The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is the most "mainstream" Muslim organization in the UK . Indeed the British government of the time (New Labour) helped fund and set up in 1997 . Some of its leaders have written articles for the Guardian, the Huffington Post and they've also been featured on the BBC (e.g., Inayat Bunglawala and Muhammad Abdul Bari – both mentioned below).

So much for the large-scale Muslim plot to take over various British schools being solely about "extreme Islamists".

So much for the large-scale Muslim plot to take over various British schools being solely about "extreme Islamists".

This is what the MCB says about itself on its website:

“The Muslim Council of Britain is one of the UK's largest and most diverse Muslim umbrella organization with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organizations, mosques, charities and schools.”

In terms of the Islamist plot, this is a quote from the UK's Telegraph (26th April):

"In his 72-page document, published by the Muslim Council of Britain in 2007, Mr Alam and his co-author, Muhammad Abdul Bari [then the Secretary General of the MCB], attacked many state schools for not being 'receptive of legitimate and reasonable requests made by Muslim parents and pupils in relation to their faith-based aspirations and concerns.'

It was reported (in the Telegraph) that the alleged ringleader of what is now called the "Trojan Horse plot" (to take over schools) wrote a blueprint for the “Islamization” of secular state schools for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). That blueprint resembles what is happening in Birmingham in that the plotters appear to have closely followed the (MCB) document's suggestions.

The ringleader of the Trojan Horse plot is Tahir Alam. He is, at present, the chairman of governors at Park View school, Birmingham.

This 72-page document was published by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in 2007. It is also written by Muhammad Abdul Bari; who was the Secretary General of the MCB from 2006 until 2010. He also once served as the president of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE). Mr. Bari is well-known, in the UK, as a writer for the Guardian and the Huffington Post. Today Mr. Bari is the chairman of the Jamaat-e-Islami-dominated (Bangladeshi) East London Mosque. The East London Mosque is closely connected to the previous-mentioned Islamic Forum of Europe. And, according to Delwar Hussain, the mosque shares the ideology of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim brotherhood. Rights campaigners have also said that the mosque has "hosted numerous hate preachers who have promoted the most vicious homophobia imaginable over the years".

Muhammad Bari's was once interviewed by the Daily Telegraph, which asked him if he condemned stoning. Bari replied with the following line: “It depends what sort of stoning and what circumstances.”

Bari defended the extremist cleric Dr. Naik who has been documented as saying “all Muslims should be terrorists”. Naik has also defended everything from domestic violence to Jew-hatred. Abdul Bari argued that Naik should be allowed into the UK; though Geert Wilders (who has never sanctioned violence) should be banned.

Abdul Bari has criticized the government's stance on Muslim extremism. He once said that it was responsible for creating tensions within the communities. Perversely (given the well-documented Jew-hatred of the MCB/Muslim Brotherhood), he once stated (in 2007) that the "UK will become Nazi Germany, if the situation [of UK Islamic terrorism] is not handled very well by the government”.

So what about the present media secretary on the MCB -- Inayat Bunglawala?

Here's a short list of some of Mr. Bunglawala's positions and views:

i) He opposes the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir under UK anti-terror laws. However, the MCB agreed with the banning of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer (not linked to violence) from the UK and thinks that EDL (not linked to killings) demos should be banned. (Hizb ut-Tahrir, to which the MCB is connected, was directly responsible for mass communal violence in Bangladesh.)

ii) In January 1993, Bunglawala wrote a letter to Private Eye (a British magazine) in which he called Omar Abdel-Rahman "courageous". After Rahman's arrest on charges of masterminding the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in July that year, Bunglawala said that it was only because of he was "calling on Muslims to fulfill their duty to Allah and to fight against oppression and oppressors everywhere".

iii) Five months before the 9/11, he circulated the writings of Osama bin Laden (whom he called a "freedom fighter") to hundreds of Muslims in Britain.

iv) He objects to the use of the phrase "Islamic terrorism". He also believed that Osama bin Laden shouldn’t be described as an "Islamic" or "Islamist" terrorist; but as an "international" terrorist.

Let's return to the Islamic-education document.

That document attacked state schools for not being “receptive of legitimate and reasonable requests made by Muslim parents and pupils in relation to their faith-based aspirations and concerns”.

So which “aspiration and concerns” of Muslims were Muhammad Abdul Bari and Mr. Alam talking about? Take the following:

i) That schools shouldn't teach “potentially harmful forms of music” which “promote immoral behaviour” or include “unethical and un-Islamic lyrics”.

ii) That schools shouldn't teach any arts involving “three-dimensional imagery of humans”.

iii) That schools should “try to avoid scheduling swimming lessons during Ramadan”.

iv) That “school balls, discos and fashion shows” should be avoided.

v) That all Muslim girls should be “covered except for their hands and faces”.

vi) That the “multicultural approach” to collective worship in state schools is not acceptable to Muslims.

Muslims, on the whole, have reacted negatively to all this scrutiny. Yet the majority of Muslims certainly haven't seriously attempted to get rid of the “extreme Islamists” (or the grooming gangs and terrorists) within their midst. Predictably, Mr. Alam and Salma Yaqoob (former leader of the political party Respect and writer for the Guardian) have talked about the investigations in terms of their being a “witch-hunt” and an outbreak of “Islamophobia”. Other Muslims have gone into denial mode too. For example, Achmad da Costa, chairman of governors at Oldknow school, attempted to assemble local mosques with a special meeting to protest against the school inspections.

So let' take a quick look at the Oldknow Academy just mentioned:

Governors of Oldknow Academy

Achmad Da Costa: Chair of Governors (LEA)

Rafique Ahmad: Vice Chair of Governors (Community)

Fazal Khan: Chair of Finance Committee (LEA)

Bhupinder Kondal: Head Teacher

Golam Chowdhury: Community Governor

Mohammed Millat-E-Mustafa: Community Governor

Jawaid Yakoob: Parent Governor

Sorbun Nessa: Parent Governor

Mohammed Mohi Uddin: Parent Governor

Attiya Malik: Parent Governor

Abdul Rahman Ali: Parent Governor

So much for “diversity” and "community cohesion".

Most predictably of all, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) itself - the very organization that published the (Islamic) education document -- has written an article entitled 'Education and Muslims: End this Witch-Hunt of British Muslims' (16th April, 2014). Not surprisingly, the MCB goes into denial mode too. It calls the Islamist plotters “supposedly conservative”; says that the “allegations have been thus far unfounded” (yes, all of them!); that the investigations and criticisms “provide fodder for the far right”; and that investigating some Islamists is automatically “victimising a community”.

Finally, it actually retweeted a message (27th April) which refers to the aforesaid Islamic blueprint for education. It says:

“So the Telegraph takes old guidance [yes, very old – 2007] from the MCB for school with Muslim pupils & interprets as blueprint for Islamic take-over of schools.”

What's happening here -- yet again! -- is that Muslims publicly promise to get their own house in order. Inevitably, they don't. Then when outsiders try to do that job instead, some Muslims -- such as Salma Yaqoob -- start talking about “witch-hunts” and “Islamophobia” (as Yaqoob did about the uncovering of the “terror hot-spots” in Birmingham). In other words, a hell of a lot of Muslims (as well as their Leftist enablers) want precisely nothing to be done about all these things: whether that be Muslim grooming gangs, female genital mutilation, “honor violence”, domestic Islamic terrorism or, now, the Islamization of state schools.

None of this should surprise anyone outside the gullible interfaith circuit because many people have always known that the MCB is not a “moderate” organization at all. What it is, to be precise, is an Islamist organization which pretends to be a moderate Muslim organization. Yet pretending to be moderate and actually being moderate are two completely different things.