21Days 17Hours 48Minutes 52Seconds

Until Eid Starts
(subject to change)

The Muslim Council of Britain today welcomed the overall findings of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report on radicalisation. The MCB supports calls for a review of the Prevent strand of the Counter-Terrorism strategy, and the Committee’s call for full and wide engagement with all sections of the Muslim community, including at grassroots level—and not just with groups which already agree with the Government. The focus of the strategy should be around building a real partnership between community groups and the state.’ For too long, successive governments have failed to work in partnership with a wide cross section of the Muslim community, as equal stakeholders in the fight against terrorism.

The report rightly commends the Muslim Council of Britain for swiftly speaking out against terrorism. It is happy to have a dialogue with anyone who feels that the MCB, and Muslims can and should do more to, in the reports own words ‘expose and remove those who preach or advocate race hate and intolerance.’

To be clear, we strongly encourage and have encouraged reporting of those who have broken the law or are on course to committing a terror attack. We will support initiatives that enable this fairly and with justice. Moreover, last year, we began a national conversation amongst grassroots Muslim communities to explore what our response to the threat of terrorism should be.

Only last week the Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the decision to imprison the rabble rouser Anjem Choudary and spoke out against the collusion that seemed to exist between sections of the media and government to ensure not only that he was at large for over a decade, but was afforded the oxygen of publicity through the mainstream media. As we stated, ‘hate-preachers’ such as Mr Choudary found his pulpit not in mosques but on the television screen and in national newspapers.

The Muslim Council of Britain was established in 1997. Its mandate comes from Muslim organisations and is tasked to articulate the hopes and aspiration of the UK’s diverse Muslim communities. Its focus has been on seeking consensus where possible and on sharing best practice and advocacy on a range of issues including economic disadvantage, community cohesion. Its mandate comes from Muslim organisations.

While speaking out consistently against terrorism, we have also said that the government must not engage with Muslim communities through the problem of terrorism and extremism only. As the House of Commons Women’s and Equality Committee said recently:

“The Government must work to rebuild trust with Muslim communities by adopting an approach to integration which focuses on how it improves the life chances of disadvantaged communities rather than through the lens of counter-extremism”.

Whilst the Muslim Council of Britain was not established to focus on terrorism and extremism, it has nevertheless given the issue prominence because the threat of terrorism and extremism continues to blight our communities. Not only does it cause anguish to mothers and fathers, worried about the fate of their children, it also breeds fear within our communities of the backlash from the media and amongst far-right groups. Above all, acts of terror have alienated young Muslims who bear the brunt of often knee-jerk and far-reaching anti-terror policies.

Whilst we are happy to reflect and do more on counter-terrorism, it is important that the Muslim Council of Britain is seen as an independent organisation, and not an arm of the security services or police. Despite this, the Muslim Council of Britain has nevertheless offered to work with Scotland Yard police to little avail.

We also welcome the report’s concern that the Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill is likely to be unfocused and ineffective if the government does not take ‘a much more sophisticated approach both to identifying the factors which instigate radicalisation and in the measures it takes to tackle this.’ The report also observed how a multi-faith alliance raised ‘concerns that the impact will be to alienate communities and undermine free speech.’

We hope the broad recommendations made by the committee are adopted by government.

 

[ends]

 

Notes to Editors:

The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body with over
500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques,
charities and schools.

For further information please contact:
The Muslim Council of Britain
PO Box 57330
London
E1 2WJ
Tel: 0845 26 26 786
Fax: 0207 247 7079
[email protected]

August 25, 2016 in Press Releases
Ramadan 2024: Future First