The Muslim Council of Britain’s (MCB) full response to David Rose’s article, published by the Jewish Chronicle on 9th February 2023.
A few weeks ago, the Jewish Chronicle wrote to the Muslim Council of Britain’s newly elected Deputy Secretary General, Mohammed Kozbar. We publish below the full and unedited response which the paper chose not to publish.
We are providing here a response from the Muslim Council of Britain with a short statement from Mr Mohammed Kozbar. He was democratically elected last weekend as Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain alongside Zara Mohammed who was re-elected as Secretary General for another term.
In the first instance, we note that the accusations you make are in a similar vein to smears previously levelled at Mr Kozbar. They have proven to be false, with one national newspaper having to pay substantial damages to Mr Kozbar and a far-right commentator being forced to apologise for wrongly associating the Finsbury Park Mosque – of which Mr Kozbar is chair – with terrorism.
It is local Muslims who bear the brunt of these attacks, enduring threats and actual violence, including the infamous terrorist attack against a local Muslim just yards from the Finsbury Park Mosque in 2017.
Makram Ali, a worshipper at the Mosque lost his life while 11 were injured when Darren Osborne, targetting the mosque, plowed a van into worshippers gathered outside the nearby Muslim Welfare House shortly after evening Ramadan prayers. Mohammed Kozbar led community efforts of unity and condemnation where he led a coalition of faith and community groups in meeting the then Prime Minister, Theresa May.
We would have that the Jewish Chronicle would seek to understand how Mr Kozbar would seek to reach out along interfaith lines, rather than re-hash extremist talking points.
Mr Kozbar brings with him a wealth of community experience as chair of the Finsbury Park Mosque. Under his leadership, Finsbury Park Mosque became a beacon centre of worship and a welcoming hub for people of all faiths and none. Mr Kozbar has ensured that the mosque is at the forefront of interfaith action. For example, in 2019, Mr Kozbar led the local Muslim community in solidarity with Jewish friends after an antisemitic attack in the area.
Last year, Mr Kozbar welcomed His Majesty the King who, as the Prince of Wales, visited the mosque’s temporary COVID vaccination centre, which opened to benefit the whole community. Mohammed Kozbar has worked very closely with faith groups within the locality of the Finsbury Park Mosque and has increased the engagement with various communities in Islington and beyond.
Mr Kozbar said: “As Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, I look forward to bringing my experience to help Muslim communities be part and parcel of British society. I have demonstrated interfaith action at a local level, and it is much needed at a national level. I look forward to particularly building this with our Jewish friends, with whom we have so much in common. Antisemitism and Islamophobia must both be tackled vigorously. I have worked with many Jewish colleagues who have looked past the Islamophobic smears that have been levelled at me in the past, particularly by the media who have been held to account in court. Even though I am British with roots in the Middle East, I do not think our deeply held views about tensions in that part of the world should come in our way to seek the common good as neighbours and friends here in the UK.”
We expect his activities as we have laid out and full quote to be published in full in your subsequent article and will be closely scrutinising the piece in due course.