Western Resistance

Recently some of their members were involved in a mass demonstration outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, protesting about the "War in Iraq", even though that "war" started more than two years ago, and has only been prolonged by factional violence against military, police and citizenry by religious factional groups. They denied on their website that they had actually organised the demonstration.

At the Holocaust Memorial Day celebrations, the MCB's recently knighted luminary, Sir Iqbal Sacranie was conspicuously absent, even though his organisation had previously been active in promoting "inter-faith" tolerance.

When the UK government announced that it intended to disband the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, they stated that they would only agree to this if the government also banned the British National Party (BNP), a right-wing political party. Failure to do this, they claimed, would mean that they would not be able to prevent angry muslim youth from rioting. This seemed like a threat, rather than an observation. It should be noted that, according to the Observer, (7 August), the first leader of Hizb-ut-Tahrir was none other than Omar Bakri Mohammed, who fled to Lebanon after his links with would-be terrorists The Saviour Sect and Al Ghuraaba were revealed by the Sunday Times.

The actions of Sir Iqbal Sacranie have always been to present himself as a "moderate", but the Observer report featured in the link above show he is anything from a moderate, and wishes that in an upcoming "Muslim Fayre", shariah law is to be respected, and no women singers or dancers should be allowed. In an article for the Washington Post, Salman Rushdie stated that if Sir Iqbal Sacranie was the best example of a Muslim that Blair could find: "We have a problem".

Independently of the Observer's report, an investigation into how Muslims feel post 7/7 by the BBC found out more disturbing evidence of Sacranie's links with Pakistani extremists, when compiling its Panorama programme, due to be shown on Sunday 14 August. An extended re-edited version will now be shown on the 25th August.

Mr I. Bunglawala sent a letter to the BBC, accusing them of being "pro-Israel", a claim denied by the BBC. The letter was leaked to the Observer, and printed on 14 August:

Muslims only comprise 3% of the total population of Britain, and our laws and democratic processes seem tailored to this minority. Ironically, the Muslim Council for Britain is not held to represent the views of many ordinary Muslim citizens, as evidenced by the letters pages of some of our "quality" UK newspapers:

Here is a comment I pulled from the Letters Page of The Times (16 August 2005):

From Dr Shaaz Mahboob

"Sir, There are hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Britain who do not follow their religion as strictly as do the older generations, or as preached by organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain. We are the mainstream Muslims who are keen to live in peace and harmony with other faith groups, feel proud of being British and are patriotic.

I do not feel that the Islamic organisations are in any way representative, or even appreciative of the issues that I face here living in a multicultural and multifaith society. I know of no organisation that represents the secular and liberal Islam that the vast majority of Muslims follow, and there is no platform for such individuals to voice their opinion,

Reaching out to the silent majority and engaging them in a dialogue would bear far more positive results for the integration of Muslims into British society than merely following the suggestions of local imams or hardline organisations."

SHAAZ MAHBOOB
Hillingdon, Middlesex

And this from The Independent, from the same day:

The Fictional Idea of a Muslim Community

"Sir: By definition, a community must speak a communal language. Muslims in Britain speak a myriad of ancestral languages: Urdu. Hindi. Bengali, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Hausa, Swahili, Serbo-Croat and others.

Within each language there are dialects which are, sometimes, too disparate for communication. The "Muslim Community" is a fictional category; no more a community than the left-handed, the gay, the vegetarians, the Marxists or the diabetics. Fictitious "communities" are often created by enemies of the common character.

It makes the attribution of other unsavoury characters more plausible. The Government, the press and the lazy public like the notion of a Muslim community. Ambitious Muslim politicians, who wouldn't cut the mustard on any platform, love the notion most. They are thought of as leaders, They are entertained by ministers, interviewed by journalists, quoted, praised, loathed, attacked and talked about.

The scene could have been penned by Stoppard. I hope he is taking notes."

Dr YOUSEF ABDULLA
Orpington, Kent.

Hopefully, the House of Lords, and in particular the members of Mr Blair's government, will realise the true agenda of the MCB, before they give in to any more of their shrill, ridiculous and anti-democratic demands.