Corbyn hosted extremist cleric who attacked Europe for “Jew worshipping”

19 August 2015, 10:26 am
Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn was embroiled in fresh allegations over links to extremists last night after it emerged he hosted a cleric who attacked Europe for “Jew worshipping”. 

Dyab Abou Jahjah – who also referred to the death of each British soldier in the Iraq war as a “victory” – was hosted at a gathering in parliament by the Islington North MP in 2009.

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The meeting came three years after, in the furore that followed the publication cartoons of Mohammed in Denmark, he wrote: “Europe has made political correctness, the cult of the Holocaust and Jew-worshipping its alternative religion”.

Arab European League, then headed by Abou Jahjah, published on its website a cartoon showing Anne Frank in bed with Hitler and the caption “Write this in your diary, Anne.” The organisation was fined by a Dutch court for another cartoon which suggested the Holocaust was made up or exaggerated.

Abou Jahjah was later banned from the UK – a decision that was condemned by Corbyn. The link to Corbyn was revealed by former MP Louise Mensch.

The extremist – who referred to the MP as a “friend” in a tweet following the surge in his leadership bid – again took to the micro blogging site yesterday to say the offending article from 2006 was “political satire”. 

“Zionists are trying to undermine @jeremycorbyn by lining him to me and spreading lies about me being anti-Semitic and negationist #ludicrous.

“My collaboration with @jeremycorbyn was always guided by common belief in dialogue, justice and equality for all.

A further message said: “As for my position towards Palestine, it is guided by the decolonisation logic and not by racism. The racists are the Zionists themselves.”

The Sun quoted a spokesperson for Corbyn saying: “Jeremy condemns all forms of violence and certainly all forms of anti-Semitism.״ 

A Jeremy For Labour spokesperson said in response to the Louise Mensch blog posts: “This is an attempt to Jeremy smear by association. The views expressed here are abhorrent. If they are indeed those of Dyou Abou Jahjah there is no suggestion he has said them in Jeremy’s hearing. During the course of his work to forward peace processes between disparate groups Jeremy has met many people with views he finds reprehensible. But he believes in determined dialogue and persistent diplomacy as a means to bring about peace whether between neighbours, between peoples or between states. He is a prominent campaigner for human rights, quite without malice. He does not have an anti-Semitic bone in his body.”
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