The Muslim Council of Britain – a pressure group that is a joint venture between Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood – sent a message of congratulations to President Elect Obama:
“I take this opportunity to congratulate you and your fellow citizens in crossing this historic threshold. The election of Senator Obama to be your country’s 44th President has been hugely symbolic and will no doubt be a cornerstone of inspiration for people well beyond the shores of the USA.”
The MCB nearly had its own “hugely symbolic” moment, a few years back when the Grenadan-born Dr. Daud Abdullah was in line to become its first black Secretary General.
Unfortunately, so my informant tells me, pressure was put on Mr Abdullah to step down from the leadership election, in favour of the Bangladeshi-born Dr Abdul Bari.
I do not know whether it was Dr. Daud Abdullah’s African heritage that counted against him in the MCB. It might just as easily have been the fact that Dr Abdul Bari had served as President of Islamic Forum Europe, a front for the clerical fascist Jamaat-e-Islami.
