On the 21st August 2009 Progress published an article titled “It’s time to end the cultural appeasement”.
This article suggested that Sir Iqbal Sacranie had never been elected
to “anything, not even a parish council”. Sir Iqbal has contacted us
through his lawyers, Carter-Ruck, and asked us to point out that in
fact he:
“was elected as the founding Secretary General of
the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), when it was established in 1997.
He was re-elected to the role twice in 2002 and 2003 by the 60 or so
elected member making up the Central Working Committee. Under the MCB’s
constitution, only elected members of the Central Working Committee can
assume the role of Secretary General, so our client had first to be
elected to this committee by the General Assembly (consisting of
delegates from all the affiliates of the MCB, which is in the region of
500 national, regional and local bodies).
“Sir Iqbal has also
been elected to various other positions. By way of example only, he was
elected to his position as Chairman of Muslim Aid in 2008, he was
elected to the position of Chair of the Executive Committee of Memon
Association UK, he was elected to the position of Deputy President of
World Memon Organisation, and he was elected to his position as Chair
of the Management Committee of Balham Mosque and Tooting Islamic
Centre.”
We have amended the article, and would like to apologise to Sir Iqbal Sacranie for the offence caused.