Ken Livingstone's bad taste joke about Muslims - and Shi'ites in stations

London Mayor Ken Livingstone faces controversy today after it emerged he made a joke about Muslims in a magazine interview.

Mr Livingstone was asked by a journalist to tell a joke and responded with a story that name-checked Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, Yasser Arafat and Shia Muslims in general.

According to today's Evening Standard, Mr Livingstone made the joke during his first mayoral campaign in 2000 in an interview for the now-defunct magazine The Face.

Journalist Alex Needham asked him: "Can you tell us a joke?"

The then independent candidate responded with a gag in decidedly dubious taste.

"Salman Rushdie was on a train and it pulled into a station," said the future mayor.

"He saw Yasser Arafat and his entourage of bodyguards and was so overcome with the emotion of seeing his great hero, he raced to embrace him.

"But the bodyguards weren't very well versed in modern literature and had no idea who he was.

"So they shot him dead, thus proving the value of that old adage: never go for a Shi'ite while the train is in the station."

In more public moments, Mr Livingstone has gone to considerable lengths to court the Muslim community.

As Mayor, he had even met extremists such as Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi - who has described Palestinian suicide bombers as martyrs and was today refused a UK visa by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

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The gay rights community was furious when Mr Livingtone greeted Al-Qaradawi at City Hall with an embrace. "Qaradawi endorses stoning of gays," said a banner for gay rights group OutRage at the time.

The Mayor has also offended the Jewish community by likening a persistent journalist to a concentration camp guard.

The latest revelation, too, shows an aspect of Mr Livingstone quite different from his public pronouncements.

He once said that Muslims were being singled out for demonisation on a par with the victimisation of Jews during the last century.

The Mayor's team in City Hall has even scrutinised the writings of Tory opponent Boris Johnson - whose grandfather was Muslim - in search of racist gaffes that could be turned to Mr Livingstone's advantage.

Only last month, leading Muslim organisations announced their backing for Livingstone, praising his continued support for a multicultural society and his efforts to protect Muslim communities against racism and Islamophobia.

The Mayor's office has not yet issued a response.