Letters
Sacranie and the MCB
15 June 2006
Dear Sir
I wonder if the tone of the Muslim Council of Britain will change following the resignation of Sir Iqbal Sacranie. Under his chairmanship, this supposedly moderate organization has propagated a blinkered view of the West pursuing a vicious anti Islamic crusade for political ends. Instead of building bridges between Jews and Muslims, they have sought to politicize Muslim issues and cause bitter inter religious strife. They have repeatedly boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day on the spurious grounds that it lacks inclusiveness and fails to encompass suffering in ‘Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir.’ Apart from failing to see that these latter cases did not involve genocide, the MCB has done little to promote the political context of these conflicts, regarding the killing of Muslims, whether civilians or terrorists, as a crime against humanity. The genocide of non Muslims seems to matter a lot less. Let us also not forget the absurd contention that the BBC pursues a ‘pro Israeli’ agenda, hardly the first conspiracy theory to link Zionism with the establishment! Now if we appreciate that the MCB is rooted in the extremist politics of Pakistan, their hostility is hardly a cause for surprise. What is more worrying is that the Blair government should give time and credence to such an organization, drowning out more genuinely Muslim voices in the process.
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Havardi
top