One small sign of the approaching election is a renewed courting of the Muslim vote. Unfortunately, this seems to mean sucking up to the Muslim Council of Britain, even though that body’s ability to represent the real range of Muslim opinion is hotly contested (see Stephen Pollard, p20). Last year, the government suspended its dealings with the MCB after Daoud Abdullah, the MCB’s deputy general secretary, signed the Istanbul Declaration, which threatens those who impede the violent work of Hamas against Israel. At the time, our government said that the Istanbul Declaration ‘does call for attacks on foreign warships, potentially including the Royal Navy, and also advocates violence against Jewish people and their supporters around the world’. It refused to engage with the MCB so long as Mr Abdullah’s signature on the declaration stood. Last week, however, the government decided to ‘re-engage’ with the MCB. The MCB has made some encouraging new noises about condemning attacks on British troops, but Mr Abdullah has not removed his signature from the declaration, so it is the government that has backed down.
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