The Editor
Evening Standard

21st May 2005

Dear Sir,

Your provocative front page story “Flames of Hate” (Evening Standard, 20th May 2005) incorrectly stated that the demonstration last Friday outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square was organised by the Muslim Council of Britain. We hope you will correct this at the earliest opportunity and give the correction a similarly high profile placing as your original story.

The Muslim Council of Britain has since received numerous hate messages via email from people who have evidently misled by the Evening Standard story. There are also some incendiary internet discussions going on about the MCB which were kicked off by your inaccurate story. See the following link as an example:
http://www.pardonmyenglish.com/archives/2005/05/the_irrational.html

We, once again, urge the Evening Standard to take extra care when reporting such incidents and ensure that they do not serve to demonise the mainstream Muslim community.

The Muslim Council of Britain shall be raising this incident with the Commission for Racial Equality and the Mayor of London to discuss the implications of the Evening Standard's often sensationalist coverage of Muslim affairs for community relations in London.

Yours faithfully,

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

Boardman House,
64 Broadway,
Stratford,
London E15 1NT