British media reveal "shocking" arrangement between UK's MoD, Muslim Council

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has lost its ability to identify and endorse military chaplains after it was revealed that it had a formal arrangement with the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to do so, despite a government-wide ban on engaging with the group. This situation has caused controversy, which is why the Telegraph has reported on the MoD's investigation into how the arrangement with the MCB came about. Caliber.Az reprints this article.

"The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) will no longer be allowed to identify and endorse military chaplains after it emerged that it had a formal arrangement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to do so despite a government-wide ban on engaging with the group. 

The Telegraph understands that ministers ordered the MoD to cut ties with the body after this newspaper revealed last week that the MCB was endorsing imams to become chaplains in the armed forces. The department is now investigating how the arrangement came about.

Senior Tories described the arrangement as 'shocking', given the ban on Whitehall engagement, which was reinforced in a letter to all departments in 2020, by Robert Jenrick, the then communities secretary.

The ban was initially brought in under Gordon Brown when he was prime minister in 2009. Speaking in a House of Lords debate on Israel and Gaza last month, Lord Godson, the Conservative peer, said: 'The previous Labour government under Gordon Brown rightly cut contact with the Muslim Council of Britain in 2009, after its then deputy secretary-general signed the Istanbul declaration, calling for attacks on Royal Navy vessels enforcing a UN weapons blockade on Hamas-run Gaza'. Lord Godson urged Lord Ahmad, a Foreign Office minister, to 'reaffirm' the Government’s 'non-engagement policy'.

It later emerged that the MoD had confirmed in a letter in 2021 that 'the MoD does have an arrangement to consult with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in the appointment of imams to the armed services ... MCB is one of many endorsing authorities used by the MoD'.

Formal terms of reference for 'endorsing authorities' stated that they 'are required to identify appropriate candidates and endorse them as suitable for consideration for selection'.
A post on the MCB website dated July 26 states that the first imam to receive a commission in the Royal Air Force had been 'endorsed by the MCB'.

On Friday, an MoD spokesman told The Telegraph: 'The UK Government has a long-standing policy of not engaging with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which is unchanged. The MoD complies with this policy. However, some contact with the MCB has been identified which we immediately stopped and we are investigating'.

Earlier this year, an official review of the Prevent counter-extremism programme said: 'The MCB is subject to a ‘no-engagement’ policy by ministers because of unresolved extremism concerns'.

Last week, the MCB said: 'Whether the government likes it or not, the Muslim Council of Britain is the largest British body representing a broad spectrum of our diverse British Muslim communities'.
On Saturday, the spokesman claimed that the MCB’s involvement never amounted to 'nominating' military chaplains, adding: 'We will always support British Muslims taking part in our Armed Forces' ".