What a bizarre decision by Channel 4 News to invite the Muslim Council of Britain’s Daud Abdullah on to talk about the attempt to arrest the Israeli politician Tzipi Livni for her involvement in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. And even more peculiar that Jon Snow tried to stop the Jewish Chronicle’s Stephen Pollard raising the issue that Abdullah had signed the Istanbul Declaration calling for attacks not just on Israel and but on British forces perceived to have supported the .
The Deputy Secretary General of the MCB is currently the reason his organisation is out in the cold. Communities Secretary John Denham is sympathetic to the MCB, but even he realises that Abdullah’s support for violence makes it impossible for the British government to enter into dialogue with his organisation. But here he was being held up as a representative of mainstream British Muslim opinion. This really is a rum business. Channel 4 News should be ashamed of itself.
I have no problem with Daud Abdullah being allowed to express his opinion, but journalists who provide him with a platform need to explain that he comes with serious baggage. He is steeped in the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and is sympathetic to Hamas. He is closely linked to the Palestinian Return Centre and committed to the cause of Palestinian resistance.
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