Mayor of London Suspension

In February 2005 Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, was harassed by Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold (who happens to be Jewish). An exchange then took place, thus:

Ken: "What did you do before? Were you a german war criminal?"
Oliver: "No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal. I'm quite offended by that."
Ken: "I thought you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard; you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you."

Following this, Ken was reported to the Standards Board, which which was established to promote and investigate ethical standards in public life, by the Jewish "board of deputies" and the equal opporunities commission. The result, on 24th February 2006, was that Ken was suspended from the office of London Mayor, for 28 days. On the 27th, Ken lodged an appeal, which it is said will cost him (personally) £80,000 should he lose.

Many people have noted that an unelected, three-person committee have been able to remove from office a duly elected representative of the people of Greater London, when he committed no crime. I agree that this is important. But the issue I concentrate on is that Ken (whatever you think about him, and who doesn't) made a fair, relevant and reasonably astute comment; on a theme which was started even before he knew the race or religion of his protagonist.

In war crimes trials after WW2, it became clear that concentration camp guards were able to justify their actions because they were "only doing their job".

Every time people act unreasonably in the name of their religion, I incrementally start to dislike and eventually to hate what that religion stands for. Muslims who think their religion is beyond parody or criticism, Jews who believe they can behave in a nasty manner and then hide behind their religion when they're insulted in kind, Christians who think the law of the land should bind everybody by their own religion.If religious people want to ponder their acceptance, they should not seek exceptions the rest of us don't enjoy.