Activities:

The Muslim Council of Britain(MCB), established in 1997, is a self-appointed umbrella body for 500 mosques, schools and associations in Britain. It includes national, regional, local, and specialist Muslim organisations and institutions from different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds within British Islamic society. Its purpose is to increase education about Islam, and to “work for the eradication of disadvantages and forms of discrimination faced by Muslims”. It has been called the “best known and most powerful” of the many organisations that have been founded in the 1990 and 2000s to represent Britain’s Muslims.

The MCB has applied for and gained finance for projects devoted to the development of Muslim communities in Britain. The MCB received £150,000 of public money from the Government for a number of specific projects. These were: the MCB leadership development programme; the MCB leadership mentoring programme; MCB direct, a web portal for information on Islam and Muslims; a British citizenship programme, and the British Muslim Equality Programme.

In 2006 the MCB won a grant of £300,000 from the UK Department for International Development(DFID). According to a DFID press release, projects will include producing teaching materials for Muslim schools (known as madrasahs) and a website focusing on work to reduce poverty and links between Muslim communities in the UK and those in Nigeria, Bangladesh, and India.