07.02.06 Galloway Addresses Liverpool Respect Meeting
George Galloway has welcomed yesterday’s verdict against Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, who was sentenced for seven years for inciting murder and race hate.
The Respect Party MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said he regarded Hamza as a “preposterous, slightly grotesque oaf, who has done nothing but damage to the Muslim people in this country.”
Speaking at a party rally in Liverpool, Galloway was perturbed however by what he described as the “obvious paradox” of BNP members Nick Griffin and Mark Collett walking free from court on similar charges less than a week ago.
He said “There is undoubtedly a gigantic double-standard. Two fascists from the BNP get cleared on the grounds of freedom of speech … and Abu Hamza gets convicted, amongst other things, because of things that he has said.”
He said “There is undoubtedly a gigantic double-standard. Two fascists from the BNP get cleared on the grounds of freedom of speech … and Abu Hamza gets convicted, amongst other things, because of things that he has said.”
Galloway, who plans to stand down as an MP at the next election, said that the Respect Party was “the ghost of Labour’s past … standing for the things that Labour used to stand for (and) speaking for the people that Labour has abandoned."