August 22, 2005
Britain's most powerful Islamic body was "in denial" about the prevalence of extreme views among its members, one of its founders has told the BBC. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) pledged to tackle extremism "head on" after the 7 July attacks in London. But on BBC television, Mehbood Kantharia and other prominent British Muslims question the MCB's commitment to meeting this challenge. The MCB has branded the program "deeply unfair" and a "witch-hunt". The MCB, an umbrella organization of about 400 mosques and other Islamic groups, is seen as representing mainstream Muslim opinion in the UK. An investigation by "Panorama" found groups affiliated to the MCB promoting anti-Semitic views, the belief that Islam was a superior ideology to secular British values and the view that Christians and Jews were conspiring to undermine Islam. In an interview, the MCB's secretary general refused to disown a group known as Al-e-Hadith, which says the ways of Christians and Jews "are based on sick or deviant views" and that "imitating the (non-Muslims) leads to a permanent abode in hellfire".