Source: Daily Times

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-8-2005_pg4_4

On August 23, 2005 Agence France-Presse reported, "The most respected voice of Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims is under fire for pandering to radicalism, just as it is being called upon to play a bridge-building role in the wake of the London bombings. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is a coalition of some 400 organisations, making it a privileged dialogue partner for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government after the July 7 attacks in the capital. But a BBC documentary last weekend, and an earlier front page report in the Observer newspaper, have pointed an accusing finger at the council for harbouring militants and sympathising with Palestinian suicide bombers. The BBC programme recalled the presence of MCB secretary general Iqbal Sacranie at a memorial service last year in London for Sheikh Yassin, the spiritual leader of the radical Palestinian group Hamas. It also made an issue of the fact that Sacranie failed to attend a ceremony, also in London, last January to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Jews from the Auschwitz concentration camp."