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MCB ends boycott of holocaust memorial day |
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Written by Islamic Times
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the UK's largest Muslim body, has
voted to end its six-year boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, it has
emerged.
A working committee of the MCB voted 18 to eight to end
the protest, with those in favour of calling off the boycott claiming
it had allowed the MCB to be tagged anti-Semitic.
The MCB is an
umbrella organisation with over 500 members but could see its
representatives dwindle in light of this weekend's vote, with some
groups arguing Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is overly focused on Jewish
suffering.
In a statement released to the Guardian, the MCB
assistant general secretary Inayat Bunglawala explained: "We have
always sought a more inclusive title such as Genocide Memorial Day so
that it would also give recognition to more recent massacres such as in
Rwanda and that of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
"We wanted to uphold the principle of the equality of all human beings.
"However,
there was a growing recognition among our affiliates that
non-attendance of HMD was inadvertently causing hurt to some in the
Jewish community."
The statement added: "The MCB has always
placed a lot of emphasis on inter-faith work and building ties... so
this was becoming a problem."
MCB representatives will now attend the next HMD in Liverpool, on January 27th 2008.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 January 2008 )
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