The Sunday Times - Britain

September 11, 2005

Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair
Abul Taher

ADVISERS appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are
proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it 
is regarded as offensive to Muslims.

They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the
mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as
people of other faiths.

The draft proposals have been prepared by committees appointed by
Blair to tackle extremism. He has promised to respond to the plans,
but the threat to the Holocaust Day has provoked a fierce backlash
from the Jewish community.

Holocaust Day was established by Blair in 2001 after a sustained
campaign by Jewish leaders to create a lasting memorial to the 6m
victims of Hitler. It is marked each year on January 27.

The Queen is patron of the charity that organises the event and the
Home Office pays [UKP]500,000 a year to fund it. The committees argue 
that the special status of Holocaust Memorial Day fuels extremists'
sense of alienation because it "excludes" Muslims.

A member of one of the committees, made up of Muslims, said it gave
the impression that "western lives have more value than non-western
lives". That perception needed to be changed. "One way of doing that
is if the government were to sponsor a national Genocide Memorial Day.

"The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many
young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of one
people are to be remembered more than others. It's a grievance that
extremists are able to exploit."

[...]

Source: "Times Online"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1775068,00.html

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I'm sure that if "Holocaust Memorial Day" was renamed so as not 
to offend young Muslims, they could find some other grievance for
extremists to exploit, such as Christmas Day, Good Friday etc.

Cheers, Steve..

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