He says: “Nor will the MCB speak to the gay Muslim group, Imaan. The MCB leaders seem to despise their Muslim brothers and sisters who are gay…” – well, the Imaan Chairperson refused to talk to StraightWay, who are considerably better equipped for dialogue than whoever they may have contacted in the MCB. But I rather doubt that Imaan have tried.

Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB posted some clarifications in Tatchell’s comments. I reproduce them here for you:

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A few facts:

1. There is no – and has never been a – ’5 year plan’ by the MCB to confront homophobia. The ‘plan’ is entirely fictitious and was first mentioned on the gay website Pink News. M. Abdul Aziz himself has also denied to us any knowledge of this so-called plan.

2. Consequently, the MCB cannot have done a u-turn on this issue.

3. The MCB occasionally requests people from within the British Muslim community who possess the requisite skills and expertise to represent us on various forums. M. Abdul Aziz has represented the MCB in this capacity in some meetings.

4. M. Abdul Aziz is not ‘the policy advisor to the MCB’ and neither is he a member of the MCB’s elected leadership body – which has the final say on all policy issues.

5. It is true that I refused to speak with Marc Shoffman of Pink News. I had heard from Abdul Aziz directly about how his own earlier interview with the same journalist had been misreported and had no wish to see my own words similarly garbled. It had nothing to do with Shoffman being gay.

6. On the practice of homosexuality, the MCB’s position is clear and unchanged: we believe it is regarded as sinful in Islam and cannot in any way be equated with marriage between man and wife. Tatchell is simply wrong here: I am not aware of any division in the MCB on this issue whatsoever.

7. The MCB rejects the deliberate incitement of hatred against any section of our society, whether it is Arabs, Jews or gays or anyone else.

http://flyingimam.blogspot.com/2006/04/mcb-homosexuality-is-sinful-official.html

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Jamie Doward wrote that the Muslim Council of Britain was “accused…of making a stunning U-turn” (News, last week), but he did not name the accusers. A look at a press release from Peter Tatchell and his OutRage organisation makes it clear that it was the sole source, which also set the bias of the article. Doward stated that Iqbal Sacranie “described homosexuals as ‘harmful, immoral, unacceptable and diseased’.” Yet this is not a direct quote of Sacranie; rather, it is a summary by Tatchell in his press release. The difference is far from trivial. It is one thing to use these individual words within an extended discussion of homosexuality as a social phenomenon, and quite another to string them together as a description of a certain sector within society. Tatchell – and indeed Doward – may disagree with Sacranie, but it is plainly unfair to misquote him, by any standard.

Rasheed Eldin
gaymuslims.org

And LGBT "Muslim" groups would do well to discuss with critical Muslims and thoughtful people like on this blog before thinking that they have any theological/juristic footing, or any excuse before Allah ready for the Day of Judgement.