BNP in Hitler attack on cabinet minister
A BRITISH National Party stunt, in which a picture of Scotland Secretary Jim Murphy was sabotaged to make him look like Adolf Hitler, has been branded as "shamefully offensive".
The picture was posted on the internet blog of Scottish BNP leader Gary Raikes, who is standing against Murphy for his East Renfrewshire seat in the upcoming General Election. The area is home to nearly half of Scotland's 6,400-strong Jewish community.
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A photograph of Murphy was defaced to give him Hitler's instantly recognisable moustache and haircut. In the blog accompanying the picture Raikes insisted that the BNP is not anti-Semitic. His comments appeared to be a response to earlier allegations made by Murphy on his own website last week. Murphy had said of the BNP: "They are now planning to stand against me and it's time for them to give some answers about their denial of the Holocaust and their hatred of immigrants. Their politics are alien to our British way of life - where we try to see people for who they are rather than their skin colour, nationality or religion. The BNP's Nazi salutes and Holocaust denials turn my stomach."
Raikes retorted on his blog that the BNP was not "anti-Jewish", saying that it had Jewish members. He refuted Raikes' claim that the BNP denies the Holocaust or gives Nazi salutes, saying: "It is a matter of historic fact that millions of innocent people were killed on an industrial scale by the Nazis."
Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, said: "This is juvenile and offensive and demonstrates that the BNP is unable to raise its politics above the level graffiti. It reinforces their denial of what Nazi ideology stood for and led to."
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "Jim Murphy has been a true champion of Holocaust education and remembrance over many years. For anyone to slur him in this way is utterly despicable. This appalling stunt is not only shamefully offensive but also clearly exposes the warped agenda of the far right."
Read the latest copy of The Jewish News Online by clicking here.
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