London Mayor Ken Livingstone is back at it again, talking about inviting Islamist Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi back to London and chastizing the press and others for smearing the kindly Sheik. Looming large in Livingstone's pantheon of villains is the indispensible MEMRI, who has assembled a page on the Sheik where you cannot only read about the Sheik, but see the video of him in his own words.

MEMRI: London Mayor Ken Livingstone's Defense of Islamist Cleric Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi:

Livingstone thus becomes of a kind with the worst elements of Middle Eastern backwardness who routinely write-off as vicious lies their own words when reported back to them - even when caught on tape. This was a typical Arafat tactic in the days before the internet - say the most vicious things in Arabic, then simply deny you said them when confronted in the Western press. In the old days it used to work - with a pliant press and well-meaning but foolish tools willing to excuse almost anything in order to avoid rendering a judgement upon "the other." It doesn't work so well anymore, and even some self-described members of the honest Left are speaking up. Harry's Place asks: "Why is a left-wing Mayor associating with a right-wing Islamist?"

Why, indeed. And why side with and even use the tactics of the worst and most dangerously backward elements confronting the world today?