Mick Hartley

Well, this is a huge surprise. From the Times:

The two candidates vying to lead the Muslim Council for Britain have praised Iran and said mixed gender New Year celebrations were “un-Islamic”.

Dr Muhammad Adrees and Dr Mohammed Wajid Akhter will face their first hustings ­on Tuesday in the race to become secretary-general of the group, which claims to be the largest democratic voice of British Muslims. However, a report by Policy Exchange, the think tank, has uncovered “deeply disturbing” remarks by the pair, according to a former Muslim MP.

In comments from 2022, Akhter called being a Muslim an “act of revolutionary defiance … at odds with the prevailing culture” and advocated that British Muslims identify primarily as Muslim rather than as British….

In speeches in 2023, Akhter said Muslims should “organise” and “unite” into a “powerful community” which would “change from the hand that is begging to the hand that is giving”.

Adrees wrote a glowing report on the dictatorial Iranian regime in 2017 after a trip to Tehran. In an article for Islam Today he praised Ruhollah ­Khomeini, the former supreme leader of Iran, and “the Iranian Revolution, when the great leader led the nation to its destiny”. He wrote warmly in support of the republic and spoke of how it respects minorities, despite claims that the country had carried out executions for blasphemy that year.