Ken Livingstone: I will make London a beacon of Islam – Telegraph Blogs :- Extracts Tuesday 20 March 2012 | Blog Feed | All feedsBlogs Home » News » Politics » Andrew GilliganAndrew GilliganI'm the Telegraph's London Editor. This is where I blog about London politics and particularly this year's London election. If you don't approve, other listings magazines are available... Look on the main Telegraph site for my day job, my work for our newspapers. Got a tip or a story? Email me at andrew.gilligan@telegraph.co.uk Ken Livingstone: I will make London a beacon of Islam By Andrew Gilligan Politics Last updated: March 19th, 2012469 Comments Comment on this article Here is the full version of a story which appears in the print edition of today's Daily 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.Mr Livingstone also gave thousands of pounds of public money to the Muslim Welfare House, a charity closely associated with the Finsbury Park Mosque, which signed an open letter backing his re-election campaign in 2008. End of extracts. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx So he is pandering to the Muslim inhabitants of London, between 1.6 and 2 million, enough to swing the overall vote his way. NB, no mention of honour killings, women inferior to men, stoning to death , death for apostasy, husbands allowed to beat wives, death for homosexuals, and no doubt, equality for Sharia Courts and " justice ". I don't think London wants any more of this, thank you Ken. In fact, hopefully it may rebound on him as it could put a lot of Muslims off voting for him, as the vote is secret and the Muslims I know are more for Western ideals.
Tony Price ● 5159d