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Mosque pressured into cancelling Holocaust exhibition over Yad Vashem link
The mosque said it 'has no connection to any foreign government and stays well clear of anything political or perceived to be political'
January 6, 2019 13:00
The mosque said it 'has no connection to any foreign government and stays well clear of anything political or perceived to be political'
January 6, 2019 13:00An exhibition on Albanian Muslims' efforts to save Jews from the Nazis was cancelled by a Golders Green mosque over the exhibition’s ties to Yad Vashem.
The event was due to take place at the Centre for Islamic Enlightening, at the Golders Green Hippodrome, between 4pm and 6pm on Sunday.
But a statement attributed to the mosque, shared on Twitter, said it “didn’t know of the international connections some organisations had or of the political affiliations … Once that was made clear the event was cancelled.”
Barnet Multi Faith Forum, one of the organisers of the event, announced on Thursday that it was not going ahead “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
However it appears that the mosque cancelled it following calls of a boycott from activists over the exhibition’s links to Israel.
The event had faced calls of a boycott, most notably from 5Pillars, a Muslim community news and opinion site that opposed the exhibition’s ties to Yad Vashem, which it described as a “Holocaust museum based in Jerusalem which is partially financed by and supports the state of Israel”.
5Pillars editor Roshan Salih objected to the event on Twitter saying: "No to normalisation. Boycott Israel and Israeli institutions."
He posted a statement on Twitter that he said was issued by the mosque.
1. This is a statement from the Al Rasool Al Adham centre on cancelling the Yad Vashem event. pic.twitter.com/5MWrXACXEO
— Roshan M Salih (@RmSalih) January 3, 2019
The mosque said it “has no connection to any foreign government and stays well clear of anything political or perceived to be political.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the cancellation was “a great shame.
“What would have been a positive initiative to highlight the role of Albanian Muslims who saved up to 1,800 Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust, has been cancelled due to a targeted campaign against this Mosque and its members.”
She added: “Yad Vashem is a world-leader in Holocaust education, working to remember an unprecedented and unique era of history whose expertise is second to none. The power of the story of Muslims saving Jews during the Holocaust should not go unrecognised and we hope that this event will go ahead shortly in safety”.
Before the event was cancelled, Rabbi Natan Levy, head of operations with the event's co-organisers Faiths Forum, said it would be a "powerful reminder that the Muslim community in Albania was one of the few that did not idly by when the Nazis attempted to eradicate their Jewish neighbours".
After it was cancelled, Rabbi Levy said organisers “will continue to focus on building local relations even though this event has been cancelled.”
He said he emained hopeful that despite the event being cancelled that “there is goodwill to continue working with communities in Barnet.”
The Centre for Islamic Enlightening has been approached for comment.
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