BRITISH MUSLIMS VISIT IRAN

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is sending a delegation to visit Iran to help improve relations between the Iranian people and the UK’s two million Muslim community. The six-member delegation is being led by MCB secretary general Abdul Bari and also includes two women from the mainstream umbrella organisation, comprising around 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools. The eight-day visit to Iran would be his first, although the previous secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie had been on a number of occasions.
During their trip, the delegation will be meeting a range of officials and religious figures as well as making visits to the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad. The visit comes after the British Foreign Office sponsored a separate British Muslim trip to Iran but which excluded any delegates from MCB, the largest representative Muslim organisation in the UK. Over the past two years, the Foreign Office has organised more than 20 visits to countries with a Muslim-majority population in a program to “showcase the integral role Muslims play in British society” and increase mutual understanding.