After the controversy of his scheduled talk back in March 2007 which was cancelled due to "security concerns", Matthias Kuentzel again came to Leeds to give a talk, and this time it was not cancelled. The title of the talk held this Wednesday, october 10, was Hitler's legacy: Islamic antisemitism in the Middle East. The auditorium was filled to about 1/3; interesting that there was not so much interest, after all that controversy. Police guarded the entrance, but kept a low profile in typical British cool manner.
The talk was indeed very interesting, and it highlighted a chapter that is not discussed very much in the mainstream discussions: the link between radical Islam and Fascism, together with the historic connections between the two. Naturally, Mr. Kuentzel clearly distinguished between the "general Islam" and the specific groups involved in these links. After the one hour talk, there were a few questions, which were answered by the presenter. Strangely, the questions were "collected" in a set of 4-5 by the organisers, then Mr. Kuentzel answered them as a batch. One issue came across in those questions and discussions reflecting the latest events in the UK re. boycott propositions of Israel by several UK institutions: the ambivalent position of "the political left" towards Israel. One audience members clearly expressed an anti-leftist stand, while Mr. Kuentzel mentioned that his political home was "the Left", but that he began to disagree when people labeled one kind of assassination as fascistic while labeling thge same type pf assassination as "freedom fight", just depending on who the perpertators were and against whom their murder was directed.
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