Government Lifts Muslim Council of Britain Ban
The MCB's Daud Abdullah
The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have expressed concern about the government's decision to lift its ban on relations with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the UK's largest Muslim organisation.
In a letter to Secretary of State John Denham, Vivian Wineman, chairman and president of the Board of Deputies, and Mick L Davis, chairman of the JLC Executive Committee, said: "In recent years the MCB has supported, joint-hosted and participated in many meetings, demonstrations and other events that incite the most extreme hatred of Zionists.
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The letter insisted, however, that the Jewish community was not opposed to government dialogue with the MCB per se.
Meanwhile, an MCB spokesman told the Jewish News that the Muslim umbrella organisation has not yet decided whether it would be attending Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. He said: "We have received an invitation. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general, will be discussing this with his colleagues this weekend and will then take a decision next week."
The MCB caused offence in the Jewish community when it imposed a boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day in 2006. The boycott was lifted in 2008 but the MCB refused to attend the commemoration last year in protest against Israel's actions in Gaza.
The UK government broke off relations with the MCB in 2009 when one of its members, Dr Daud Abdullah, signed the Istanbul Declaration - a document that appeared to condone attacks on the military of any country that was against weapons being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
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