backgrounds have to unite to condemn the evils of prejudice and racism in all forms and the Muslim Council of Britain have shown their commitment to inter-faith work and building ties by supporting Holocaust Memorial Day.”
We should not give up on the goal of establishing a Genocide Memorial Day. However, there is no reason why that noble goal should preclude us from attending the HMD event alongside members of other faith communities.
Inayat Bunglawala is the Assistant Secretary-General of the MCB
A very wise decision, which should be responded to in kind.
It should be recalled that Yasser Arafat once offered to visit Yad Vashem to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust in Europe.
The circumstances at the time may not have been the most advantageous, but you ‘make peace with your enemies, not your friends’.
The Israeli government made the stupid decision to reject his offer.
Comment by Alex Nichols — 22 December, 2007 @ 1:33 pm
Note.
Anas Altikriti,the MB activist and Respect Candidate did not support this.
Comment by Swinton Mobile Phone Records — 22 December, 2007 @ 1:39 pm
This is a very positive development. Inayat Bunglawala and Andy are right to flag up Salma’s role. When she came up against significant opposition inside the MCB she showed courage and leadership in taking the issue over their heads and going public with her opposition to the boycott
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1976612,00.html
She ignored considerable pressures, and risks, is taking such high profile opposition to the then MCB position.
Comment by Ger Francis — 22 December, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
What “risks”?
Comment by Yuri — 22 December, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
‘What risks?’
The allegation of ‘sellout’, betraying the Palestinians, pandering to Zionism etc. Powerful allegations that provokes a strong emotional pull within Muslim communities and can serve as very effective political smears.
Comment by Ger Francis — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Losing support from anti semites and the far right MB is not a risk.
Comment by Yuri — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Post 6: cheap smears from Harry Place type trolls. The vast majority who oppose HMD did so out of a mistaken sense of Palestinian solidarity, not out of anti-semitism. It is also Islamaphobic nonsense to describe the MCB, which is developing a deepening relationship with the TUC and other progressive organisations, as ‘far right’.
Comment by Ger Francis — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
I think the decision is a mistake. The Holocaust is undoubtedly manipulated by Israel and their friends and supporters to justify the continued occupation and ehtnic cleasning of Palestine. By pandering to the exceptionalism of the Holocaust, supported by the British Government, illustrates a lack of political awareness on the part of MCB and, I have to say, Salam, for whom I have a lot of respect.
Tactics should flow from principles and this is not a decision rooted in principle. Rather, it has been motivated by a fear of calumny by the British government and uninformed opinion within society.
The MCB’s previous position of advocating changing the name of the commemoration to Genocide Memorial Day was entirely reasonable, politically relevant, and they should have stuck to that position.
This is a sad day for the Palestinians and all those who understand the true nature of the aparheid state of Israel. It is also an insult to the victims of the Holocaust, among them homosexual, gypsies and communists, whose slaughter has been used to justify crimes against humanity.
J
Comment by John W — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
Sorry, my previous contribution is littered with spelling mistakes. Typing too fast.
I’ll try my best to get it rihgt nxet tmie.
Comment by John W — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
Far right MB.
Not MCB.
Comment by yuri. — 22 December, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
John W. ‘this is not a decision rooted in principle’
I can’t speak for others involved with MCB but if you read Salma’s Guardian article she makes an argument against the boycott that is deeply principled:
‘We should be part of it because there are lessons from history which relate very closely to our experience today. We should be part of it because our refusal merely gives succour to those who peddle prejudice and lies about the Holocaust. And we should be part of it because it is right to remember the millions of our fellow human beings who died at the hands of a racist and supremacist ideology.’
Ending the boycott is the right decision in the struggle against the fascism, it is the right decision in terms of British Muslim/Jewish relations, and it is the right decision for furthering Palestinian solidarity:
‘one of the lessons of the Holocaust is that you must not accept an ideology telling you “that other people are inferior and subhuman” or that loyalty to your country justifies “the occupation of another country and oppression of another people”’.
Comment by Ger Francis — 22 December, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
#8 wrote: -
” The Holocaust is undoubtedly manipulated by Israel and their friends and supporters to justify the continued occupation and ehtnic cleasning of Palestine. By pandering to the exceptionalism of the Holocaust, supported by the British Government, illustrates a lack of political awareness on the part of MCB and, I have to say, [Salma]……
The MCB’s previous position of advocating changing the name of the commemoration to Genocide Memorial Day was entirely reasonable, politically relevant, and they should have stuck to that position.”
Genocide has been happening at least since the time that Julius Caesar wiped out, or enslaved 1 million Gauls.
There are so many examples in history, that creating an official “Genocide Memorial Day” would be:-
(a) So broad as to be meaningless
(b) Become the object of internecine warfare between various ethnic groups for ‘favoured status’
Whether the Holocaust is manipulated by Israel or not, it happened.
A fact that’s challenged by both the far right and so-called ‘progressive nationalists’. It happened in an industrialised society, with many of the democratic rights that are seen as definitive to “western civilisation”.
So remembering these events is an attempt to draw a line in the sand against a return of barbarism.
Making it an official government sponsored event is a mistake for a number of reasons. But many people from a variety of backgrounds would want such an event commemorated, whether it had government sponsorship or not.
The MCB boycott was inevitably open to the interpretation that they were lining up with Holocaust denialists and were Judeophobic sectarians.
The MCB gained nothing from this stance.
By participating they are in a better position to argue against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the situations in Kashmir, the West Bank and Gaza.
If they are pushed away for doing so, it will rebound on those who are doing the pushing.
Comment by Alex Nichols — 22 December, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
#12
Your points re renaming the event Genocide Memorial Day making it so broad as to make it meaningless is well taken.
That said, we can be under no illusions that by lining up with this British Government sponsored event, which is designed to justify and promote a vital aspect of Britain’s foreign policy vis-a-vis its support for Israel, we are succumbing to the huge pressure exerted in the US and UK by the Zionist lobby and apologists for Israel. The forgotten victims of the Holocaust are the 750,000 forced from their land in the Nakba. As Marxists we are obligated to link the Holocaust to its continuing legacy today with regard to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. We should also not forget the countless thousands of victims of the British Empire. In short, we must mount a challenge against the received truths disseminated by the dominant ideology at home and abroad.
Of course, the Holocaust was one of, if not thee, greatest crime in human history. But we have to make it clear that we understand how its commemoration is manipulated to allow Israel to continue commiting war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I feel that by signing up to this the MCB and those on the Left who agree with their position are succumbing to the moral pressure arrayed against them to acknowledge an exceptionalism that leads us down the slippery slope to further acts of genocide in the future.
J
Comment by John W — 22 December, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
Which other population movements from the 1940s do you wish to see reversed John?
Comment by Yuri — 22 December, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
John W ’s comments illistrate very clearly just how far the last century left has fallen into anti semitism. frankly disgusting.
Comment by darren redstar — 23 December, 2007 @ 6:55 am
Darren
What is anti-Semitic in John’s comments? I think he’s wrong, but that’s not the same as being racist.
The MCB decision is welcome and Salma’s role in achieving it brings her and Respect great credit.
There are complex issues of tactics involved over events such as Holocaust memorial day.
But the overall position of seeking to detach the Holocaust from the Zionist narrative is absolutely right. That’s not done by allowing the defenders of Israel to present themselves, unchallenged, as the belated rescuers of, if not the Jews of Europe in the Second World War, then at least their memory.
The relation to the Nakba was well put by sharp-witted Palestinian revolutionary who said, “The Holocaust was a massive crime. It was committed in Europe, against Europeans, by Europeans - why the bloody hell should the Arabs pay?”
Comment by Kevin Ovenden — 23 December, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
Darren,
I refute completely the accusation you have made against me of anti-Semitism. I would be one of the first to man the barricades in defense of Jews should the need ever arise. However, I am virulently and wholeheartedly anti-Zionist, which you would have been left in no doubt about if you had read my earlier posts carefully on this topic.
The only fitting tribute to the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust is to campaign for Palestinian human rights today. In so doing we prove through action and not empty words that we have learned the lessons of history in this regard. As I have already stated, by pandering to exceptionalism we prepare the ground, unconsciously, for genocide in the future.
The Palestinians are the invisible victims of the Holocaust. Those that do not understand that I am sad to say have succumbed to the huge weight of moral pressure that has been exerted by the Zionist Lobby and apologists for Israel in order to justify their continued ethnic cleansing. The Holocaust was not the starting point of Nazi oppression of the Jews, it was the culmination of a process which took place over a decade involving the slow but steady demonisation of the Jews, attacks on their religion, culture, which paved the way for apartheid laws and then, finally, the Holocaust. The Palestinians are being subjected to much the same oppression today by the State of Israel that was visited on the Jews by the Nazis throughout the 1930s.
Golda Meir said in 1969 that there were no Palestinians. Presented as a statement of historical fact, it was in truth a statement of intent.
Eurpoean guilt over the Holocaust has allowed the State of Israel to continually flout international law and all norms of human decency. It is clearly and inarguably an apartheid state. It must be brought to heel.
J
Comment by John W — 23 December, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Right, you’ve had your say about Israel, nothing particularly new there.
But is what you say about the MCB participating in a Holocaust Memorial Day accurate or not?
It’s extremely unlikely that the MCB are going to drop their positions on the Palestinian questions or Iraq, just because they go to an event commemorating the Holocaust in Europe.
It’s about on par with the ex-Labour leader Michael Foot turning up to Remembrance Day in Whitehall.
I don’t recall any great hue and cry on the left that this was glorifying Imperialist War.
I certainly resented the compulsory trooping past the war memorial we had at school, with the next generation of canon fodder in their cadet uniforms.
But a Holocaust memorial day isn’t even that overtly militaristic and until very recently wasn’t sponsored by government.
I’d argue that it should return to the former situation and be open to whoever wants to take part, include the Roma, Gay, Serb, Polish and Partisan victims of the holocaust.
Actually even Israel commemorates the Partisan and Red Army war dead, since quite a lot of people there fought for them.
To say that the whole event has to be focused on the Palestinian’s situation is to deny people their own history, their own memories and basic human emotions.
It’s an example of crass political insensitivity which will only appeal to a handful of born-again “anti-zionists” and not move the political situation forward one inch.
It’s symptomatic of the situation on the left, particular among closet Christian left activist types, where any form of Jewish cultural identification is treated with inquisitorial suspicion.
Jews and Palestinans have an interlinked, but different history. Only sectarian ultimatists think you can ignore this.
Happy Christmas
Comment by Alex Nichols — 24 December, 2007 @ 9:29 am
Jews and Palestinans have an interlinked, but different history. Only sectarian ultimatists think you can ignore this.
Reply:
Which is precisely the point I am trying to make. Unless the Holocaust to related (not counterposed but related) to the ongoing plight of the Palestinians then all it does is provide justification for that plight.
Only a sectarian ultimatist would deny this.
J
Comment by John W — 24 December, 2007 @ 9:55 am
There are so many examples in history, that creating an official “Genocide Memorial Day” would be:-
(a) So broad as to be meaningless
(b) Become the object of internecine warfare between various ethnic groups for ‘favoured status’
Nonsense.
You don’t need to start with all genocides since the Roman invasion of Gaul (and I sincerily doubt a million Gauls were killed) to recognise focusing on just the Holocaust, especially when this is presented as primarily a Jewish tragedy, is wrong.
Our recent history is littered with examples of genocide that need attention as much as the Holocaust has, especially considering that the UK is not responsible for it.
But there’s the rub: this whole memorial day is just an opportunity for politicians to show how deeply they care about horrible crimes not of their making that happened long ago, so why should you join this charade in the first place?
By participating they are in a better position to argue against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the situations in Kashmir, the West Bank and Gaza.
That trick never works. For one, the MCB now looks weak, forced into accepting something they clearly do not support of their own accord.
Comment by Martin Wisse — 25 December, 2007 @ 10:25 am
The anti-anti-Zionist argument is the Palestinians should meet Israel half way. That is to say, having been ethnically cleansed from most of their land, having been invaded and their land colonised, the onus is on the Palestinians to make peace. A bit like the ANC in South Africa. And before any sad anti-anti-Zionist froths at the mouth at the comparison, they should brood on the fact that Mandela and Tutu have stated that black South Africans under apartheid were in a better position than Palestinians.
Rather than come out and openly say that they’re extreme Zionists and racists, they hide behind the smearing of opponents as anti-Semites. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny. Anyway, the anti-anti-Zionists should be warned that their “support” for Israel is in fact anything but. They’re the best allies of extreme Islamic chauvinism. But they probably already know that. I bet if you were to check out the bile on Islamist websites you’ll find odes written to the pro-war “Left”. Congratulations, loonies.
Comment by Tawfiq Chahboune — 26 December, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
I have studied nazism and WW2 indepth and am aware of its brutality. Nor do i deny the suffering of the millions of people- mainly jews in the death camps etc. I am undecied about whether MCB’s new policy is the right decision, mainly because I ask myself which other community is asked to commemorate the sufffering of its oppressors? Zionism was growing in the 1930s and 1940s, many Arabs/Muslims were killed or cleansed to make way for Zionist emigrants and refugees and to this day suffer at the hands of zionists- some of them descendants of those who survived the nazi camps.
Comment by Raheel — 3 January, 2008 @ 11:13 am