The Muslim Council of Britain likes to present itself as the voice of British Muslims. If you tuned in to Kenan Malik’s excellent programme on Radio 4 this morning, Are All Muslims the Same? then you will have heard MCB spokesman Inayat Bunglawala boasting that organisations like the MCB have never been out of step with what “the silent majority” of British Muslims are saying.
Quite apart from this making no sense at all (How does he know what the silent majority are saying if they are silent?), it is a portentous claim. If the MCB know what all Muslims are thinking then, as discussed yesterday, it makes sense for the government to treat them as gatekeepers to British Muslims. Bunglawala clearly knows better than British Muslims themselves, only six percent of whom actually believe the MCB represents them.
To further bolster the MCB’s pretensions to represent British Muslims, Bunglawala stated that the MCB now has over 550 affiliated mosques, organisations and the like. This is another interesting claim and, fortunately for us, an easily verifiable one – the MCB has published a list of affiliates on its website.
I copied all of the organisations on the MCB’s list into a spreadsheet and, far from the “over 550” affiliates of which Inayat boasted, my list totalled 457.
And then something else struck me, I should do a little rough mathematics. There were quite a few duplicates on the list and, although some of them are probably innocent slips, there does appear to be a concerted effort to beef up the numbers. For several different organisations not only is the national organisation named as an affiliate but also the regional and local groups. For example, there are 12 different varieties of Islamic Forum Europe on the list, 16 of the Islamic Society of Britain, eight Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith and no fewer than 35 different varieties of UK Islamic Mission.
Then there are some rather bizarre affiliates like ‘Muslim Directory’ and ‘Trends Magazine’ – how exactly can a directory of services and a magazine claim to be organisations? And Islam Expo (which appears twice, once purely as Islam Expo and once as Islam Expo Ltd) is an exhibition. In what sense is a four day Islamist extravaganza an affiliated organisation? And another one I found, ‘Save Chechnya Campaign’ seems very unlikely to still be active. This leads to the suspicion that several of the other organisations on the list may no longer be active but, unless somebody is prepared to spend hours seeking out Companies House records for each name on the list, the MCB will have to get the benefit of the doubt.
So, from my master list of 457 organisations I produced some sub-lists. Firstly, duplicates (111); then organisations which were not actually organisations, like Islam Expo and the Muslim Directory (8); then mosques (69) and schools (17). And finally, actual bona fide organisations (just 254). On the radio this morning, Inayat Bunglawala boasted that the MCB had started with 150 affiliated mosques and organisations, a number which had grown to over 550. My rough and ready analysis suggests that the MCB really only has about 340 affiliates – of which just 254 are actually organisations in the normal sense of the term (rather than a building) and several of those are probably one-man-bands. If you take a look in the (MCB-affiliated) ‘Muslim Directory’ you will find thousands and thousands of mosques, Islamic centres, organisations and the like, only a tiny (generally Islamist) fraction of which want to have anything to do with the MCB. So much for being representative.
Yet another reason for the government to disregard the MCB’s arrogant claim to be the voice of British Muslims.
14 Comments
Even if MCB had 550, so what?
The Rotary has 1,840 clubs across Great Britain and Ireland. It doesn’t mean anything in terms of representation.
PS: Bungles – your favourite song isn’t ‘I’m the leader of the gang‘ by Gary Glitter is it?
Hmmm interesting. Personally, I couldn’t care less how many Muslim organization recieved a call from the MCB and agreed to have their name put on a list. Why should British Muslims be represented by a small group of elderly men from East London who hail from Jamaati Islami. The whole idea of having a representative umbrella group for British Muslims is colonial, offensive and has been proven not to work.
The government needs to stop being lazy and speak to ordinary Muslims up and down the country rather than relying on a group of oddities that look like the cast from ‘Carry on up the Khyber’.
excellent stuff Yoss. It is indeed absurd to believe that the MCB represent anything resembling a majority.
and i suppose you guys on the other end of the spectrum are the voice of british gays?
come out with your real names and ID’s just like Jafar pointed out, there will be no spittoon left, we’d see how biased all your posts are and all your visitors will flock elsewhere cos they’ll realize the poison youre spreading
Come out with your real names says ‘bible basher’!
You and your mates have got battered from pillar to post on this site yet you still keep coming back…..what’s up? can’t admit defeat?
And why should we give you the satisfaction of having our real names?
Keep sweating!
P.S: I know bungles is dying to write an iengage exclusive on us : )
bible basher,
if you dont like it, then go away. nobody is asking you to keep reading and commenting on this blog. clearly it has got to you or you would have gone away long ago. why are you so desperate for everyone’s real names? is it because they have embarassed you and your mates?
My poem to khawaarij of both types:
O Khawaarij fanatical deviant sect and his ally
My fist bash through your real name and surname in one try
Like north star i shine high and so bright blinds
your deviant rebellion support it does not find
inshaallah.
the trouble is that it relies for a large part on the idea that the representative umbrella group for british jews, the board of deputies *does* work.
which it does.
sort of.
for most people.
the BoD is very good at certain things, particularly coordinating community-wide security and kashrut, doing official liaison with the government on legislation that might affect the community as a whole and providing a *non-religious* (and this is crucial) forum for the different synagogual and communitiy bodies to talk to each other, which they wouldn’t do under any other circumstances or aegis. however, non-affiliated bodies (such as some of the ultra-orthodox groups) are not representatives, cynics probably say that’s because of the funding levy per member (which is, as i recall, about £15 a quarter) and obviously if you are not a member of any deputy-c0ntributing organisation, you are not represented officially. also, the deputies themselves tend to be the sort of people who like to be deputies (think of the sort of people that try and get elected to the student union). the BoD is representative in the most broad terms, its procedures are arcane and by all accounts (my parents have been involved a long time) very very dull.
the BoD is *not*, however, there to take religious positions, political positions or to do anything controversial like thought leadership or education, that is left to constituent groups. it does not sign platforms, it does not endorse this or that political position except in the broadest and vaguest of un-operationally-defined terms (e.g. “combating anti-semitism”, “support for israel”, “providing a voice for british jews”) but the real work is done outside.
if you ask me, the reason it works is because, by and large, british jewry is quite organised, centralised and structured. not so much as the mandated, ottoman millet-style system that they have in france, but more in a disorganised, vaguely british sort of way involving lots of committees. the muslim community is *structurally* less centralised, shari’a law is devolved rather than organised into central batei din, halal slaughter is the same and the ethnic diversity is far wider. additionally, the economies of scale are totally different for a group with only 350k people than they are for one of 2m people.
for this reason, the MCB is not truly a representative organisation, it is far closer to being one of the synagogual organisations, like, say, the united synagogue, (or to give it its self-described name, “the united hebrew congregation of great britain and the commonwealth”) which thinks it’s universal (or “catholic” if you prefer) but actually is just the CofE of british jewry, serving the main-stream “centrist orthodox” ashkenazi part of the community; by the same token, it seems to me that the MCB is far better at representing certain types of south asian islamic community than, say, the ismailis? in other words, like the united synagogue, which sometimes has delusions of grandeur (“chief rabbi”, anyone?) it sometimes confuses outsiders into thinking it is both more inclusive and comprehensive than it actually is.
b’shalom
bananabrain
reveal your real names, so we can see how comfortably you guys deal with a hit squad intent on ripping you to shreds instead of disclosing filth behind the cover of false names
bible basher.
If I was going to reveal my real name I would not be using a pseudonym in the first place. Your repeated demands that the other pseudonymous writers here at Spittoon and I reveal our names just will not work. There’s no point trying and no point spamming comment threads with your requests.
Bible Basher,
I’m intrigued and slightly perplexed by your demands for the various writers and commentators on Spittoon to reveal their true identities. I take it that you’ll also be taking this issue by with:
Iengage – Whose website does not reveal who runs the “organisation” and on which website all posts are posted anonymously.
MPACUK – Ditto.
- Islamophobia Watch – Whose sole author, Bob Pitt, writes solely under the name of “Martin Sullivan”.
Mr Basher – I am interested to know – have you also emailed these websites to ask them to reveal the true identities of all posters and commentators – and if not, why not?
I look forward to your answer – or at least your next posting of bizarre non-sequitur ramblings and random accusations.
Al-Masri.
My name is Legion, for we are many…
7 right?