ASSOCIATED PRESS OF PAKISTAN: LONDON - The UK’s largest Muslim organization-Muslim Council of Britain- has rejected all allegations leveled in a TV documentary claiming that the association was attempting to turn Britain into an Islamic Republic. “We reject entirely the allegation that the MCB is “dominated” by any organisation/s. The MCB, with over 500 affiliates, has a rigorous election process with elected officials from a wide range of Islamic backgrounds.
Simply put, there is no scope whatsoever, real or perceived, for any affiliate/s or group of affiliates to dominate the decision-making process. The Dispatches programme has failed to provide even a single shred of evidence of how “undue influence” by any affiliate or group of affiliates has actually been exercised,” The MCB said in a statement in response to the programme screened on Monday evening by the UK domestic TV Channel 4.
The media spokesman Tufael Ahmed said: “Last night’s Dispatches fronted by Andrew Gilligan has once again resurrected stereotypes. Using out of context quotations, he echoes the rhetoric of far-right extremists, that British Muslims are somehow foreign, alien, extremist and imposing their way of life on the others.”
“The core of the programme accuses the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) and the East London Mosque of fostering ‘Islamist’ extremism and that the IFE has an undue and pernicious influence over the politics of our country.” >>> APP | Tuesday, March 02, 2010
