MCB Formally Responds to Tory Party’s ‘Uniting the Country’ Report

T H E M U S L I M C O U N C I L O F B R I T A I N



3 May 2007


Press Release



MCB Formally Responds to Tory Party’s ‘Uniting the Country’ Report



The Muslim Council of Britain has today written to the Conservative Party leader, Rt. Hon. David Cameron, to send him their formal response to the ‘Uniting the Country’ interim report published by the Tory party’s Group on National and International Security.



“The MCB document is a necessarily robust response to the accusations levelled at leading Muslim organisations in the Tory report. Regrettably, the Uniting the Country interim report does very little to help unify this nation but plenty to try and further divide and fragment British society. It is a poorly researched exposition by authors more intent on serving cynical ideological goals. The Conservative Party can choose to listen to those sane voices within the Party who base their arguments on years of dialogue and experience derived from actually speaking with Muslim communities and a range of Muslim organisations across the country. Or, it can listen to a doctrinaire, agenda-driven faction. We urge the former,” said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.



In keeping with the ethos of the MCB, this response does not reject the Report outright. In an otherwise poorly researched and poorly argued exposition, there are extremely rare morsels of wisdom from which we can all learn. These include the question of integration and the empowering of women. But this Report significantly undermines the exploration of these subjects. For this to be successfully championed, the Conservative Party would need to commission a different report with a newly assembled policy group. The MCB stands ready to help in this endeavour.



[ENDS]

Notes to Editors:

The full MCB response to the Conservative Party’s Group on National and International Security can be downloaded at: http://www.mcb.org.uk/uploads/Interim%20Report%20on%20National%20Cohesion-%20MCB%20RESPONSE.pdf



The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK's largest Muslim umbrella body with around 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools.


Media enquiries should be addressed to the MCB Media Office on 0845 26 26 786 or 07956 353 738. Email: media@mcb.org.uk.



Non-media enquiries should be addressed to the MCB Office at The Muslim Council of Britain, PO Box 57330, London E1 2WJ. Tel: 0845 26 26 786 Fax: 0207 247 7079



This press release and other MCB publications and information are available on the MCB website at www.mcb.org.uk.