Livingstone Wrong to Defend Muslic Cleric

KENILWORTH, 12 JANUARY 2005 — The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) today condemned London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s attempts to justify his meetings with Muslim cleric Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi as “partial, selective and verging on misleading propaganda”.

Mr Livingstone yesterday launched an 80-page dossier attempting to refute claims that Al-Qaradawi is homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Semitic.

On the same day, The Times published comments by Dr Al-Qaradawi saying that Allah had sent the Asian tsunami to punish tourists who drank alcohol and indulged in “sexual perversions.”

At his press conference, Mr Livingstone admitted that he did not agree with Qaradawi’s opinions on gay rights, saying it was “unlikely that we’ll be seeing him on the next Pride march”.

But George Broadhead, secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association – one of the organisations condemned by Mr Livingstone in his dossier for having complained about Qaradawi’s visit to City Hall as the mayor’s guest – said: “Ken Livingstone is rapidly losing the plot. Al-Qaradawi has made repulsive comments about gay people and has said that although he personally doesn’t support the death penalty for gays, he supports the rights of Islamic theocracies to murder their gay citizens using various barbaric methods. The cleric’s latest comments about the tsunami must be extremely distressing for the surviving families of victims.”

Mr Broadhead said that he suspected that Mr Livingstone’s obdurate defence of his association with Al-Qaradawi was part of the Labour Party’s desperate attempts to win back the Muslim voters that have been lost to them over the Iraq War.

“We have long been admirers of Mr Livingstone and his championing of minority communities in London, but he has tainted his reputation with his stance on Al-Qaradawi. We agree that it is important that moderate Muslims are encouraged to participate in the capital’s life, but Al-Qaradawi is not, by any definition, moderate. We are deeply disappointed that Ken Livingstone has decided to continue defending the indefensible.”