Former envoy ridicules "Islamic Republic of Britain" documentary

Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray Tuesday ridiculed the broadcasting of a television documentary provocatively entitled the Islamic Republic of Britain.




“Channel 4 Dispatches used to be a haven of serious documentary, but has degenerated into a stream of Islamophobia,” Murray said, branding the programme as a “shock horror.”

“All in all, the most visible piece of half-baked Islamophobia I can recall,” he said on his website set up after he was sacked from his diplomatic post in 2004 for criticising the excesses of Britain’s foreign policy.

The documentary was fronted by British journalist Andrew Gilligan as a follow-up of his controversial article in the Sunday Telegraph that claimed that the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) had infiltrated the ruling Labour Party.

“These Muslims actually wanted society to be ordered in an Islamic way on Islamic principles. To try to achieve this they were - shock horror - undertaking political activity and joining political parties!” Murray wrote.

“Surely they have a right to their beliefs and ideology and a right to espouse it? Surely we should be delighted that these Muslims are seeking to advance their views through participation in the democratic process and not through violence?” he said.

The documentary was also criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which was also deliberated targetted in an attempt to cast aspersions on the umbrella organisation's diversity and its leadership.

MCB media secretary Tufael Ahmad said that the programme not only once again resurrected stereotypes but also used “out of context quotations” while echoing the rhetoric of far-right extremists, who claim that British Muslims are “somehow foreign, alien, extremist and imposing their way of life on the others."

The core of the documentary accuses the IFE and the East London Mosque, the largest in the UK, of fostering so-called 'Islamist' extremism and has an undue and pernicious influence over politics in the UK.

"Both claims are a gross and highly insulting misrepresentation of bodies that have done much to serve the common good. Both have a long and proud record of openly and actively spoken in favour of seeking common cause with all Britons,” Ahmad said.

"The message from this programme is clear, British Muslims have no right to take part in this country's great democratic culture,” he said in a statement obtained by IRNA.

On Monday, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) accused Britain’s Environment Minister Jim Fitzpatrick of joining the witch-hunt against Muslims.

The IFE has said that it was considering legal action against the grossly inaccurate reports, which, in a number of respects, were “libellous” and would not allow these “false slurs to go unchallenged.”

The organisation is not “radical” and had never advocated the implementation of Shariah law or an Islamic State in the UK, as has been claimed, it said.
Source: ABNA