Abdul Bari from the MCB
The Muslim Council of Britain has called on Alan Johnson MP the Home Secretary to do more about the rise in anti-Muslim hatred in the UK.
Abdul Bari, Secretary of the MCB, wrote:
“Amongst many British Muslim communities, there is a growing disenchantment at the lacklustre response from our political leaders to speak out against anti-Muslim hatred. Whether this exists in explicit form through the actions of far-right groups, or implicitly with hysterical headlines in our media, the policy response to any of these has been far from satisfactory.”
On the MCB’s web site Bari expresses his concern about last Saturday’s mini skirmish between the English Defence League and the police in Stoke-on-Trent. The MCB’s secretary didn’t mention the BNP by name but said: “We ask you to take leadership in this matter, especially in a year where divisive elements may well flourish in the run-up to the next general election.”
The MCB are right to raise the issue of the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK. There are nearly 2 million UK Muslims: a majority of whom are moderate and live ordinary lives.
In recent times the BNP have sought to exploit the growing legitimate concerns about the rise in UK Islamist activity by claiming that Britain is being turned into a Caliphate. To lend credibility to their cause, the BNP have deliberately sought to conflate Islamism with Islam. This has led to some very worrying trends developing in social cohesion, particularly in areas where there are large Muslim populations living alongside non-Muslim populations.
But the MCB should also accept some responsibility in the rise of extremist groups like the EDL and the BNP. The BNP are a reaction to a number of government policy failures including inequality, integration and immigration. Many people (not just white non-Muslims) have felt that the mainstream parties are responsible for them being culturally, economically and socially excluded from British society. But groups like the MCB, who claim to represent over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organizations, mosques, charities and schools, have also contributed to the rise of intolerance by legitimizing bigotries within their own ranks.
Daud Abdullah
A good example of this is Daud Abdullah, Bari’s deputy. Mr. Abdullah sparked controversy when he became a signatory of the Istanbul Declaration in 2009, which declared war on foreign naval vessels that sought to stop weapons entering into Gaza (at the time Britain’s navy had offered its assistance to the Israeli government). Mr. Abdullah has not been removed from his position as Deputy-Secretary General.
Mr. Abdullah’s alignment with a piece of paper that appears to authorize terrorist attacks against naval vessels, and possibly the British Navy, and the MCB’s refusal to distance themselves from him only helps to raise concerns about the effectiveness of Britain’s integration Muslims and plays straight into the hands of the BNP’s narrative of British Muslims acting like fifth columnists.
It should also be noted that Mr. Abdullah is also a senior researcher at the pro-Hamas Palestinian Return Centre, which Nothing British exposed in November for inviting Kristina Morvai MEP, a close associate of Nick Griffin’s in the European Parliament and leader of the Hungarian extreme right party Jobbik. Mr. Abdullah’s name appeared – alongside Ms. Morvai’s – on a list of speakers who were due to address a pro-Hamas conference.
Kristina Morvai
Despite one of its senior officials being prepared to share a stage with a gypsy-baiter, whose party regularly makes anti-Semitic remarks, one hopes that the MCB are against not just anti-Muslim sentiments but also anti-Jewish and any other bigotries.
This seems unlikely.
In previous years the MCB have boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day. One hopes that in a time when the Holocaust denying Griffin becomes an MEP and when its memory is increasingly becoming a distant memory they attend it this year.
Maurice Cousins
