I read with interest today that Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the head of The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) accuses the UK Government of stoking racial tension across the UK. Dr Bari's point is that the Government constantly refer to 'Islamic terrorists' and recently claimed that 15 year old Muslims were being 'groomed' for a terrorist role. Such 'disproportionate discussions' are fuelling a 1930s style Fascism, claims Dr Bari.

I find that a rather cynical reference to make given the MCB's stance on the January Holocaust Memorial day. The MCB refuse to attend the ceremonies on the pretext that the day 'should commemorate all genocides' as the MCB has previously stated it. That stance of course, can be taken as an excuse for Muslims to boycott the ceremonies on racial grounds. This stance is consistent with those of many Islamic states, where inherently negative attitudes to Israel and Judaism are well-known. Thus Dr Bari places himself and his organisation alongside those of such fundamentalist Islamic ideologists. Dr Bari has then, no right to make such comparisons with Nazi Germany.

Dr Bari will know of course, that the Holocaust involved the systematic extermination of 11.5 million people of which 6.5 million were Jews. Holocaust Memorial IS all encompassing. Dr Bari plays his own right-wing politics with people's suffering and memory.

The MCB would be better received should it be seen to be making greater efforts to eradicate forever those fundamentalist attitudes that have seeped into British society and have inevitably produced anxiety and tension in us all.