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January 11, 2006

UK: The Dishonesty Of The Muslim Council For Britain

We reported on January 5 that the Muslim Council for Britain (MCB) had decided that it would not take part in the annual Holocaust Memorial Day celebrations in Britain, which this year are due to take place in Cardiff on January 26.

The announcement came after Iqbal Sacranie, the Malawi-born secretary general of MCB, had teased the press with hints that the MCB may take part. This, of course, was conditional on Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the genocide of more than 6 million mainly Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust, becoming more "inclusive" and featuring Muslim victims. This is denial of the facts that Muslims such as Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, actively supported the genocidal activities of the Nazis.

Sacranie and Inayat Bunglawala are unapologetic anti-semites, who publicly declaim the Holocaust against Jews, but actively try to sabotage the credibility of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Sacranie tried to invite Osama bin London to a so-called "Revival Rally" in 1996, when he invoked the ire of the British Board of Jewish Deputies. Sacranie called bin Laden at the time an "Islamic scholar" though his terrorist activities against the Soviets and his dismissal of black people as "slaves" in his everyday speech were already common knowledge at that time. Sacranie also stated at the time of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against author Salman Rushdie that "death is too good for him" (i.e. Rushdie).

Sacranie has also supported the decision of London's Tate Gallery to remove from display an innocuous artwork by conceptual artist John Latham, entitled "God is Great", lest it should offend Muslims.

Sacranie attended a memorial service for Sheikh Yassin (founder of the terrorist organisation Hamas) at Regents Park Mosque last year, but refused to involve himself with Holocaust Memorial Day, whose patron is the same Queen who formalised Sacranie's undeserved knighthood.

Inayat Bunglawala has similarly praised Osama bin Laden, having previously called the terrorist a "freedom-fighter". "He [Mr bin Laden] was a freedom fighter. He was regarded in large sections of the Muslim world before 2001 as a freedom fighter for what he had done in Afghanistan," Bunglawala tried to explain last year. He claimed not to regret having made such statements, saying that at the time of his comment, the 1980s, "At the time he was (a freedom-fighter."

Bunglawala has described Sheikh Abdur Rahman, (the blind and mad mullah who organised the first World Trade Center attack in 1993) as "courageous". In August, when he got news that a documentary by the BBC was going to be scathing about the MCB's links to extremist groups, he went on the offensive, accusing the BBC of being "pro-Israel".

A founder member of MCB, Mehboob Kantharia, left the group and has claimed of the current leadership: "It is my personal belief that because they are in a state of denial, they cannot become....really forthright about the kind of extremism that prevails." One of the extremist groups connected to MCB was Ahl-e-Hadith of Birmingham, with 41 branches in Britain, whose website asked Muslims to "be different from Jews and Christians" whose "ways are based on sick or deviant views".

MCB has tried to prevent the government's attempts to ban international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir from operating in Britain, even though the group supports terror activities in Israel and has attempted to radicalise UK university campuses, often inflicting emotional pressure on female Muslim students to wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf. In Indonesia, Hizb ut-Tahrir is involved with the persecution of Christians.

We reported on November 1, 2005, that Abdurahman Jafar, vice chairman of the legal affairs committee of the MCB, attacked measures in the new UK anti-terror bill, currently undergoing scrutiny in the upper house of parliament, which made "glorification of terrorism" an offence. The MCB also campaigned to have a clause allowing mosques to be temporarily closed if they have preachers extolling terrorism expunged from the bill. In this, they were successful.

Iqbal Sacranie made a series of calculated anti-gay comments on BBC's Radio 4 earlier this month. He demonised homosexuals as "harmful" made spurious claims that homosexuality spread diseases, and said homosexuality was "not acceptable", topping it off with a classic taqqiya by saying that everyone should practice tolerance (!).

At the time, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell (pictured above) said of Sacranie's unsolicited outburst: "It is tragic for one minority to attack another minority....Both the Muslim and gay communities suffer prejudice and discrimination. We should stand together to fight Islamophobia and homophobia."

Those comments then seemed strange from Mr Tatchell, who recently was deeply involved in the successful international campaign to prevent the implementation of Sharia law in Ontario's family law decisions.

Now, however, Peter Tatchell appears to have recovered enough to mount a spirited attack on the hypocrisy of the Muslim Council. Rainbow Network reports that he has now highlighted MCB's previous stance on Holocaust Day. Five years ago, MCB objected to Holocaust Day because it was then "too inclusive", because its proponents acknowledged that, along with 6 million Jews, others died in Nazi death camps. These others include an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 homosexuals, wearers of the pink triangle, who were murdered by the Nazis.

Now, as Mr Tatchell points out, MCB is boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day because it is "not inclusive enough."

"The only thing consistent about the MCB is its opposition to the human rights of lesbians and gay men," he says. "The MCB objected to the fact that gay victims of the Nazi death camps were remembered.....The MCB seems to disparage the suffering of gay people under Nazism."

"Given the prejudice and discrimination that Muslim people have suffered, it is astonishing that the Muslim Council happily advocates prejudice and discrimination against the gay community," he continues. "It has actively opposed all the gay law reforms of the last decade and has openly supported the retention of discriminatory, homophobic legislation, such as Section 28 and the unequal age of consent."

"Instead of sowing division and stirring intolerance, the MCB should be working to secure a fair and just society, free from both Islamophobia and homophobia," he adds.

Tatchell himself has already been threatened with death by Islamists. Some of the stunts pulled off by his group Outrage have been tacky, but Tatchell is a brave and committed individual. He alone made open protests against Afrofascist Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, earning himself a beating in the process from Mugabe's thugs.

Given a choice, and considering all the positive things Peter Tatchell has done to challenge genuine hatred and prejudice in British society, I think he would have been a far better candidate for knighthood than the odious homophobe and anti-semite, Mr Sacranie. Mr Tatchell has never asked for special rights for gay men and women, only equal rights under the law. Muslim heterosexuals already have equal rights, but MCB is demanding special rights, such as the right to influence events such as Holocaust Memorial Day. They have also tried to influence Britain's legislation.

MCB was behind the political move to make it an offence to criticise Islam, and wanted anti-Islamic blasphemy to become an offence, even when uttered by non-Muslims. In this measure they failed. What is disturbing is that the lower house of parliament approved the measure before the Lords (the Upper House) emasculated it.

The MCB is a minority group among the UK's minority Muslim population, who of themselves number only 3% of the country's inhabitants. As a minority among minorities, MCB and its luminaries have already been given far more political privileges and indulgences, and free publicity, than their actual demographic status deserves.

UPDATE: This article has provoked the claim from Islamophobia Watch of "Plaudits for Tatchell from right-wing racists".

Another day, another tribute to Peter Tatchell from right-wing Islamophobes. Over at Western Resistance, a renewed attack on the Muslim Council of Britain - "Sacranie and Inayat Bunglawala are unapologetic anti-semites" - features a lengthy declaration of admiration for Tatchell as "a brave and committed individual".

Thanks guys. Now name me one example of racism from any of our 1400 articles. There is a comments section below where you can answer. We like to keep open for reader's opinions unlike you on your site, where the comments section is permanently switched off....

UPDATE 2: Islamophobiawatch have added another accusation of racism on their site, with absolutely no evidence of this "racism" to demonstrate or back up their case. So everyone who reads these pages can see how their minds work. You're against Islamic extremism, against anti-semitism, so you're a racist. QED, according to Islophamophobiawatch. Personally I am mildly irritated by their comments, but if they expect to gain credibility, they should be able to back up their claims, without ad hominem slanders.

BUT ANYWAY - There is a FURTHER UPDATE on the story.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 11, 2006 10:07 AM

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