Alex Salmond Alex Salmond. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – As the world awaits a decision on Scottish independence in a referendum this week, Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond gave an interview in which he compared the terrorism of the Islamic State with the actions of the state of Israel.

Salmond was speaking to the BBC about the beheading of British aid worker David Haines by the Islamic State when he stated that “the Muslim community of Scotland isn’t responsible in any shape or form for atrocities or extremism in Iraq or elsewhere.”

“I mean, just like a few weeks ago, the Jewish community of Scotland wasn’t responsible for the policies of the State of Israel,” he said.

While it is not clear whether Salmond intentionally made the comparison, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Vivian Wineman told the London Jewish Chronicle that “any attempt to equate the actions of the democratically elected Israeli government in defending its citizens from attack with the despicable cold-blooded murder of a British aid worker by terrorists would be self-evidently absurd and vile and we cannot conceive that this was the First Minister’s intention.”