Last Night on a cold windy and wet Cardiff Bay I attended a Rally to honour the victims of the French massacres in a show of solidarity
In an impassioned speech, by Dr Kidwai the Muslim Council of Wales
Dr Saleem Kidwai,condemned the attacks and the killers, categorically stating they have nothing to do with Islam.
Dr Saleem Kidwai,condemned the attacks and the killers, categorically stating they have nothing to do with Islam.
Greeting the crowd with the traditional Muslim greeting, As-salamu alaykum, he told them it was with “peace and blessing we greet you”.
To spontaneous rounds of applause, he said:
“Contrary to what was said by the killers, it is not the prophet who was avenged. It was our religion, values and Islamic principles which were dented and affected by this.“My condemnation [of the criminals] is absolute.”
He added:
“My prayers and sincere condolences for the families of the victims. But there is one light – that the policeman that was killed was a Muslim. The man who saved many lives in the supermarket was a Muslim. These are the people we should appreciate and value.”“Islam needs peace,” he continued.” Our prophet, during his lifetime, suffered a lot of hardship but he never condoned violence. Never did he preach violence.“What is important now is to stand together, united shoulder to shoulder.“We can stand together to share our values, our care and love for each other, and make sure that they don’t succeed in what they want to do.“We will eventually win because truth always wins over false and light over darkness.”
Let no one doubt the sincerity of the vast majority of Muslims when they condemn this attack
For some reason the BBC News seem unable to mention Dr Saleem Kidwai speech which to me was the highlight if that is the word for such an night
Instead they seem to concentrate on First Minister Carwyn Jones was among the many to hold up a candle
Earlier, he said:
"The vigil in Cardiff Bay tonight is an opportunity for the people of Wales to pay their respects to those who lost their lives in the truly abhorrent attack in Paris.
"It is also a chance to show solidarity with the people of France and all those who believe in upholding our democratic values and freedoms that are threatened by such senseless acts of terror."
Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb tweeted earlier:
"Standing with the French community in Wales and in support of freedom of speech everywhere. 6pm this eve. Senedd, Cardiff. #CharlieHebdo"It is not the fault of either Carwyn Joes or Stephen Crabb that they were given more prominence than Dr Saleem Kidwai it is the inability of BBC Wales to tell the real story.
3 comments:
There is no excusing the murderous attacks in paris but it might help to avert any such occurences in the future if the British, French and US governments stopped bombing muslim countries to smithereens and slaughtering entire families with pilotless drones in countries like afghanistan and pakistan.
But dont expect to hear such sentiments from the likes of crabbe and carwyn 'strangelove' jones - they'll back the NATO killing machine to the hilt!
Sorry, this event in the Senedd fills me with depression. Not that it was held and not with the vast majority there but with 2 people - Carwyn Jones and Saleem Kidwai.
Now, it could be that Carwyn and Saleem were there in reaction to the deaths and wanted to commemorate that. That's good. But that's different from being there in support of free speech. Now I have issues with free speech and there's a danger of underplaying the nuances which usually go with free speech. But Carwyn and Saleem are not defenders of free speech.
That's the story the BBC lost.
Take a look at this:
In the light of the widespread revulsion at the Paris massacre and outpouring of moral indignation at this attack on free speech prompted me to think of the Venerable Meurig Llwyd Williams. Remember him? He was the Archdeacon of Bangor and editor of the Welsh language Church in Wales magazine, 'Y Llan.' who, in 2006, was pilloried and hounded from office for reprinting this cartoon from the French newspaper Le Soir. As you can see the image and caption ('Don't complain - we've all been caricatured here.') are quite mild in comparison with some of the more 'abrasive' cartoons of Charlie Hebdo.
Mr Williams's use of the drawing was denounced as "a gross error of judgment" by the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan. "It no way reflects the policy of the Church in Wales and when I saw it I was horrified. We recalled all the papers, I personally picked up some from some churches, and they have all been pulped."
Saleem Kidwai, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Wales, said Dr Morgan had telephoned him immediately to say sorry and had apologised again at a face-to-face meeting.
"The archbishop has apologised and we have accepted that apology," said Mr Kidwai. "We enjoy an extremely good relationship with other faiths, particularly the Jewish and Christian faiths. We regard this as an unfortunate mistake. Inter-faith relationships need not be jeopardised by the incident."
Jane Hutt, equality member in the Welsh assembly, said publication of the cartoon had been "extraordinarily inappropriate". "I'm glad to hear that the editor has resigned for that," she said. "I'm glad there has been an apology from the archbishop to the Muslim Council of Wales.'
I wonder what the good Archbishop and all the others who hounded him from office have to say about this? Where was Carwyn JOnes (who was an AM in 2006) why didn't he speak up for free speech at Y Llan and Gair Rhydd? What of Saleems discracesul comments?
There's an article on this on Daily Wales: http://dailywales.net/2015/01/08/llanistan-welsh-journals-pulped-in-2006-for-printing-cartoon-of-mohammed/
Here's the image Saleem was glad was pulped and Carwyn Jones said nothing in defence of ... and BBC Wales won't cover or ask about: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6142/1897/1600/mohammedcloud.0.jpg
That's the story which the BBC 'missed' (on purpose). If Carwyn and Saleem were at the vigil in support of free speech then where were they in 2006. Maybe it was politically correct to pulp an 'inappropriate' article in 2006 and its politically correct to say #jeseuischarlie in 2015.
Totally agree that Meurig Llwyd Williams was treated disgracefully.
I know of other cases of less than flattering representations of Islam in the press leading to people losing their jobs. Effectively as Lord Carey has said, people in Britain are imposing Islamic blasphemy law on themselves. We are making it easier and easier for Shariah law to be operating in the UK.
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