The official press release by the organisers of yesterday's very successful re-scheduled Matthias Kuentzel lecture on the links between Hitler and Muslim antisemitism:
The University of Leeds Department of German, Russian and Slavonic Studies yesterday successfully held a lecture by German academic Dr Matthias Kuentzel on the topic of ' Hitler's Legacy: Islamic Antisemitism in the Middle East. More than 120 people attended the lecture. The audience was very diverse, ranging from students, to members of staff to interested members of the public from various communities. They heard Dr Kuentzel give his talk on the historical ties between Nazi ideology and ideologies of Political Islam/Islamism. Dr Kuentzel specifically focused in his talk on aspects particularly of interest to a British audience. On the previous night he had met in London with members of the all-party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism.
The lecture was followed by a lively and highly informed debate on various issues surrounding the talk. Dr Kuentzel made it very clear that he by no means refers to 'all Muslims', when talking about Islamic antisemitism, nor does he claim to explain the entire complexity of Political Islam in his findings. He is, however, adamant that hateful and at times violent antisemitism is in fact an ugly reality in Islamist circles and beyond, and that there is no point in denying this reality.
Dr Kuentzel is a reknowed academic who has done ground-breaking research in his area. He is a Research Associate at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). Dr Kuentzel's book entitled 'Jihad and Jew Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11', is forthcoming (1st November) in English (Telos Press, New York).
Dr Kuentzel's talk had originally been scheduled for the 15th March this year, but had been cancelled by University authorities due to security concerns. It is all the more heartening that yesterday's lecture went along wholly undisturbed and the discussion was held in a civilised manner. It was deemed by many people present that fortunately none of the previous security concerns had been substantiated.
That's the official version. However, the very brave organisers have also sent me what happened behind the scenes and a greater indictment of a once highly-respected British university would be hard to imagine.
You couldn't make it up if you tried. The main thing is the utter fear and quivering that goes on at Leeds (as it did at Manchester) at any sign of Muslim disquiet, however ridiculous, unjustified, or petulant it is.
It takes a German historian to know what appeasement is all about and the German organisers of this event have certainly come across it right in the heart of Britain.
We say 'never again', but we don't really mean it and that is why some people who should know better are actually welcoming the truly scary Muslim letter to Christian leaders that features in my previous blog.
http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/muslims-send-th.html
I would like to say this to the Christian world and especially to the Brits. Jesus was Jewish. He was steeped in Jewish culture. He would never ever have given in to threats. He believed like you do that we are made in God's image. Muslims don't believe this apparently. He would certainly never have condoned attacking his own people, the Jewish people, and he would be proud to be living in Israel now as a Jewish citizen of the country, where he would be fulfilling his role of helping the poor and the weak from Sderot and Haifa, to name just two areas affected by war and bombardment from Islamicists.
There, I've said it. So Brits who do not feel any responsibility for the Holocaust, as do the younger generation of Germans (God bless them, as they were not responsible) should think again. If you had done more, the Holocaust needn't have happened. If you had behaved with more Christian compassion towards the Palestinian Jews of the Mandate Period, your feelings now would be different.
Brits have nothing to be arrogant about, least of all the Christians among you. Many of you, in espousing Islamicism and going along with some of its whims, will pay the price in the end.
It is still not too late and let us hope that lectures of this kind will take place all over Britain in future and attract the greatest possible media coverage.
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