By Inayat Bunglawala
Two years ago, in their widely acclaimed book, “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy,” Professors Mearsheimer and Walt discussed in meticulous detail how the Israel lobby had so remarkably managed to influence US foreign policy over a period of decades often at the cost of seriously harming the national interests of the US itself.
BOD’s Proposal to Parliamentary Inquiry
But how influential is the pro-Israel lobby in the UK? The question has acquired added importance in recent days because of news that the most established Jewish body in the UK, the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), last week sent a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on the government’s “Preventing Violent Extremism” program setting some very controversial conditions on whether the government should engage with prominent Muslim groups including the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The BoD was reported in the Jewish Chronicle to have said in their submission:
Any future engagement with umbrella groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain must be contingent on them representing a greater range of views than those of the Islamists, and firmly rejecting violence in all circumstances, including in overseas conflicts… The issue is confronting an extremist and alien political ideology which promotes the supremacy of Islam over other faiths and democratic political systems, a core belief in anti-Semitism and the use of violence to achieve its ends.
Analysis of BoD’s Remarks
The BoD's position is highly objectionable on several major grounds.
Firstly, the BoD's demand that engagement be based on greater internal pluralism in the MCB is amusing, especially when you consider that the MCB is undoubtedly the UK's largest and broadest based Muslim organization with affiliates who come from all the main Islamic schools of thought.
We wonder what the BoD would have thought if UK Muslims were to write to the parliamentary inquiry demanding that the government breaks off relations with the BoD until they represent a wider base of British Jewish opinion than they currently do as a condition to government engagement with it.
Jewish Internal Discontent
After all, in recent years an increasing number of influential UK Jewish figures have spoken out about what they say is the baleful and negative influence of the BoD and its kneejerk support for Israel. Discontent with the BoD is such that a number of senior Jewish figures decided to come together to form a new organization called Independent Jewish voices. And yet the BoD has the chutzpah to describe itself as “The voice of British Jewry” on its website.
Secondly, what if the MCB were to lambast the BoD leadership as being dominated by “Zionists”, in the same way that the BoD portray the MCB’s views as being “Islamist”?
The “Islamist” label has been used in recent years as a smear to denigrate and marginalize all politically engaged and active Muslims while promoting those who are docile enough not to criticize Western warmongering and support for Israel’s barbaric treatment of the Palestinians.
Thirdly, the BoD’s insistence that the MCB should “firmly reject violence in all circumstances, including in overseas conflicts” is disingenuous to say the least. We wonder whether the Board is seriously suggesting that they would oppose Britain’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany and the campaign to overthrow Hitler and his regime. After all was violence not employed to defeat the Nazis?
Gaza Massacre
What is more pertinent is whether the BoD itself abides by these bizarre conditions it has set.
During Israel’s criminal aggression against Gaza earlier this year - now widely recognized as constituting war crimes - the BoD supported a rally in Trafalgar Square, London, in support of Israel. The question to be asked now is whether - given the extensive documentation by the Israeli campaign group “Breaking the Silence,” Amnesty International, and the United Nations Goldstone report on Israeli war crimes in Gaza - the BoD itself should be totally boycotted by the UK government for its vocal support for a state guilty of perpetrating those horrific crimes?
Finally, there is something sinister in the BoD’s accusation that the violent ideology of Muslim extremists possesses “a core belief in anti-Semitism”.
From the trial of the three British Muslims recently convicted of involvement in the airliner bomb plot, and from video messages left by other violent extremists who have gone on to commit terrorist atrocities, what has undoubtedly been a key motivating factor is the injustices they have witnessed and experienced, the results of western foreign policies abroad, including Israel.
"Islamist Ideology" Categorized as Anti-Semitic
In suggesting that extremist "ideology" is intrinsically anti-Semitic, the BoD conflates the case of Israel with Judaism itself making it next to impossible for conscientious objectors to western support for Israeli aggression to frame their concerns in language that will not automatically be designated as anti-Semitic. It is such perversions that feed the ideology of violent extremists and make difficult the prospect of speaking out against bad foreign policy decisions that are contributive to the problem of violent extremism.
Need To Train British Muslims
It is to be hoped that the CLG parliamentary inquiry, in reviewing the BoD’s submission, will look closer and more critically at their fatally flawed arguments.
Meanwhile, it is imperative that UK Muslim organizations train the new generation of British Muslims on how to effectively engage in the fields of media and politics in order to better challenge those who are determined to champion oppression and injustice.
Inayat Bunglawala is an Advisor on Policy and Research at ENGAGE. He is also a spokesperson at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). He also writes a regular blog column for the Guardian's popular Comment is Free website. Bunglawala has been active in UK Islamic organizations since he joined The Young Muslims UK in 1987. He has written pieces about Islam and current affairs over the past few years for The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Daily Express, The Observer and The Sun. In August 2005, he was appointed by the Home Office as the Convener of a working group on Tackling Extremism.
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