Islamophobia Watch

PinkNews.co.uk has been told of a five year plan to combat homophobia in the British Muslim community. Mohammed Aziz, policy advisor to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told PinkNews.co.uk that significant progress is expected following internal discussions after a productive All Party Parliamentary Group meeting earlier this year, which included the Muslim organisation and gay charity Stonewall.

Mr Aziz revealed plans to look at homophobia in the Muslim community and Islamophobia in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in reaction to controversial comments by MCB leader Sir Iqbal Sacranie on homosexuality. It is hoped that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will help conduct the project, a DTI spokesman confirmed discussions have taken place.

This marks a shift from previous years where there has been little dialogue between the MCB and gay groups, Mr Aziz said: "We have brought about a lot of change from five years ago when the MCB were behind issues such as section 28, and against gay adoption. The first part of the strategy was to tell MCB if you have nothing positive to say keep your mouth shut, most of the negative statements now date back to 1999."

The MCB worked with gay groups such as the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism at last month's Unite Against Fascism Conference. Secretary, Inayat Bunglawala said at the time, "British Muslims welcome working with everyone including members of the Lesbian and Gay community against a common enemy, fascism".

Pink News, 10 April 2006

Outrage are not happy.