Muslim Businesses United

I came across an article in the Telegraph and Argus reporting that a group called "Muslim Businesses United" was hosting a dinner on 2nd October to raise money for Gaza. Nothing remarkable about that but I thought I'd have a quick look at their website. It was worth a little digging as a picture of extremism quickly emerges. Their home page announces that they are sending delegates on the Viva Palestina convoy. This group raised money for Hamas.

Another page is entitled "Stop Wars" and encourages people to take strike action and boycott various companies. A list is provided neatly splitting companies into two groups - those with links to Israel who should be shunned and those without. Although I'm not entirely convinced by their methods since Starbucks is to be boycotted because:

"Although Starbucks has gone to great length stating it does not support Israel. It is still on boycott lists as there is no evidence that it is not supporting Israel."

On their "Stop Wars" page they explain why they should not give money to charity:

Our charities are being blocked because banks are closing down the charity accounts or the Charity Commission are freezing accounts. This happened in 2008 and 2009 with Interpal and Viva Palestina respectively.

Interpal being another charity that has links to Hamas.

There is also considerable craziness from one of the organisation's founders. Saeeda Naz is one of the workers for the organisation. Her name and number appear on the posters for this latest event and the MBU website containts a scan of an article about how she raised £600 for Viva Palestina (ie for Hamas). She also has her own website and on it she has a page of press releases. On that page she kindly informs us that 9/11, 7/7, the Bali bombing, the Mumbai attacks and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team were all the work of the Americans and Israelis.

Far from being a normal Muslim organisation raising money for those suffering the effects of war and occupation, this is an organisation run by extremists with a history of raising money for Hamas and apparently intent on doing so again. I don't need to point out that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and deemed so by UK law making it illegal to raise money for them.