The Muslim Council Of Britain And The Fall Of Inayat Bunglawala
By Dominic Whiteman
October 16, 2006 - London, England - PipeLineNews.org - In 2002 the forever victimized Inayat Bungawala claimed in Britain's Sunday Observer newspaper "British Muslims have learned to develop a thick skin to get on in this country. In the late eighties and early nineties they were vilified by the liberal press for their unyielding opposition to Salman Rushdie's deeply offensive novel, The Satanic Verses. Their tormentors today hail from the combined ranks of the far right, government officials who should know better and assorted pro-Israeli columnists."
The sort of man who looks like he could be all too easily bullied (even now as an adult) in any British school playground - Inayat Bunglawala is competent at using the victim soundbite, even when he's blatantly one of the aggressors. Bungawala is officially the media spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).
The Muslim Council of Britain is an Islamist political group claiming to represent Britain's Muslim population (in spite of the fact that over eighty percent of the British Muslim community is Sufi, sees the MCB's stance as non-representative, and steadfastly refuses to mix religion with politics). The MCB was set up (as recently as 1997) to promote co-operation, consensus and unity on Muslim affairs in the UK, to encourage and strengthen all existing efforts being made for the benefit of the Muslim community, to work for a more enlightened appreciation of Islam and Muslims in the wider society (therein lies the first giveaway), to establish a position for the Muslim community within British society that is fair and based on due rights and to work for the eradication of disadvantages and forms of discrimination faced by Muslims (therein lies the second giveaway). Also to foster better community relations and work for the good of society as a whole (and therein lies the irony). However, the Muslim Council of Britain has increasingly been seen as the Al Mujahiroun in suits - working with the British system rather than violently and in its face - to establish the British Islamist Supremacist Caliphate, where non-believers are inferiors.
In late 2005, shortly after 7/7, Inayat Bungawala was controversially (absurdly) selected as one of seven "conveners" for a British Government Home Office task force with responsibilities for tackling extremism among young Muslims.
The British government - having previously funded the Muslim Council of Britain to the tune of £150,000 - was soon disgusted by the findings of the conveners, who blamed the Iraq war and Western atrocities against Muslims for the London bombings, in spite of 911 preceding either the Afghan or Iraq war and in spite of the fact that most atrocities carried out against Muslims have clearly been carried out by Muslims themselves.
Bungawala obscenely implied that Islam had nothing to do with the London bombings and agreed with the London bomber Mohammed Siddique Khan's video will and testament that the bombings were a result of UK foreign policy. At the time he told BBC News "Holding all British people responsible for the Iraq war is just plain wrong - this country was bitterly divided and many millions, perhaps the majority, clearly opposed the war. This tape (Khan's will and testament) does serve to confirm that the war in Iraq and our policies in the Middle East have indeed led to a radicalization amongst a section of Muslim youth."
This is the same Inayat Bungawala who condemned Al Muhajiroun's 2003 celebration of the 9/11 attacks not because he disagreed with their goals or ideology. His only concern was that "they could spark anti-Muslim violence."
Mr. Bunglawala's past comments include the allegation that the British media was "Zionist-controlled". Writing for a Muslim youth magazine in 1992, he said: "The chairman of Carlton Communications is Michael Green of the Tribe of Judah. He has joined an elite club whose members include fellow Jews Michael Grade [then the chief executive of Channel 4 and now BBC chairman] and Alan Yentob [BBC2 controller and friend of Salman Rushdie]." The three are reported to be "close friends… so that's what they mean by a 'free media'."
In January 1993, Mr. Bunglawala wrote a letter to Private Eye, the London-based satirical magazine, in which he called the blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman "courageous" - just a month before he bombed the World Trade Center in New York. After Rahman's arrest in July that year, Mr. Bunglawala said that it was probably only because of his "calling on Muslims to fulfill their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere".
Five months before 9/11, Mr. Bunglawala also circulated writings of Osama bin Laden, who he regarded as a "freedom fighter", to hundreds of Muslims in Britain.
The MCB appointing him as their media spokesperson reveals a great deal about the MCB, yet the British government did not spot the warning signs.
The Muslim Council of Britain was one of several organizations invited to a meeting held by Tony Blair after the London bombings. The Prime Minister said afterwards that he would set up a task force to tackle extremism "head on", and that was when Bunglawala was appointed.
Mr. Bunglawala's job at the Home Office was to help organize a program to tackle radicalism and extremism among young Muslims. In light of his past, his appointment now seems more than ironic - the word more appropriate might be disgraceful.
In last Friday's Times newspaper, it was reported that "The British Government withdrew its support from Britain's largest Muslim organization yesterday after accusing it of failing to lead the fight against religious extremism. Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, attacked the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) for boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day, criticizing police anti-terrorist operations and "sitting on the sidelines" in the campaign against extremists. Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the MCB, was invited to hear Ms Kelly's speech, which was delivered to a Muslim audience, but refused to attend. Ms Kelly said that she was embarking on "a fundamental rebalancing" of the Government's relationship with Muslim organizations. Until now ministers have viewed the MCB, which represents 400 organizations and hundreds of mosques around the country, as the most important voice among Britain's two million Muslims."
But Ms Kelly said that in future she would engage with and give funding to organizations that represented young Muslims and Muslim women and which were taking a "proactive leadership role in tackling extremism and defending our shared values".
It seems the Government - which knighted the recently retired secretary general of the Muslim Council, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, in spite of him comparing suicide bombers to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, calling Hamas "freedom fighters" and in the past describing Hamas' late Sheik Yassin and Al Qaeda's Osama Bin Laden as "Islamic scholars" - has at long last seen through the Muslim Council's Caliphate aims. Even to go so far as to swap embracing it as an organization and to embrace instead the far more representative (very recently formed) Sufi Muslim Council.
Mr. Bunglawala once retracted his pre 911 past with the following words: "Those comments were made some 12 or 13 years ago. All of us may hold opinions which are objectionable, but they change over time. I certainly would not defend those comments today."
Whereas few Britons cared to bother looking at fringe groups like the Muslim Council of Britain pre 911, when they started examining it, Bunglawala and other spokespeople suddenly had to be careful what they said. Bunglawala one year ago - getting invited to work with the government in such a high profile role - must have thought he'd got away with hiding his own extremist, anti Semitic position. He'd gained the in-road the Islamists prepared to work the system so wanted. This week the bubble finally burst on him and the (incorrectly named) Muslim Council of Britain.
The week just got worse for Bungawala, thanks to the VIGIL anti terror network, of which I am the proud spokesperson (Bungawala, I'm not one of your traditional "tormentors today who hail from the combined ranks of the far right, government officials who should know better and assorted pro-Israeli columnists" but a simple, patriotic Brit). For who should pop out of the woodwork last Sunday but his old friend Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who, whilst addressing British based followers of the banned Al Mujahiroun group on a public forum from Beirut, was recorded by VIGIL responding to a question about whether he met the 7/7 bombers and out slipped the following answer (transcribed):
"You see the question is…as…I was living in Britain for long time and I came across many people. Believe me. Inayat Bungawala at that time he used to be…used to come to Turnpike Lane mosque and he used to sit in my circle and I remember even some of them became doctor today used to come to Turnpike Lane…In that 2 generations of the Muslim youth one of those who still represent under the umbrella of Hizb ut Tahrir, may allah guide them, but those who are still under the umbrella of the Muslims and supporters for the cause of khilafah or those who are still under the umbrella of Mujahiroun or Wahhabah or Followers of Ahl Sunna Wahl Jamaah.".
Now, it all becomes clear why Inayat Bungawala, speaking for the Muslim Council of Britain, was so averse to banning Al Mujahiroun and Hizb ut Tahrir - how were his old friends and co-conspirators, like Al Qaeda-loving, Caliphate-seeking Bakri going to be able to continue ranting if they could no longer meet? The picture is finally all so clear. The dots have been joined on Inayat Bunglawala and the iniquitous MCB.
Dominic Whiteman is spokesperson for the international anti-terrorist organization VIGIL. VIGIL is headquartered in London and is comprised of anti-terror experts, ranging from retired intelligence and military officers to linguistic and banking experts.
©2006 Dominic Whiteman, all rights reserved.
