GOD willing, I shall be among a few from the mosque in Bull Lane to attend the event organised by the City of York Council at the Guildhall tomorrow to commemorate the Holocaust.

Given the recent conflict in Palestine, it may surprise many in Yorkshire that millions of orthodox Muslims around the world have, for nigh on 1,400 years, been marking the deliverance of the Children of Israel from tyranny and oppression.

Indeed, every year since about 623 CE (1201 AD) Muslims have shown their respect by adopting the ancient custom of the Jews of Arabia and fasting for a day. By chance, the date of this annual fast, in the Islamic lunar calendar, coincided with Wednesday, January 7, just as the scale of the latest Israeli army bombing in Gaza was reaching its height.

In the past, much has been made in the media of the UK’s Muslim communities apparently boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day events.

But does it really matter that the centuries-old Islamic tradition relates to the atrocities, not of Hitler and the Third Reich, but of the biblical Pharaoh?

After all, whether performed thousands of years ago or only yesterday, the crimes committed by the powerful against the weak remain no less wrong; and, sadly, the lessons no less in need of being learned generation after generation.

Dr Roderic Vassie, Belle Vue Cottages, York.