The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has announced that its Secretary-General has represented the Council at the Twelfth Islamic Summit Conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Cairo on 6th and 7th February 2013. According to the announcement:
Farooq Murad, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain has returned to the UK after representing the Council at the Twelfth Islamic Summit Conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Cairo on 6th and 7th February 2013. The theme of this year’s Summit was ‘The Muslim World: New Challenges & Expanding Opportunity’. On his return Mr. Murad said, ‘It was an honour to be invited to attend this very important world summit alongside the heads of the state delegation of 57 Islamic Countries. It provided me, as well as Baroness Warsi, the only other participant from the UK, a unique opportunity to showcase the positive image of our country and our community to leaders of the Muslim world.’ Besides discussing the most pertinent issues of conflicts and injustices, the summit recognised combating Islamophobia and extremism as major challenges requiring concerted and collective action.
The MCB is a U.K. umbrella group that has been dominated by the Pakistani-based Islamist group known as the Jaamat-I-Islami that is closely tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and the MCB usually acts in concert with the Global Brotherhood. An earlier post discussed the 2010 election of Farooq Murad as the new Secretary-General of the organization. In addition to his role at the MCB, Mr. Murad is a current trustee and former chairman of Muslim Aid, a UK charity originally founded by Yusuf Islam (fka Cat Stevens) and identified in a NEFA Foundation report as a member of the Union of Good, described in the NEFA report as follows:
The Union of Good is a coalition of Islamic charities that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. It is headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, and most of the trustees and member organizations are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood. The Union of Good was banned by Israel in 2002 and was recently designated a terrorist entity by the United States, although neither Youssef Qaradawi nor any of the Trustees were similarly designated. Despite the fact that action has been taken against some of its member organizations in Europe, many of its other European member organizations continue to operate. Further, the Union of Good itself does not appear to be under investigation in Europe.
According to another NEFA report on the UK Union of Good members, a number of the organizations to which Muslim Aid made allocations have been identified by Israel and/or the U.S. as Hamas institutions:
- Al-Razi Hospital
- Muslim Youth Society Hebron
- Al-Salah
- The Islamic Charitable Society Hebron
The NEFA report also cites an Israeli government document that identifies Muslim Aid as an institution that funds Hamas. In September 2008, Muslim Aid was one of the five U.K. UG charities banned by Israel in connection with their ties to Hamas.
It should also be noted that as late as 2008, the original Union of Good website identified former MCB chairman Iqbal Sacranie as a Trustee.