“Few events – not even the execution of Osama bin Laden – have caused me greater pleasure in recent weeks than news of the death of the Italian so-called ‘peace activist’ Vittorio Arrigoni.”
Thus Geoffrey Alderman in the Jewish Chronicle. As Alderman notes, Arrigoni was killed by the Gaza-based al-Qaeda-aligned terrorist group Tawhid wal-Jihad.
Under the editorship of Stephen Pollard, and with the enthusiastic assistance of its political editor Martin Bright, the Jewish Chronicle has presented itself as the voice of civilisation and moderation against Islamist extremism and its allies, as a cover for witch-hunting and attempting to discredit mainstream organisations like ENGAGE or the European Muslim Research Centre. Yet the paper is quite happy to publish Alderman’s sickening article applauding the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni at the hands of al-Qaeda.
Surely there is a case here for prosecuting Alderman and Pollard under the glorification of terrorism provisions in the 2006 Terrorism Act?
(H/T Tony Greenstein’s Blog)
Update: Mehdi Hasan comments: “Can you imagine the reaction if I wrote a column expressing my ‘pleasure’ at the strangulation to death of an unarmed, peace activist at the hands of Islamist terrorists? I suspect I’d be clearing my desk here at New StatesmanTowers rather than writing this blog post. I’d have columnists, bloggers and activists up in arms over my heartless and sickening remarks, demanding my resignation or sacking.”
Writing on her Guardian blog, View from Jerusalem, Harriet Sherwood reports that Alderman told her he stood by his celebration of Arrigon’s murder: “It’s still my view. He was a Jew-hater like Adolf Hitler. Yes, he deserved to die for being a Jew-hater. I rejoiced in the death of a Jew-hater. I have no regrets.” Sherwood observes: “Alderman’s rejoicing in the death of a pro-Palestinian activist seems to me a new and repugnant development”. Sherwood also spoke to the JC‘s editor Stephen Pollard. He found her objections to the publication of Alderman’s piece “utterly bizarre“.