Dear Sir,

The fairness of our broadcasters' coverage of the Middle East is always a contentious issue, in particular for Muslims and Jews (Rod Liddle, Spectator, 19 August 2005).

An independent major study of the way BBC and ITN News cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the renowned Glasgow University Media Group last year found that the news coverage, particularly on BBC1, tended to promote 'official Israeli perspectives' while ensuring that viewers remained ignorant of the actual causes that lie behind that long-running tragedy.

Instead of adressing the issue in an evidence-based manner, Liddle resorts to hysterionics and smearing, referring to Sir Iqbal Sacranie and myself as anti-semites. We are not. It seems in order to qualify as a Liddle-approved 'moderate' Muslim one needs to remain silent about Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. Thanks Rod, but we decline the offer.

Liddle also condemns the Muslim Council of Britain's refusal to attend the Holocaust Memorial Day. The MCB has adopted this stance since the Holocaust Memorial Day was instituted in 2001. The MCB has called for a more inclusive �Genocide Memorial Day� to be commemorated and believes that this would make the �Never Again� subtext of the Day more effective and pertinent in a world where the last few years have witnessed carnage on an industrial scale in Srebrenica, Chechnya and Rwanda. By singling out the Holocaust Memorial Day as a central reason to demonise the MCB, Liddle has, unwittingly, thereby served to confirm the MCB�s argument that there is indeed an �Israel test� to which British Muslims are being subjected.

Yours faithfully,

Inayat Bunglawala.
Secretary,
Media Committee,
The Muslim Council of Britain

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