Table of Contents Secretary General’s Address to the Annual General Meeting 4 Advocating Muslim Concerns 10 Projects Protecting All Our Children – Safeguarding and Tackling Grooming 17 Leadership Development Programme (LDP) 18 Institutional Capacity Building Initiative (ICBI) 18 The Muslim Pound – Celebrating British Muslim Contribution to UK Economy 18 Health and Fasting 19 Analysing the 2011 Census 20 Appendices (A) OBs, Advisors, National Council and other Committee members 23 (B) Press Releases 25 (C) MCB Affiliates 27 Report presented to the 17th Annual General Meeting on Sunday 15th June 2015 for approval. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Annual General Meeting of the General Assembly 2014 Secretary General’s Address Respected Chair, distinguished guests, sisters and brothers Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah. 1. Introduction By the Grace of Allah (swt), today the MCB concludes mechanisms to shape our agenda and organise our its 17th year of serving the community and working voice - all with the aim to empower the community to for the common good. I feel an immense sense of contribute towards achieving a cohesive, just and gratitude and honour to have served as its Secretary successful British society. General during the last four years. The establishment of the Muslim Council of Britain We are a community, not just isolated individuals. We was a remarkable achievement for the British Muslim must stand for our rights within a plural and community. Muslims from various traditions, culturally-diverse democracy; we must stand for the backgrounds and thoughts resolved to come together justice for all. This is not about tribalism, isolationism to provide a fair and positive representation, to or extremism – or victimhood. We do not seek achieve inter and intra-faith understanding, to separation or special privileges. We have made huge support and protect equal rights, to create progress in our pluralistic society of Great Britain, but we have made some mistakes too. We are still achievements, situation and issues. As I am learning. We are motivated by our unique completing my tenure, I would like to also take the appreciation that – even though we are a diverse opportunity to share my thoughts on the organisation, community – we are united by our bond of faith, and the priorities, the challenges and the opportunities. I together, desire to seek the common good. do so in the spirit of humility. Looking ahead, I feel confident that our community will learn, evolve, find The progress report for the year is detailed in the its rightful place and will contribute positively to the document you have been given this morning. In my peace and prosperity of our nation, InshaAllah. report to you, I hope to present an overview of the 2. Highlights and Issues: Overview of the Year The year began under the dark shadows of the Imam and the members went out to the protestors Woolwich attack and ended with the storms created and invited them in for tea and a game of football, by the “Trojan Horse”. In the middle, we had the and a volatile situation was diffused. celebration of the “Muslim Pound”, recognising the remarkable contribution the Muslim community Beyond condemnation and coming together in makes to British economy. This was marked to solidarity against forces of hatred remained the welcome the 9th World Islamic Economic Forum to question: how to tackle the scourge of extremism that London, as it was held for the first time outside the breeds violence and terrorism. Our Prime Minister Islamic world. This highlights the life for our launched a ministerial task force to address the community. problem. We agreed that an effective strategy was needed, but cautioned against policies which made The killers of Lee Rigby had attempted to divide us by our society less free, divided and suspicious of each an act of unjustifiable barbarity, but British Muslims in other. We also urged clear definitions and not large numbers stood up and unequivocally declared muddled discussion about what constitutes that this murder was not in our name. MCB took the extremism over, say, social conservatism, or lead and as always we condemned terrorism and disagreement of foreign policy. We emphasised the extremism in the strongest possible terms, and will need for evidence-based strategies and not continue to do so. This has been our consistent stance programmes which told mothers to be alarmed by the against terrorism. number of times their children suddenly started visiting the mosque. We strongly felt a In the wake of the disproportionate attention to a faith community and murder, there was its institutions, places of worship and charities would an alarming increase only exacerbate the problem. in attacks against mosques and In November, the task force launched the proposals, individuals. The Far with the Prime Minister saying: "there are just too Right rhetoric many people who have been radicalised in Islamic intensified. But we centres, who have been in contact with extremist also saw an preachers, who have accessed radicalising information unprecedented on the internet and haven't been sufficiently support against the challenged". And the proposals continued to view forces of extremism British Muslims through the prism of security, rather and hate - than as fully fledged members of British society. They Christians, Jews, peddled the discredited “conveyor-belt” theory of people from all extremism, justifying programmes to target ideologies faiths and none racing to aid and show solidarity to and those who followed a “distorted interpretation of Muslims when their mosques were burned and Islam”. The idea of the state or police arbitrating bombed. We witnessed the strength of our theological 'distortion' is especially worrying. We are multicultural society – the common values of a diverse Muslim community; it would be inadvisable compassion and humanity. This was exemplified by for the government to promote state-sponsored our affiliate, York Mosque. When far-right protestors sectarianism. The proposals provided a license to took to the streets outside the mosque, the young unleash a regime of suspicion and mistrust. through our in-depth research, leading to the Muslim Pound report. We are increasingly a community of two halves, perhaps a reflection of the society at large but just more acute. We need to address this gap at all levels, from influencing socio-economic policy to working at the grassroots level, supporting and developing community based projects. The civil society and third sector need to be focused. Last year at our Muslim Leadership Dinner I requested our major charities to commit at least 20% to community empowerment in the UK. We must pursue this change. The recession has hit young people extremely hard The lessons from Woolwich lay less in and ours is a particularly young community. Almost acknowledgement of the impending existential half of those graduating last year are still facing threats to our way of life, than in the demonstration difficulty to find jobs. Figures show that whilst there is of the resilience of our society. No amount of a rise of BME graduates, the job market remains investment in counter-terrorism alone will prevent tough for them. There is the issue of more of our another attack, but investment in the strengthening of young people going to lower ranking institutions the resilience and capacity of our communities across which also affect their employment prospects. The the whole of our society – through the promotion of government is failing to provide sufficient solutions - civic engagement, social cohesion, capacity building, the main reason being cuts. Now that the economy is through the strengthening of our democracy and recovering the question remains, whether it is having through democratic practice and social justice, will go a positive impact on those who are vulnerable, a long way towards making the values we all defend a including within the Muslim community? reality for all. Investing in the resilience and capacity of our communities is the surest guarantee that we The mood music for the rising of Islamophobia can stand up for who we are and what we believe in; continued throughout the year with a regular dose of that we can articulate our grievances without being negative headlines and stories. The usual ones, Hijab, accused of disloyalty and face up to those who seek to veil, Halal and grooming all did their rounds. Vile undermine our contribution to this society. We will crimes committed by some in Muslim countries and continue to seek partnerships with all on these lines the actions and views on the fringes of our community to fight all forms of extremism based on bigotry, have often found front page coverage. Perhaps the hatred and violence. most distasteful and reaching a new level in anti- Muslim bigotry was the Richard Littlejohn piece in the Away from the media and security narrative, our Daily Mail on the Legoland saga in February 2014. Research and Documentation Committee launched the Census Data Analysis Project to build the real The current “Trojan Horse” story of an alleged picture of the community. The full report will be extremist plot to take over schools in Birmingham and launched soon. I would like to share some key aspects possibly other towns is another milestone. Never have in this overview. The Muslim population has doubled we seen the entire government machinery, from a in the last decade to 2.8 million. Almost half are now national to local level, spring into action on the British by birth (47%) and just over half are under 19 pretext of an alleged letter which has no defined years of age (53%). And this is the most defining source or legitimacy. It has been used to open a feature: almost half (45%) live in just 10 of the most debate in the media and within the Cabinet on the deprived local authority districts.