The Centre For Social Cohesion

Islamispeace.org.uk's campaign appears to backed by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), a grass-roots organisation allegedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

According to this press release by the Muslim Council of Britain, the media contact for Islamispeace.org.uk is one Ihtisham Habitullah, also Media Director for the MAB.

When contacted by The Centre for Social Cohesion, Habitullah said that the MAB, Muslim Council of Britain and other organisations supported the Islamispeace.org.uk poster campaign but did not actively direct it.

While the MAB styles itself a voice of moderation and has condemned the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks in New York and London, some of its leading members have defended Islamic terrorism in Iraq, Chechnya and the West Bank.

For example: in August 2005 MAB founder Kamal Halbawy described terrorism by Iraqi, Chechnyan and Palestinian fighters as a legitimate tactic against overwhelmingly stronger foes, and said that suicide bombings were sometimes justified; in August 2006 leading MAB political thinker Azzam Tamimi went Halbawy one better, telling BBC News 24 that he would like to become a suicide bomber himself.

All this raises two main problems:

The first is simply that Islamispeace.org.uk's ties to the MAB discredit its efforts to speak in the name of peaceful Islam. That those and other ties are not mentioned on the islamispeace.org.uk website casts further doubt on the group.

Secondly, it illustrates how a few well-funded groups like the MAB, led by a few big personalities, enjoy a near-monopoly on "moderate" Muslim discourse in Britain - a position too often used to deflect any public discussion of Islam into a tired discussion of Islamophobia. (Ironically, perceived anti-Muslim prejudice arguably goes hand in hand with perceived victimhood - something groups like the MAB have worked hard to stoke up among British Muslims.)

We stand by our statement last week on this blog that it is more urgent to challenge extremist Islam, not Islamophobia.

Most UK Muslims are decent hardworking people for whom Islam provides a moral compass and spiritual nourishment that guide and sustain them in their struggle to find a place in British society. These silent masses are ill-served by the Halbawys and Tamimis of the world who profess to speak in their name.