John Ware’s Panorama programme – A witch-hunt against British Muslims

John Ware’s Panorama programme ‘A Question Of Leadership’ is due to be aired on BBC1 on Sunday 21st August 2005.

The Panorama programme takes a look at several British Muslim organisations, in particular the Muslim Council of Britain and several of its affiliates, including the Islamic Foundation, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith and the Leeds Grand Mosque.

The MCB has issued a full and detailed response to the Panorama programme which can be read at this link:

http://www.mcb.org.uk/Panorama_response.doc

In summary, we believe John Ware’s team have made a deeply unfair programme using deliberately garbled quotes in an attempt to malign the Muslim Council of Britain and with the barely concealed goal of drawing British Muslims away from being inspired in their political beliefs and actions by the faith of Islam. It is unfortunate that just when Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims are beginning to make progress in terms of their political participation in the mainstream, there are those who are purposefully trying to sabotage that process,’said Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

It seems that to qualify as so-called ‘moderates’ Muslims are required to remain silent about Israeli crimes in Palestine, otherwise they are automatically labelled as ‘extremists’.

The MCB urges British Muslims to remain calm and vigilant in the face of recent concerted attempts being made by known hostile elements to divide them.

MCB press release, 20 August 2005

“The government and liberal media insist they have no problem with ‘moderate’ Muslims and that they are only targeting ‘extremists’. The Observer’s attack on the MCB demonstrates what a sham this position is.”

Anindya Bhattacharyya in Socialist Worker, 20 August 2005

“The bombings (or attempts) of 7 and 21 July seem to have thrown commentators and politicians back yet again to endless ponderings on what it means to be British. Into this steaming pot are thrown various statements about religion, culture, nationhood and patriotism. And since these particular terrorists happen to be Muslims, at first glance it would seem completely appropriate to examine the Koran for any possible link to what happened.

“But there are problems with this. We can quite reasonably ask the question of why Islam should be probed for its links to terrorism, when Christianity isn’t probed for its links to IRA bombings and Judaism isn’t probed for its links to the Zionist terror of 1946-48 in Palestine? It rather looks as if something selective is going on here.”

Michael Rosen in Socialist Worker, 20 August 2005

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) Saturday strongly refuted allegations of excessive ‘Islamic extremism’ on university campuses. “What we are seeing is an attack on some of the most active and respected Islamic societies across the country,” said Faisal Hanjra, head of FOSIS Student Affairs.

Articles in the British press on Friday quoted a report to be published next week claiming that extremist organizations are operating on more than 30 university campuses across Britain. The leaking of the report came after Education Secretary Ruth Kelly urged vice-chancellors to clamp down on student extremists as part of the government’s new focus in its so-called war on terrorism following July’s bombing attacks in London.

But FOSIS, an umbrella organization representing over 90,000 Muslim students, said that the allegations of “Islamism” being rife on campuses were made without either defining it or outlining any methods of research to base such claims.

IRNA, 17 September 2005

See also MAB Online, 17 September 2005