Islamic activist admits he donated cash to jailed historian who denied the Holocaust
One of Britain’s most prominent speakers on Muslim issues is today exposed as a supporter of David Irving, the controversial historian who for years denied the Holocaust took place.
Asghar Bukhari, a founder member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), which describes itself as Britain’s largest Muslim civil rights group, sent money to Irving and urged Islamic websites to ask visitors to make donations to his fighting fund.
Bukhari contacted the discredited historian, sentenced this year to three years in an Austrian prison for Holocaust denial, after reading his website. He headed his mail to Irving with a quotation attributed to the philosopher John Locke: ‘All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to stand idle.’
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I have a lot of mixed feelings about the criminalization of Holocaust revisionism. I have zero sympathy for white supremacists or holocaust deniers. But as someone who has studied history, I worry that we're criminalizing being wrong, or being plain stupid. People can be wrong in good faith. Sometimes dissenting opinions are shown to be correct through the test of time.
But I understand why people would feel the need for laws against spreading dangerous lies. A society has the right to determine things to be true, and to guard certain truths for the sake of its integrity.
I don't pretend to have an answer on this one. I do find it, however, very convenient that a Muslim would support a convicted holocaust denier. The optics are not good.
