Sadiq Khan: London’s Muslim Mayor Endorses New Holocaust Memorial

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Sadiq Khan: London’s Muslim Mayor…

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In August 2019, controversy swirled around a new Holocaust educational and memorial center proposed for London’s Victoria Tower Gardens. Opponents contended it would ruin the views to key city sites. Many leaders endorsed the plan — among them Sadiq Khan, 49, the British capital’s Muslim mayor. The endorsement was not a total surprise: Khan’s first official act as mayor was to attend a Holocaust remembrance ceremony.

Quote: “I have previously expressed my fear, however, that these plans would be rejected… I therefore urge Westminster City Council not to reject these plans, and instead enable this hugely important national memorial to take its rightful place in the heart of the capital and close to the seat of national government. As we see the scourge of antisemitism and hate crime increasing across our country, now more than ever we need a National Holocaust Memorial so we can learn the lessons from history, as well as pay tribute to the victims of the Nazi genocide.”

Source: Wikipedia, Jerusalem Post

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Read “London Mayor Supports Holocaust Memorial Plans, Despite Controversy.” >>

Photo: Evening Standard

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“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.