From AFP, with thanks to John:
LONDON (AFP) – London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat.
At the same time he criticized Britain over its ties with Saudi Arabia, which he said had fuelled intolerance in the past through its Wahhabist form of Islam, creating a “major problem.”
“In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims,” he told BBC Radio.
Really? And what terror plots have non-Muslims perpetrated recently in London?
“They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society,” he added.
He noted that terrorist acts had been carried out in London over the years by various groups including for example far-right groups. For years the British capital was wracked by violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
“All I am interested in as mayor is that we try to prevent all acts of violence whether it is by a disaffected young member of the (far-right) BNP (British National Party), whether it is by an Islamist or a Wahhabist supporter,” he said.
I do not support the BNP, but I wonder, again, what terror plots BNP members have been responsible for.
It was crucial to understand “that that doesn’t mean that all white men are potentially a threat to society any more than all Muslims are,” he added.
Red Ken sees it all as a racial issue, when it is an ideological one. There is much in the jihad ideology that does make Muslims more of a threat to non-Muslim society than others are. But the Mayor has never examined the evidence for this, and probably never will.