Boris Johnson made up a “serious false accusation” about the
Muslim Council of Britain when he alleged that it claimed jihadists as part of
“mainstream Islam”, the organisation has said.
The MCB says it never actually made comments attributed to
it by the Mayor of London and has written to the newspaper in which he made the
allegations.
Writing in his column, Mr Johnson accused the group of
“eliding anti-jihadism with Islamophobia” and attributed criticism of recent
comments he had made about Islam to a “spokeswoman” of the Muslim Council of
Britain.
But in a letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, seen by
The Independent, the council says it never made a published comment on the
story and accuses the Mayor of inventing the allegations.
“We have investigated this and cannot find any such remark
made to the Guardian,” the letter reads.
“So while he was ‘astounded to be denounced’ allegedly by
the MCB, we are equally astounded that such a serious false accusation can be
published without fully checking the facts.”
The website version of the Guardian story to which Mr
Johnson appears to be referring, dated 30 January 2014, does not mention the
Muslim Council of Britain.
It cites criticism from Quilliam, an organisation set up to
challenge extremism, which refers to Mr Johnson’s claims regarding jihadists
being sexually repressed as “ludicrous” and “a generalisation”.
The organisation Islamix, which promotes promotes community
cohesion, is also quoted. Its director Mohammed Khaliel, accused the mayor of sowing
“discord”.
Writing in his regular Daily Telegraph column, published
this morning, the Mayor of London said he was “astonished” to be attacked by
the MCB.
“I was astounded to be denounced, on the front page of the
Guardian, by the Muslim Council of Britain,” he wrote.
“A spokeswoman said that I was somehow attacking Muslims as
a whole. Why on earth would she say that? Why is the MCB effectively claiming
these porn freak jihadists for mainstream Islam?”
The complaint referred to an interview Mr Johnson had given
to The Sun newspaper in which he had described jihadis as “literally wankers”,
arguing “They are not making it with girls, and so they turn to other forms of
spiritual comfort — which of course is no comfort.”
At the time, he also told the newspaper: “I often hear
voices from the Muslim intelligentsia who are very quick to accuse people of
Islamaphobia.
“But they are not explaining how it can be that this one
religion seems to be leading people astray in so many cases. They are not being
persuasive in the right way with these people.”
His comments were criticised in the Guardian by the
anti-extremism group Quilliam and the community cohesion organisation Islamix.
The Muslim Council of Britain is not quoted.
The source at the Muslim Council of Britain said they were
not sure why Mr Johnson had attributed the comments to them.
“The only comment we made at the time was ‘We have not got
sight of the MI5 report cited by Boris Johnson, so we cannot comment on his
interpretation of its contents,’” the MCB’s letter to the Daily Telegraph read.
The Mayor’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for
comment.
Credit to The Independent UK
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