Whats hard to understand is why almost every time a British national newspaper (especially The Independent and The Guardian) publishes an article about some Muslim-related issue (say the Islamisation of schools or way back the Danish cartoons) it either quotes the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) or formerly interviews one of its spokesmen.This happened just a couple of days ago on the issue of why so many British Muslims have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS and other jihadist groups. It also happened even more recently in the case of the Governments comments about Muslims being taught about British values" in schools.
Now is this a consequence of journalistic laziness or is it that some journalists are actually ideologically/politically sympathetic to the MCB?
All this is also very strange if you consider the MCBs well-documented and extensive extremism; as well as its ambivalent relationship to both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party.
For example in 2009 Hazel Blear (then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) published an open letter saying that her government should have no further dealings with the MCB. However the Labour Party restored its links to the MCB in January 2010. That was no surprise because for over ten years the Labour Party seems to have had a thing about using Britains Islamic extremists to fight well Britains Islamic extremists. And the MCB is perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomenon.
When it comes to the Conservative Party: in 2007 David Cameron himself condemned the hardline members" of the MCB and claimed that it was so often listened to simply because it had the loudest voice". It therefore has the canny ability of crowding out more moderate voices".
Consequently the Conservative Party decided to cut all links with the MCB in 2010.
So its not so much that the MCB makes the most noise in Muslim communities. Its more that the MCB (just like CAIR in the US) shouts the loudest" at governments British journalists the BBC local councils etc. And obediently they all take the MCB to be the community leader it claims to be. Indeed even the Wiki article on the MCB uses the word self-appointed" to describe the MCBs role as an umbrella body for 500 mosques of which there are over 1600 schools and associations in Britain". (That ambivalent statement means that this number 500 - actually includes schools and associations; not only mosques.)
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Cleggs Letter to the MCB
Despite all the above Nick Clegg has just sent an open letter to the MCB voicing his concerns about the Governments suggestions that Muslims be taught British values" in our schools. Nick Clegg received an immoderate reply to his question. The MCB said that teaching such values will alienate (moderate?) Muslims.
Didnt they teach Nick Clegg anything at Westminster public school and Cambridge University? Didnt they teach him that extremists arent the best people to consult about the nature of moderation?
I mentioned the Islamic jihadist group ISIS earlier. Here again the MCB has recently displayed its ambivalent (to say the least) attitude towards Islamic extremism and Islamic terrorism.
This time it was The Independent which felt a pressing need to seek out the MCBs view on why so many British Muslims are travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight with ISIS.
As youd expect the MCB has criticised ISIS and said that British Muslims shouldnt be going over there to kill Shia Muslims and other infidels. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is obliged to say these things. It has to make such duplicitous and vague statements simply because they know that gullible non-Muslim journalists will ask them questions about ISIS and Islamic terrorism generally.
To state the obvious. The MCB - or Salma Yaqoob etc. - simply cant explicitly say:
Yes we wholeheartedly support jihad and terrorism against all oppressors of Muslims."
Clearly if it did so its role as the Official Organisation of All British Muslims would be destroyed overnight. Similarly with Salma Yaqoob and other such media-Muslims. An outright endorsement of terrorism or jihad would result in immediate professional suicide. Its as simple as that.
Better to obfuscate instead.
MCB obfuscation often works like this:
We are against terrorism... but...."
Which is just like:
Im not a racist... but...."
And then comes a long list of rationalisations justifications and explications as to why Islamic terrorists are doing what theyre doing. In this latest case almost before the MCB spokesman had got his very short and vague criticism of ISIS out of his mouth he began to rant about Britain supporting dictators and despots throughout the Muslim world. (Thats funny really because the intervention in Iraq in 2003 got rid of a Muslim despot" - Saddam Hussein and guess what: the MCB was very vocally against it.)
Three Islamophile Clichs From Nick Clegg
One: Fighting Islamic Extremism Causes Islamic Extremism
Mr Clegg hit upon the clich which has it that taking action against Islamic extremism actually causes Islamic extremism.
The problem with that - usually Muslim or Leftist - soundbite is that a lack of action against Islamic extremism evidently causes or allows - Islamic extremism. That is Salma Yaqoobs much desired complete inaction will certainly allow Islamic extremism to grow in the UK. How do I know that? I know that because previous inaction has allowed Islamic extremists to thrive. (As in the Islamisation of schools case.)
This seems to mean many Muslim community leaders the MCB Salma Yaqoob etc. are happy with the rise of Islamic extremism quite simply because they dont really see it as extremism in the first place. For example theyve all denied that there is any problem whatsoever with the Islamisation of British schools. And before that these very same people said exactly the same things when it came to Muslim grooming gangs and Islamic terrorism in the UK.
Thus this action-against-Islamic-extremism-causes-Islamic-extremism mantra is an endorsement of such extremism for three reasons.
i) Those who say such a thing dont want anything to be done about such Islamic extremism.
ii) Many Muslims dont even take most - or any - examples of Islamic extremism to be extremism in the first place.
iii) Islamic extremism can then be blamed - yes you guessed it - on non-Muslims.
Two: All Muslims are potential terrorists."
Mr Clegg also came out with another clich when he said that Mr Goves hardline approach" could be seen as endorsing the view that all Muslims are potential terrorists".
Let me just put that old chestnut to sleep.
No one has ever said that every Muslim is a terrorist. (No one needs to.) And not many people have even said that every Muslim is a potential terrorist".
All political and religious movements - even the good ones - are led by small numbers of people (i.e. the activists). Thats just the way it goes. So it is irrelevant that the Muslims on EastEnders are nice; or that Mr X knows a nice Muslim who supports the English football team; or Mrs Y knows a Muslim who likes to have a laugh. None on that matters. There are at least 300 million Muslims - probably many more - who want to destroy the West. It doesnt matter one iota if not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Russians were Bolsheviks in 1917. Not all Germans were Nazis in 1933. Nonetheless these people gained control of their countries and we know what happened next.
Thus in order for Islam to be a threat not every Muslim needs to be a terrorist or even to be a potential terrorist".
Three: Being a Muslim Doesnt Contradict Being British
Nick Cleggs third clich is not so much a clich as such: its just plain wrong. In his letter to the MCB Nick Clegg says:
Being Muslim does not contradict being British nor is it in tension with it. A person can uphold their religious and cultural identity as well as British identity."
Being a Muslim does contradict being British; or at least what a Muslim must as a Muslim believe contradicts many British values and traditions.
Nonetheless lets rephrase that statement:
Being a tribal or nominal Muslim doesnt contradict being British.
True. In other words such Muslims are only Muslim in name. Either that or they are only Muslim in the tribal sense of being a Muslim for simple family or ethnic reasons.
Now genuine Muslims - by definition! - must desire to live according to sharia law and the dictates of Islam. Not it just so happens to be the case that sharia law - in very many and various ways - does contradict many British values and traditions. Not that is just a mind-blowingly obvious fact that only a cretin a taqiyya-merchant or a Leftist would deny.
The fact that Nick Clegg seems to be denying all this is staggering.
One further blatantly-obvious point should be stated here:
If Islam were not at odds with secular Christian and all non-Islamic cultures/ societies it would render itself (as it were) unIslamic.
Being against what is secular Christian and non-Islamic is the very essence of Islam. Muhammed himself based his entire theology on trumping what had gone before him in polytheistic Arabia; as well as in Judaism and Christianity. Without that endless Islamic oneupmanship towards all that is non-Islamic Islam would cease to have a point.
Conclusion
The worst of all Cleggs Islamophile stupidities is the (almost?) self-contradictory view that moderate Muslims will be alienated by the promotion of British values. Now being alienated by the promotion of British values seems to me to be... well immoderate.
Thus you can only conclude as ever that Muslim moderation is often counterfeit moderation. And thats certainly the case when it comes to the Muslim Council of Britain.