UK Muslim Leader Donated Money to Holocaust Denier

Asghar Bukhari (see interview)

Asghar Bukhari, a founding member of the British Muslim Public Affairs Committee, has admitted that he donated money to Holocaust denier David Irving, and that he urged other Muslim groups to solicit for donations. Bukhari sent a donation and a letter of support to Irving encouraging him for his work "in trying to expose certain falsehoods perpetrated by the Jews." Bukhari told The Observer that he had sent these letters to Irving to support the latter's anti-Zionism:

I condemn anti-Semitism as strongly as I condemn Zionism (in my opinion they are both racist ideologies). I also believe that anyone who denies the Holocaust is wrong (I don't think they should be put behind bars for it though).

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee describes itself as "the UK's Leading Muslim civil liberties group, empowering Muslims to focus on non-violent Jihad and political activism." It was quick to reject accusations of antisemitism, and in turn called the expose

just another Islamaphobic [sic] attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of Muslims within Britain.

Bukhari is a polished and eloquent advocate (see the video of an interview with him, courtesy of YouTube) against allegedly mounting Islamophobia in Britain. But it is sometimes hard to distinguish between that concern and his organization's efforts to mobilize British Muslim against "secularist" values (see their web site) by whipping up their fears that the community is under constant attack. It doesn't help that the group describes its struggle as a jihad - albeit a non-violent one, nor that it calls the planned Dutch legislation to ban the burqa "a declaration of war" on that country's entire Muslim population - under the inflammatory heading "Stop Baiting the Faithful":

The Dutch want to ban the burqa. It's as good as a declaration of war on the 800,000 Muslims living in the Netherlands - and this is yet another conflict that Britain should not get embroiled in.