British First Minister Alex Salmond has rejected claims that he appeared to make a comparison between the Islamic State terrorist group and Israel’s policies during the recent military conflict with Hamas in Gaza. In an appearance on the BBC last Sunday, Salmond said, “The Muslim community of Scotland isn’t responsible in any shape or form for atrocities or extremism, just like a few weeks ago the Jewish community of Scotland wasn’t responsible for the policies of the state of Israel.”
The First Minister was speaking about the need to maintain community cohesion after Scottish aid worker David Haines was brutally murdered by IS terrorists in Iraq. Some observers believed that Salmond was drawing a parallel between the terrorist organization, which has been described by the United States government as “apocalyptic,” and the Jewish state.
But Salmond’s office strongly denied the allegation. “The First Minister was making clear that any aggravated racial or religious attack against any community will be met with the full force of the law and will not be tolerated,” a spokesperson stated, according to the Jewish Chronicle. “There is not, and he did not intend to draw, any moral equivalence between the actions of ISIS and the conflict in Gaza.”
Jewish leaders and Israeli diplomats in England also dismissed the contention that the First Minister had drawn a parallel. A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy stated, “It is inconceivable that Alex Salmond meant to equate Israel’s actions facing an internationally-designated terror group, with those of Islamist extremists. The only linkage that can be made in this case is between Hamas itself and its ideological allies, Al-Qaeda, IS, Boko Haram and others.”
According to Ephraim Borowski, the director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, “The Scottish Government has always been extremely supportive of the Jewish community, and just last week the First Minister reiterated that ‘any aggravated racial or religious attack will not be tolerated and will be met with the full force of the law.’
“We are certain that the First Minister did not intend to equate the brazen terrorist acts of ISIS with a democratic country’s obligation to protect its citizens from that same avowed terrorism.”
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