Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

MCB rejects Hazel Blears’ baseless accusations

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MCB banner

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) terms the new accusations of the Community Secretary Hazel Blears as outrageous.

In a letter published today in the Guardian (Our questions to the MCB leadership, 26 March 2009), she makes the extraordinary claim that Dr Daud Abdullah, the Deputy Secretary-General of the MCB, signed a document in Istanbul that ‘advocates attacks on Jewish communities all around the world’.

“This is an incredible claim which we utterly reject. All of the MCB’s office bearers without exception stand resolutely against all forms of indiscriminate violence. We are completely opposed to all forms of prejudice including Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We would expect someone in Ms Blears’ position to be working towards increasing understanding and goodwill between communities and to act responsibly and fairly,” said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

MCB news release, 26 March 2009

See also ENGAGE, 26 March 2009

Muslim Council accuses government of undermining independence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain’s largest Muslim body has accused ministers of wanting to “undermine its independence” by demanding one of its leaders be removed from office. The accusation is the strongest public attack yet by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in its row with the government after ministers broke off relations earlier this month.

Hazel Blears, the communities and local government minister, wrote to the MCB demanding the resignation of Daud Abdullah, its deputy secretary general, after he allegedly called for violence against Israel.

Today the MCB spokesman Inayat Bunglawala told the Guardian that the government only wanted to deal with Muslim groups who were “stooges” and “spineless”, and vowed the council would resist attempts to interfere in how it was run.

Bunglawala, who is close to the thinking of MCB leaders, told the Guardian: “We intend to resist the attempted government interference in the running of the MCB. The call on the MCB to force the resignation of Daud Abdullah is clearly unacceptable. It can be seen as an attempt to undermine the independence of the MCB.”

The MCB feels it has been increasingly attacked by the government for insisting Britain’s foreign policy is making the country a target for al-Qaida-inspired terrorism, with ministers preferring to talk to less critical groups such as the Quilliam Foundation, set up by the self-confessed former extremist Ed Hussain.

Bunglawala said: “We hope that Ms Blears does not look upon the MCB as being of the same spineless calibre as the Quilliam Foundation … who are widely viewed among British Muslims as being stooges of the government.”

Guardian, 26 March 2009

Hazel Blears’ standoff with Muslim Council overshadows new anti-terror launch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A standoff between the communities secretary, Hazel Blears, and the Muslim Council of Britain was said last night to “cut to the heart” of the government’s revised counter-terror strategy to challenge those who defend terrorism and violent extremism.

Blears has suspended official links with the MCB over allegations that its deputy general secretary endorsed a Hamas call for attacks on foreign troops, including possibly British troops, if they try to intercept arms smuggled into Gaza.

Blears last night pressed the MCB for further clarification after it distanced itself from a declaration calling for a new jihad over Gaza made by the Hamas-backed “global anti-aggression campaign” in Istanbul last month. The cabinet minister is still pressing the MCB’s deputy general secretary, Dr Daud Abdullah, who attended and signed the Istanbul declaration, to clarify his own position.

The dispute, involving a senior government minister and one of the most significant Muslim “umbrella” organisations, coincided with the launch of the Contest 2 counter-terror strategy and illustrated the determination of ministers to challenge radical views that fall short of support for violence but reject and undermine “our shared values”.

Guardian, 25 March 2009

See also “The government may be the only loser in this untimely dispute” by Madeleine Bunting.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail seizes the opportunity to attack the MCB:

Mail smears MCB

Alienating British Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following the recent muddle over Hezbollah, the British government continues to dig itself deeper into the mire with its “anti-extremism” policy.

Hazel Blears, secretary of state for communities and local government, is trying to engineer the resignation of Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. She may not like Abdullah or agree with his views but, frankly, it’s none of her business. The MCB is not a government body and can appoint whoever it wants as its deputy secretary general.

This sort of government interference is condemned by human rights organisations when it happens under dictatorial regimes such as that in Egypt where authorities vet the board members of NGOs and even tell them how they must conduct their meetings.

Of course, the government can choose whether or not to talk to the MCB but, by choosing not to, it will seriously undermine its own policy of engaging with the British Muslim community.

The MCB is an umbrella organisation that claims the support of more than 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools. By definition it needs to include as many strands of British Muslim opinion as possible. In the past it has been criticised for not being representative enough, and now Blears seems determined to make it less representative as a condition of being recognised by the government.

Brian Whitaker at Comment is Free, 24 March 2009

Update:  See also “Hazel Blears must back down” by, of all people, Geoffrey Alderman, who writes:

The extraordinary action taken against the Muslim Council of Britain by communities minister Hazel Blears has rightly aroused widespread condemnation. As Brian Whitaker has already pointed out, Blears’s 13 March letter to the MCB, suspending ‘engagement’ with it pending the outcome of its investigation into the conduct of its deputy general secretary, Daud Abdullah, amounts to a piece of quite unwarranted Whitehall interference in the internal working of an independent body operating entirely legally in this country. In principle, whom the MCB chooses as its office-holders is none of Blears’s business. The very unfortunate precedent she is trying to set reflects the practices of a totalitarian state – China perhaps, or Zimbabwe. I am shocked that such a mindset could emerge in the UK.

US Islamic academy will ‘train Muslim children to hate and wage war’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Saudi AcademyA controversial private school for Muslim children is seeking to expand a campus in Fairfax County, a proposal that has made reluctant partners of neighbors concerned with the impact on traffic and water quality and critics who oppose what they say is the school’s radical agenda.

The Islamic Saudi Academy has asked the county for permission to build a state-of-the-art building on one of its two campuses, a 34-acre property near Fairfax City. The increased capacity could draw as many as 200 additional students to the 750-student campus each day, which has sparked concern among neighbors.

But at a public hearing last week, mundane neighborhood concerns were overshadowed by a longstanding dispute over the school’s teachings and the perception that it promotes intolerance of other cultures.

In addition, a federal jury in 2005 convicted one of the academy’s graduates, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, of joining an al-Qaida conspiracy to kill George W. Bush. It was one fact critics seized on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade the county to reject the school’s expansion plans.

“The Islamic Saudi Academy’s purpose is to train young and innocent Muslim children to hate and wage war into the future against our children,” James Lafferty, a spokesman for the Traditional Values Coalition, a church lobbying group, said during the hearing. His remarks prompted heckles and boos from teachers, parents and other supporters of the school.

“Don’t you sometimes have people who get in trouble with the law who graduate from school who go to churches?” asked Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in an interview. “It is guilt by association, and I hope the commissioners will see that this is pure hate propaganda and driven by a political agenda.”

Washington Post, 23 March 2009

Contest 2 counterproductive, Muslim meeting warns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Council of Britain reports on a meeting at the weekend which “voiced serious alarm that the government may be in danger of adopting misguided notions of extremism as dictated by xenophobic commentators who profit from creating a hostile atmosphere from which bigots of all shades can draw. A definition of ‘extremism’ that would classify the overwhelming majority of loyal and law abiding British citizens as extremists would be of no value in our common fight against terrorism. The speakers also highlighted the abuse of current anti-terrorism legislation as it is so broad that anyone and everyone can be booked under the pretext of terrorism and therefore it has failed to focus on or tackle extremism.”

MCB news release, 23 March 2009

‘Jason Kenney is promoting racism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

LEBANON MPSOn March 18, 2009 the Canadian Minister of Multiculturalism and Immigration, Mr. Jason Kenney made good on his threats to cut funding for Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) programs that help settle newcomers to Canada. The Toronto Star reported that neither of the two [Language Instruction for New Canadians] contracts with CAF “will be renewed, Alykhan Velshi, director of communications and parliamentary affairs, said in an email.” In the same article, Mr. Kenney also referenced this decision by stating that “he is an ‘unapologetic supporter’ of Israel”.

A few days earlier, it was reported in the National Post on 3/14/2009: “Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says the Canadian Arab Federation will have to change its leadership and adopt a more moderate stance or risk losing federal funding… Mr. Kenney said taxpayers should not be footing the bill for an organization whose leader ‘promotes hateful and extremist views.’ Mr. Kenney said there are many moderate organizations that could do the job… He suggested the decision could be reversed if more moderate leaders were in place.”

Continue reading →

Hazel Blears demands Daud Abdullah’s resignation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daud Abdullah, Muhammad Abdul Bari, Inayat BunglawalaThe Government has severed relations with the country’s leading Muslim organisation, saying a senior member is a supporter of Hamas, the Palestinian military organisation.

A letter leaked to The Independent on Sunday shows that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, wrote to the Muslim Council of Britain, calling for Dr Daud Abdullah to resign.

She alleges he was one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who signed a public declaration of support for Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza strip in Israel, and military action against Israel.

A spokeswoman for the department said: “We are concerned that the statement calls for direct support for acts of violence in the Middle East and beyond. We are also aware that a senior member of the MCB may have been a signatory to this statement. If it is proven that the individual concerned had been a signatory, we would expect the MCB to ask him to resign and to confirm its opposition to acts of violent extremism.”

Members of the Muslim community reacted angrily to the letter at a conference in Birmingham where they met yesterday to discuss the issue.

An MCB spokesperson said: “We will make clear to the Government that as far as the MCB is concerned we utterly condemn the targeting or killing of soldiers anywhere in the world. But the MCB will not be dictated to by Hazel Blears. We do not take orders from Ms Blears. She is mistaken if she thinks the MCB will dismiss people at her say-so.”

Independent on Sunday, 22 March 2009

Read MCB’s response here. And ENGAGE’s comments here.

Update:  See also the Guardian, 24 March 2009

Read Hazel Blears’ letter (pdf) here.