The Muslim Council of Britain

In light of the statement which the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) issued yesterday calling Britain's treatment of 11 Pakistani terror suspects 'dishonourable', I thought it might be interesting to examine this group in a little more detail.

What is this organisation's agenda, and is it honourable?

On 25th March the Mail reported that Communities Secretary Hazel Blears had severed ties with the Muslim Council of Britain after its deputy leader made comments supporting violence against the Royal Navy if it should be involved in patrolling the coastline of Gaza to prevent arms smuggling. Dr Daud Abdullah also signed a public declaration of support for Hamas:

He was one of 90 Muslim leaders around the globe who signed the controversial 'Istanbul declaration'.

It said: 'The obligation of the Islamic Nation [is] to regard the sending of foreign warships into Muslim waters, claiming to control the borders and prevent the smuggling of arms to Gaza, as a declaration of war, a new occupation, sinful aggression. This must be rejected and fought by all means and ways.'

"The obligation of the Islamic Nation to regard everyone standing with the Zionist entity, whether countries, institutions or individuals, as providing a substantial contribution to the crimes and brutality of this entity; the position towards him is the same as towards this usurping entity."

It is understood that Abdullah was repeatedly called upon to distance himself and the organisation from these remarks. He chose instead to launch a lawsuit, accusing Blears of 'crude bullying', and insisting that the document he signed does not call for attacks on Jews or any Western military forces.

He has demanded a 'substantial' payout from the government if it wishes to avoid court. All legal costs and any damages awarded will, naturally, by picked up by the taxpayer.

How did the rest of the MCB react to this furore? Sadly, rather predictably:

The MCB, which has received substantial Whitehall grants, refused to condemn its deputy secretary-general and accused Mrs Blears of 'high-handed and condescending action'.

Of course. So, the battle lines have been drawn, and everyone has made it very clear which side they stand on - as if we didn't already know.

In defence of Hazel Blears, Hamas is a terrorist organisation whose founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, and she is right to be concerned by Abdullah's endorsement and deny the MCB public funds.

To give you some idea of the toxicity of the waste in which we are currently wading, no less a paragon of virtue than Yvonne Ridley stepped forward to defend Abdullah. This is the same Yvonne Ridley who put the lack of WiFi service, internet cafes and the low tolerance of the regimes in North Africa down to 'Zionist influences'.

Here is what Ridley wrote in an imaginary letter to Blears:

“I have just come from Gaza - a place from where you could learn a great deal about community initiatives. A place where the democratically elected government would be swept into power if there was a snap election tomorrow.

“I, like millions of ordinary people across the world support the Palestinian peoples’ right to vote for whoever they want in their elections therefore I support their right to vote for Hamas.

“Having seen what Hamas has achieved on the ground, I have no qualms in signing any document which supports Hamas.

“And believing fully in international law, I support their right in defending themselves against attacks - the fourth largest army in the world which is tooled up by the British Government has no qualms about killing and maiming the women and children of Gaza.

“What I do not support Hazel are the evil actions of Gaza’s neighbours Israel who deployed banned weapons in Gaza on a civilian population during a 22-day war. We now know,20from the mouths of the soldiers who served in the Israeli military, what most of us already suspected, that war crimes have been committed.

“Hazel, do you really endorse, support and give your unconditional loyalty to a country which deploys its weapons on women and children? Do you really support Israel’s bombing of UN buildings, mosques and schools in the war?

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I will resist the temptation to write to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown urging him to sack Hazel Blears for her unconditional support of the Israeli child killers and war criminals.

But what I will do is recommend that he invites the Mayor of Gaza, Rafiq Mikki, to London to tell us exactly how he has brought crime down in Gaza 80% since Hamas took over in The Strip? How recycling in Gaza, where nothing is wasted because of the medieval siege, has turned the city into a world-beater in environmental terms.

There are no unruly, drunken kids hanging around street corners in Gaza and the only ASBO that should be issued is on the obnoxious neighbours in Israel.

Well, that's quite an endorsement - after reading that diatribe, who could doubt that Dr Abdullah is as pure as the driven snow? Can't say much about the company he keeps though...

Of course, Blears isn't allowed to tell the MCB who they can and can't employ - despite the fact they have received hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money. What is OK, however, is for Muslims to tell the government exactly who can and who can't enter this country.

Just some of their funding arrangements are as follows:

The Charity Commission records show that the Charitable Foundation received an income of £139,391 for the year 2006-2007; but that the accounts for this period are overdue as at September 2008.
The MCB has applied and gained finance for projects devoted to the development of Muslim communities in Britain. [12] The MCB received £150,000 of public money from the Government for a number of specific projects. These were: the MCB leadership development programme; the MCB leadership mentoring programme; MCB direct, a web portal for information on Islam and Muslims; a British citizenship programme, and the British Muslim Equality Programme. .[13]
In 2006 the MCB won a grant of £300,000 from the UK Department for International Development (DFID). According to a DFID press release, projects will include (subject to final arrangements) producing teaching materials for Muslim schools and madrasahs and a website focusing on work to reduce poverty and links between Muslim communities in the UK and those in Nigeria, Bangladesh and India.[14]

But then, the MCB has always been a controversial organisation. Between 2001 and 2007 it refused to send representatives to Holocaust Memorial Day events 'in protest at the ongoing genocide of Muslims'. It called for the day to be replaced by 'Genocide Memorial Day', but balked at the idea of the Armenian Genocide being included in the commemorations.

When it voted to end the boycott, one leading British Muslim said:

Anas al-Tikriti: "rather than a mere remembrance of victims of one of the most heinous crimes in history", Holocaust Memorial Day has "become a political event" which "glorifies the state of Israel, turning a collective blind eye to the immeasurable suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Israelis every single day."[26]

The organisation was also prominent in urging the UK government to pass 'religious defamation' laws, and also to get a clause banning 'the glorification of terror' taken out of the Terrorism Act. they insisted that such a clause 'unfairly targeted Muslims and stifled legitimate debate'.

They have been responsible for several controversial campaigns; 'Islam is Peace' was an advertising campaign which aimed to "break down barriers of suspicion and division, challenge stereotypes, combat prejudice, and offer an opportunity for strengthening the values of respect, tolerance and peaceful co-existence."[6]

They also ran a 'books for schools' campaign, with the stated aim of providing 'high quality Islamic resources for mainstream primary schools'.[7] and a 'Mosque 100' campaign which aims to build more mosques in areas with high Muslim populations, and maintain existing ones properly.

During the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons crisis, the MCB issued the following statement: "the emergence of an increasingly xenophobic tone being adopted towards Muslims in parts of the Western media" and argued that: "We should not allow our valued freedoms in Europe to be abused by those deliberately seeking to provoke hatred and division between communities".

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they have urged the British government to sever ties with Israel and take a 'neutral' position in the Israeli-Arab conflict:

On 3 March 2008, the MCB criticised the Foreign Secretary David Milliband's response to Israel's killing of over 100 Palestinians in Gaza as "blatantly one-sided", and said: "If we are serious about wanting peace, we must act as honest brokers, not partisan bystanders."[22]

The journalist Melanie Phillips criticised the MCB, calling it "an extremist body, much influenced by the work of the Islamist ideologue Syed al Maududi".

As an umbrella movement for many other Muslim organisations, she argued that many of these were more extreme, and that the MCB's appearance of moderation was a pretence. She also attacked a "cheerful" remark by Bari where he stated that the aims of the MCB were the Islamisation of Britain, and arranged marriages for all.[27]

I think that before the MCB is allowed to give any more lectures on honour, everything presented here should be made known to the wider public.

These people are extremists in suits (exactly the same phrase they use about the BNP), and it is time this became more widely known. This organisation is trying to transform Britain and its values through stealth, and we, the ordinary people of Britain, are expected to pay for the privilege.

As the MCB is now trying to find 'the Muslim leaders of tomorrow', the question must be asked: Are they fit for purpose? Do we want younger Muslims with aspirations drinking from this poisoned well - is it simply naive to feel it could be otherwise?

They should certainly receive no more public funding, and I hope any sane judge will throw Abdullah's lawsuit in the dustbin where it belongs.