The Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) is a Jamaat-e-Islami entryist organisation which is physically located in the East London Mosque (ELM) with which it is inextricably linked. The present chairman of the ELM is Dr Mohammed Abdul Bari, who is a former president of the IFE and is the current Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain. The director and imam of the East London Mosque are trustees of the group. Of 22 IFE trustees in recent years, only five have not also been trustees or officeholders of the ELM.
So given these incestuous relationships, it is not surprising that the Muslim Council of Britain, now comes rushing to the defence of its Jamaati brother-in-arms, the IFE, in response to yesterday’s Dispatches documentary
In a statement following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary on 1 March, media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, 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.”
“Both claims are a gross and highly insulting misrepresentation of bodies that have done much to serve the common good. Both have a long and proud record of openly and actively spoken in favour of seeking common cause with all Britons, and have initiated projects that have served all people, regardless of faith.”
“The central charge made by the programme is that both institutions are guilty of ‘entryism’, a curious accusation at a time when British Muslims are positively encouraged to take full part in the civic and democratic life of our nation. By taking part in politics, Muslim institutions are no different from people of other faiths who gain strength and inspiration from their faith to focus on shared interests and values.
“The message from this programme is clear, British Muslims have no right to take part in this country’s great democratic culture. Other than the far-right, such a divisive message should not resonate with reasoned people who believe in democracy and a plural society.”
“The programme also takes aim at the Muslim Council of Britain itself, casting doubt and aspersions on the organisation’s diversity and its leaders.”
“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 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.”
Andrew Gilligan responds pitilessly to these histrionics:
You may have noticed that any newspaper articles or TV programmes exposing the doings of Islamist radicals – such as the ones about the Islamic Forum of Europe which I’m in the process of bringing out at the moment – always attract weirdly formulaic, oven-ready complaints (”what the well-known racist and CIA agent Andrew Gilligan conveniently forgets to acknowledge is the decisive role of the IFE in promoting community cohesion, ending world poverty, stopping climate change,” etc, etc.) Well, I think I’ve solved the mystery.
Someone not a million miles from the IFE has kindly shown me an email purportedly sent out by Musleh Faradhi, the organisation’s president, last Tuesday, February 22nd. “We need to ensure Channel 4 receives a strong message from the community by being inundated with complaints,” says the email. That was nearly a week before transmission.
Then there’s the email – also seen by me – circulated at 6.12pm yesterday (Mon) by the IFE’s chums at the Muslim Council of Britain. “Do everything you can to get articulate responses ready and distributed from as many of our affiliates as possible…In essence, we need to make a noise out there and we need everyone’s help. It is vital we do this for our collective interests,” says the email purportedly from Tufael Ahmed of the MCB’s media committee. Still almost two hours till airtime, Tufael!
Here is some free media advice for the media committee. It would have been better not to be cross until you had actually seen the programme. Any sense that complaints are being “ensured” or that “articulate responses” are being “got ready” hours or even days beforehand might lead the rest of us to conclude that the outrage is somewhat… well, manufactured.
I might also remind my new fans of something that a previous object of my attentions, Ken Livingstone, had to learn the hard way. We have amassed a great deal of material on this story, much of which has not so far emerged. Don’t rush in to any (further) denials which you may later come to regret.
I have no doubt that many of my “articulate responders” will complain on the grounds I’ve claimed that the IFE is at the heart of a giant Islamist conspiracy that Links Everything Together. I haven’t said that, in fact – but if I wanted to say it, I don’t think I’d need much better evidence than Mr Ahmed’s email, with its apparent claim that the IFE is at the heart of “our collective interests.”
20 Comments
So, it’s OK to talk-up your friend’s hatchet job: http://www.spittoon.org/archives/5252
but not criticise it.
Kettle. Pot. Black
Hi Andrew your claims are slightly childish. If an organization has members and affiliates then of course they will rally around sending texts and emails to defend their organization that they believe and volunteer in!!! IFE is an affiliate of MCB and will definitely look after its affiliates. Don’t be so naive. Where there is truth and sincerity people can try but at teh end of the day sane and genuine people will always see through the cynics, slanderers and scaremongers.
If you genuinely have a solution for the muslim community on how they should engage why not as a decent human being that you are concerned about Britain come to the leaders and have a frank and open discussion with them and offer your valuable insight into what it means to be British. It is obvious we are struggling coz when we engage we have a hidden agenda and we don’t then we are ghettoizing ourselves. Please I sincerely request your valuable advice as i work with a lot of young Muslim girls. I could really do with your help and support rather than creating more divisions and fear amongst a good British society that I love and am a part of
Umm Umar,
You could start with publically distancing yourself from the writings of Maudoodi. Then explaining the ideological links between the IFE, MCB, FOSIS and Maudoodi’s organization ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’.
Once you ditch Maudoodian philosophy, we can then consider having a frank discussion. Is that ok?
For more on Maudoodi see: http://www.spittoon.org/archives/2337
If Muslims are engaged they are extremists, if they are then they are isolating themselves and not being part of society.
Does anyone see the ridiculousness of this? Individual Muslims may be becoming more engaged in politics, running for local election and as a result party popularity amongst the community has grown, surely that is a good thing? Getting the community more aware, more involved. How so does the success of an individual Muslim and party popularity and member growth then have anything to do with IFE?
please answer that question….
Thank you Dan, sounds pretty logical. Also Zalloom I should have the freedom to read whatever I want as I have been given the intellect and guidance by the Quran and Sunnah to contextualize the information to where i live. When i study any text i think its common sense that one can take what is applicable and leave what does not apply. A lot of these authors wrote and spoke to different audiences in different lands, so how would it all apply to me here on a practical level?
So are you saying you will only speak to me on your conditions? Shame considering you don’t even know if I have actually read any of these books. Learn not to judge and take people for what they offer and you are assuming I belong or support these organizations. From what I saw on Dispatches I couldn’t see what it was trying to get at. If they are extremist organizations then the obvious link would have been to show at least one individual who have been directly influenced only by IFE/MCB and have gone on to commit an extremist act, or an act against the law of the country. How many if any did Dr Bari send off to blow themselves up?? But i’m sure in the department where he works and the community he works in many people have been inspired by him to go onto better their lives. I am one of those people. I heard him speak at a parents conference organized by the council and it helped to changed my life in the way I am raising my teenagers. Hopefully i won’t have to spend any public money in having to treat my children for drugs or alcohol abuse.
Give a little credit for the lives these people may be changing. Just out of interest are you involved in any such voluntary work where you are trying to get people of the streets and engaging them in civic society? If you do whats your agenda? And if you don’t then why not? Whose responsibility is it to guide the community?
My stance in life is you could be part of the solution or be the problem itself. Personally i prefer to be part of the solution. Before you point your finger at others reflect on what you have contributed.
It depends what you think the problem is. Can you explain how Mawdudi’s bloodthirsty ideology should be ‘contextualized’ in today’s times then?
You can read/ believe what you like as long as you don’t try to impose it on others.
Dan – for the umpteenth time. No one is saying or suggesting that Muslims should not be involved in politics. That is a deliberate attempt to confuse the issue. Islamist entryism, bullying and cronyism are the issues. Thousands of Muslims around the country are involved in politics without pushing a fascist agenda. Why don’t you follow their example instead of trying to recreate some sort of ‘Protocols of the elders of Zion’ Muslim version myth.
Zalloom you didn’t answer my question are you involved in any voluntary work to deal with life’s everyday problems of crime, drugs, alcohol abuse, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, underachievement, violence on the streets and schools etc…these are a fraction of the problems I see. If you have a better way of solving these problems than ‘these extremists’ then please share….
Umm Umar – being involed in a bit of community work does not mean that you are immune from criticism for promoting fascist ideology. The Nazi party in Germnay were also involved in some good youth and community work. The Israeli government is also involved in good community work, does that mean you are never going to attack them again?
Once again we notice that the IFE keyboard jihadi’s have no confidence in their ideology and no desire to defend it in public. Rather they prefer to divert the topic to ‘community work’ and ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘Muslim is politics’ – all of which are weak and silly lines of argument. Do you have any more?
Gilligan is quite prejudiced in hs approach and would be a better mouth piece for the BNP or EDL. Let’s look at the people behind his documentary:
http://iengage.org.uk/component/content/article/1-news/780-review-of-gilligans-islamic-republic-c4-documentary-about-the-ife
This progamme was politically-driven, with irresponsible politicians pandering to the Far Right. It was the work of the desperate work of Jim Fitzpatrick MP to hold on to his seat as an MP. Now Jim this was the final blow you blowed to your self and hopefuly will see the end of you as an MP.
Jim you are a sad, disgraceful, lying, racists politian who is going to loose, so what do you do to a community that supported you before and right now you dishonoured them by not understanding their culture then stab them on their back.
Gilligan is none other than agent of the Zionists and is against community cohesion, multicultures and against Muslim community raising up, organising them self for the betterment of them self and others at large.
More power to Jim Fitzpatrick MP!
Down with Jamaat-e-Islami fascist entryism into Tower Hamlets!!!!!!!!!
Bigland Boy your just a boy go home and cry to mummy. BTW is your name in any way reference to where you live i.e. bigland street?
@Rupert my boy I cant help but agree with you!
Shaykh Wiki, you’re just an IFE scumbag. khita khos, beh?
More power to Jim Fitzpatrick MP!
Down with Jamaat-e-Islami fascist entryism into Tower Hamlets!!!!!!!!!
@Abu Wannabe Arab – ‘The Nazi party in Germnay were also involved in some good youth and community work’
Please hilight to me what good work they did mr historian?
Also why the hell do you want to be an arab – trying to do a michael jackson eh!
Zalloom and the likes of you sound like a few couch potato do-gooders please share the amazing work you do to to keep people away from ‘extremism’…seriously i’m desperate to know
Define fascist mr wanabe, and then explain how IFE fits that definition…
Bigland Boy
More power to Jim, what power he will be kicked out by the voters of Canning Town & Poplar and I will personally work hard to make sure he does.
So as Shayky Wiki said go home to your ma’ma and cry your heart out!