The Muslim News - Jewish leader’s scathing attack on Muslim leadership during interfaith launch

Issue 196, Friday 26 August 2005 - 21 Rajab 1426

Jewish leader’s scathing attack on Muslim leadership during interfaith launch

By Abdul Adil

President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Henry Grunwald, lashed out at the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Iqbal Sacranie, for not participating in the annual Holocaust Memorial Day. The comments by the Jewish leader was not new but the impact was more devastating as it was made during a launch of a report on building community cohesion between British Jews and British Muslims. The report was launched by Alif-Aleph on July 5, in central London.
Sacranie spoke on how the Muslim community has been working closely with the Jewish community on issues of common concern, like the right to slaughter animals in Islamic and Jewish methods, outlawing of religious discrimination and incitement to religious hatred, inclusion of question on religion in the Census and recognition of faith. However, Sacranie said there were other issues, which had to be tackled, such as the issue of the conflict of Israel and Palestine but “we have to discuss this in an open and transparent way the issue of justice.”
Grunwald, while echoing the issues of common concerns enumerated by Sacranie, criticised the MCB for not participating in the annual Holocaust Memorial Day and bluntly told Sacranie listen to Jewish concerns. “There remain areas where I ask that the MCB in particular does a lot more listening especially over Holocaust Memorial Day,” said Grunwald. Even though he insisted he did not “want to introduce a negative element into what is an extremely positive evening,” he nevertheless warned that it was “vital for good relations between the leadership of our communities that we face up to the challenges of understanding each other’s sensitivities” and that the MCB must recognise the “sensitivity and enormity of Shoah of the Holocaust” and told Sacranie to ensure that the MCB “does not cut itself off” from attending the Memorial Day. Grunwald rejected the Muslim community’s argument of including the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the Israelis. He said there was “no equivalence between the unprecedented institutionalised mechanised mass murder of millions of men, women and children in an attempt to wipe out an entire people, and the political tragedy of the Israel/Palestinian dispute.”
Sacranie told The Muslim News that the refusal of the MCB not attending the Memorial Day was not due to insensitivity or not recognising the tragedy “but of consistency and ensuring all atrocities are recognised. We condemn the Nazi Holocaust and sympathise with the families of the Holocaust victims.” However, the Memorial Day, argued Sacranie, “totally excludes and ignores the ongoing genocide and violation of Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere.”

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