An event organized by several religious groups to honor Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York Thursday has drawn ire from the Catholic League and several Jewish organizations, UPI reported.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue called on supporters to attend a rally to disrupt Thursday’s “obscene” Ramadan event.
"Ahmadinejad is a menace to freedom-loving people the world over, and the sight of religious groups embracing him is nauseating," Donohue told UPI. "The Catholic League is proud to take part in this rally, and we encourage people of all religious groups to have a contingent represent them on Thursday evening."
The Christian groups behind the event to honor Ahmadinejad are the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for Peace and the World Council of Churches, UPI reported.
The initial rally to protest Thursday’s dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel was organized by Women International and the Jewish Action Alliance.
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, encouraged people to protest the event.
"As if beating, imprisoning and killing women, Christians and other Iranians is not enough, Iranian leaders' thirst for death spills over its borders to kill and wound American military and innocent civilians in Iraq,” she said.
“Ahmadinejad has grabbed the baton of his genocidal predecessors to threaten the extinction of the Jewish people and their homeland Israel. This is history repeating itself, proving again that evil exists and there is never a lack of 'useful idiots' to support the embodiment of evil.”
Ahmadinejad is in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly this week.