Community centre in Redbridge agrees to host the exhibition after a Golders Green mosque was pressured into dropping it because of Yad Vashem's involvement
January 10, 2019 15:50
An exhibition planned by a mosque in London about Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust has been moved to another venue.
The Love Your Neighbour Exhibition had been due to take place at the Markaz (Centre for Islamic Enlightening) in Golders Green, however it abandoned plans for the event — organised with local Jewish groups and the help of Israeli Holocaust centre Yad Vashem — after the Iranian regime’s media outlets criticised it for collaborating with “Zionists”.
A mosque in Redbridge has agreed to host the exhibition to ensure the story about Albanian Muslims who saved Jews is told. The precise location will be revealed closer to the event to ticket holders, in a bid to avoid the campaign that
A source close to organisers of the event said the venue "is looking forward to hosting the exhibition and making sure this important event goes ahead."
The Markaz faced a boycott, notably from 5Pillars, a Muslim news and opinion site that opposed the exhibition’s ties to Yad Vashem.
5Pillars editor Roshan Salih, who also works for PressTV, which is funded by the Iranian government, objected to the event being held at the Golders Green mosque, tweeting: “No to normalisation. Boycott Israel and Israeli institutions.”
On Twitter, PressTV UK described the Holocaust exhibition as “outrageous” and described it as an “‘interfaith’ event with Zionists”.
The story was then picked up by the Islamic Republic’s Mehr News Agency.
Mehr described the event as cooperation with a “Zionist institution”, and described the Markaz as a “Shirazi cult”.
A source close to the event told the JC: “I have no doubt the Markaz were frightened about the attention it was getting from Iran.
“It was worried about implications for its community in Iran.”
The JC understands that mosque leaders cancelled the event because they had been “frightened about the backlash it was getting from Iran”.
The event, which was originally organised with Barnet Multi Faith Forum, leaders from the Markaz, and the Faiths Forum, will now take place on Sunday January 20 between 1pm and 3.30pm. People with tickets can email the organisers for details about the venue.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated the exhibition was now to take place at Central Mosque Ilford. This has been corrected.
