Iqbal Sacranie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Sir Iqbal Sacranie (born 1952) served as General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) until June 2006. He was awarded a knighthood in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for "services to the Muslim community, to charities and to community relations." [1]
Contents |
[edit] Muslim Council of Britain
Sacranie was General Secretary of the MCB during the September 11th attacks on New York and the beginning of the War on Terror. It was widely known at this time for presenting Muslim concerns about foreign and domestic policy, in particular about anti-terror laws.
Sacranie has at times been a controversial figure. In 1989 he spoke of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, a novel considered by many Muslims to be blasphemous against the Prophet Mohammed: "Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him... his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah." [2] In a television interview Sacranie described suicide bombers inspired by the Palestinian armed group Hamas as 'freedom fighters', comparing them to Mahatma Gandhi and the anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, making a distinction from terrorism, which he condemns. [3][4] On Holocaust Memorial Day in 2005, a commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the genocide of Jews and other minorities in the Second World War, the MCB decided to maintain its boycott of the event on that grounds that it fails to mention non-Jewish victims of other genocides. [5] The MCB also supported the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, when the Jewish community launched a public enquiry after the Mayor embraced a radical Muslim preacher from Egypt, al-Qaradawi whose websites had comments seeking the killing of Jews and homosexuals. The MCB also lobbied against the proscription and banning of another extreme organisation, the Hizb-ul-Tahrir, even though the organisation had been named in a report from the Department for Education as a platform promoting increasing radicalisation of Muslim youth in university campuses. The mushrooming of many other Muslim umbrella organisations in recent times including the British Muslim Forum and the Sufi Council of Britain has provided the British Government with alternate platforms for engaging in dialogue with the Muslim community and the importance of the MCB has been diffused.
[edit] Comments on homosexuality
On January 3, 2006, Sacranie told BBC Radio 4's PM programme he believes homosexuality is "not acceptable", and denounced same-sex civil partnerships as "harmful". He said that bringing in 'gay marriage' did "not augur well" for building the foundations of society. [6][7][8] In response, Peter Tatchell of gay rights group OutRage! said: "It is tragic for one minority to attack another minority."
On January 11, 2006, the Metropolitan Police Service said that they were examining Sacranie's comments to see if they constituted an offence under the Public Order Act, following a complaint from a member of the public, prompting discussion about freedom of speech and the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the British media. [9] On January 23, a Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that no further action would be taken, following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service. [10]
