Labour jumps back into bed with the MCB

Via Conservative Home, I read that, just one year after Ruth Kelly, in perhaps the one decent action of an otherwise worthless career, began taking steps towards sidelining the Muslim Council of Britain, her successor as communities secretary, the equally worthless Hazel Blears, has jumped right back into bed with the organisation. Apparently, a meeting between Blears and representatives of the MCB took place on August 8th, indicating that, with Blears replacing Kelly, the MCB is back in favour. That is, assuming that it was ever really out of favour; I would not be at all surprised to learn that the government only ever gave it the cold shoulder in order to maintain the pretence that it is "tough on extremism".

One aspect of the MCB's behaviour that has earned it particular criticism has been its decision to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day, on the rather spurious grounds that attention should be focused on a wider range of genocides than just the Holocaust. However, to my mind that is perhaps the least of the MCB's many flaws. A read through the archives of the sadly defunct MCB Watch blog should be sufficient to demonstrate why this organisation is utterly unfit to have any influence over the government. For example, this is an organisation which praised the leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, as a "renowned Islamic scholar", and which has also got kind words to say about the Caliphatist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. And, while Iqbal Sacranie, who once expressed the view that death was "too easy" a punishment for Salman Rushdie, no longer leads the MCB, Inayat Bunglawala remains firmly ensconced as the organisation's media secretary. Bunglawala, who believes the MSM to be "Zionist-controlled", and delights in listing those senior media figures who belong to what he charmingly terms "the Tribe of Judah", once praised Osama Bin Laden as a "freedom fighter", and has also been suspected of sending death threats to Charles Johnson, author of Little Green Footballs (when challenged over this, Bunglawala again blamed those pesky "Zionists").

These, then, are the people who, once again, have the ear of the government. People who peddle conspiracy theories and openly support terrorists. This, dear readers, is what dhimmitude feels like.