The British government severed all ties with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the country's largest Muslim organization, for not dismissing a senior official who backed a declaration of support for the resistace during Israel's recent offensive on Gaza.
"We are… aware that a senior member of the MCB may have been a signatory to this statement," a spokeswoman for the department of Communities and Local Government told the Independent on Sunday, March 22.
A leaked letter to the paper shows that Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears wrote to the MCB to declare all ties cut with the group for not dissmising Dr. Daud Abdullah, the MCB deputy director-general.
The letter says that Abdullah's name appears as a signatory to the Gaza Declaration in Istanbul which was signed during the israeli 22-day assualt on the besieged territory which ended last January after killing and injuring more than 5000 palestinains.
The declaration, signed by 90 Muslim leaders from around the world, issued a series of obligations to the "Islamic Nation", calling on it to "carry on with the jihad and resistance against the occupier until the liberation of all Palestine".
A certain obligation urges Muslim countries reject and fight foreign warship sclaiming to control the borders and prevent the smuggling of arms to Gaza.
In January, prime minister Gordon Brown offered Royal Navy resources to help stop weapons being smuggled into the territory.
"We are concerned that the statement calls for direct support for acts of violence in the Middle East and beyond," the department spokeswoman added.
"If it is proven that the individual concerned had been a signatory, we would expect the MCB to ask him to resign and to confirm its opposition to acts of violent extremism."
The MCB, a coalition of some 400 organizations, is the largest Muslim umbrella group in Britain, home to some 2.0 million Muslims.
Dr. Abdullah, one of the UK's most influential Muslim leaders, has helped counter extremism in the country's mosques, as a member of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, a body endorsed by the government to train imams.
In January, he briefed Blears and home secretary Jacqui Smith on the situation in Gaza and its likely impact on social cohesion in the UK.
Condescendtion
The MCB was swift in condemning the government's move as condescendtion.
"The MCB is appalled by the high handed and condescending action of the Secretary of State, Hazel Blears," the group said in a statemnt on its website.
The Muslim unbrella affirmed that it no way supports the targeting or killing of British soldiers anywhere in the world.
"This is the agreed position of all MCB Office Bearers without exception including the MCB's Central Working Committee."
But the muslim organization is also "committed to faithfully representing the views of all our affiliates," said the MCB.
"As such we reaffirm the right under international law of the Palestinian people to resist the ongoing illegal and brutal occupation of their land.
The group noted that an official resopnse to Blear's letter will be sent shortly, to underscore that the MCB will not tolerate being dictated to by the government.
"We will make clear to the Government that as far as the MCB is concerned we utterly condemn the targeting or killing of soldiers anywhere in the world," an MCB spokesman told the Independent.
"But the MCB will not be dictated to by Hazel Blears.
"We do not take orders from Ms Blears. She is mistaken if she thinks the MCB will dismiss people at her say-so."
