In Chapter 6 of my book, The Terrorist Next Door, I recounted some of the Islamist-embracing antics of former--and perhaps future--London mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone.
Livingstone--a committed Socialist and big fan of the Muslim Brotherhood's pro-jihad spiritual leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi--has some very troubling links to hardcore Islamists in "Londonistan," as the article below recounts. And, the Labour mayoral candidate is making clear that he will strengthen those ties even more if he retakes office.
A case study in left-wing dhimmitude, from The Telegraph:
Ken Livingstone has promised to turn London into a “beacon” for the words of the Prophet Mohammed in a sermon at one of the capital’s most controversial mosques.
Mr Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, pledged to “educate the mass of Londoners” in Islam, saying: “That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet.” Mr Livingstone described Mohammed’s words in his last sermon as “an agenda for all humanity.”
He praised the Prophet’s last sermon, telling his audience: “I want to spend the next four years making sure that every non-Muslim in London knows and understands [its] words and message.” He also promised to “make your life a bit easier financially.
Mr Livingstone was speaking at last Friday’s Jummah prayer at the North London Central Mosque, also known as Finsbury Park Mosque, formerly controlled by the terrorist recruiter Abu Hamza.
Hamza was removed in 2003 but the mosque is now controlled by an Islamist organisation, the Muslim Association of Britain, which has been linked to the banned terror group, Hamas. A man who has acted as spokesman for the current leadership, Azzam Tamimi, is on record as supporting suicide bombings. One of the mosque’s current directors, Mohammed Sawalha, is described by the BBC as a former senior figure in Hamas who “is said to have masterminded much of Hamas’s political and military strategy” from his post in London.
In 2009 Mr Sawalha also signed the Istanbul Declaration which calls for attacks against the allies of Israel, which include the UK. The British Government interpreted it as calling for attacks on British troops.
In 2010, the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, a Muslim moderate, resigned from the mosque’s board of trustees and reported it to the Charity Commission, accusing the mosque of forging his signature on key legal documents.
Mr Livingstone has been dogged by allegations of links to Islamic fundamentalism. In 2010, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, he campaigned against his own party’s candidate to back a controversial independent politician, Lutfur Rahman, sacked by Labour for his links to a Muslim extremist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE).
During his mayoralty, Mr Livingstone’s London Development Agency channelled hundreds of thousands of pounds to the East London Mosque in Tower Hamlets, controlled by the IFE, even though senior LDA managers strongly opposed the grant. In return, IFE activists campaigned strongly for him at the 2008 mayoral elections, boasting that they "got out the vote" for Mr Livingstone and achieving dramatic swings to him in their east London heartland.
Two observations:
a) London is already a "beacon" for Islam--in all the wrong ways. From wanted terrorists collecting welfare benefits to sharia enclaves to countess jihadis plotting terror, London is in very, very bad shape (read all the ugly details in my book).
b) Livingstone is a not-so-shining example of the unholy alliance between the radical left and radical Islamists. Under this scenario, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And in the case of the Islamo/Marxist contingent, the shared enemy is Judeo-Christian, Western civilization and the capitalist system.