Iqbal Sacranie

{{Short description|Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Great Britain}}

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File:Visit by Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, to the EC - 2005 (2).jpg

Sir Iqbal Abdul Karim Mussa Sacranie, OBE (born 6 September 1951{{cite news

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}} in Malawi to a Memon family). He served as Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) until June 2006. He arrived in the UK in 1969. He was the founding Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (established 1997), and served four further years as Secretary General from 2002 to 2004 and 2004 to 2006. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999, and was knighted by the Queen in 2005.{{London Gazette|issue=57665|supp=y|page=1|date=11 June 2005}}

During the controversy on Salman Rushdie, shortly after the fatwa by Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini for his book The Satanic Verses, Sacranie stated: "Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah."{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/1989/feb/18/fiction.salmanrushdie | title = Rushdie in hiding after Ayatollah's death threat | accessdate = 2012-02-26 | work = The Guardian | location = London | first = Peter | last = Murtagh | date = 1989-02-18}} Sacranie states that this quotation was misinterpreted and that he merely wanted to convince Muslims that they should not kill Rushdie.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/audio/2009/feb/12/rushdie-fatwa-sacranie-satanicverses | location=London | work=The Guardian | first1=Madeleine | last1=Bunting | first2=Francesca | last2=Panetta | first3=Lisa | last3=Appignanesi | title=The Satanic Verses: Banned and burned | date=2009-02-13}}

On 3 January 2006 Sacranie told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that he believes homosexuality is "not acceptable", and denounced same-sex civil partnerships as "harmful". He said that bringing in gay marriage did "not augur well" for building the foundations of society.{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4579146.stm | title = news.bbc.co.uk | access-date = 2007-06-18 | work=BBC News | date=2006-01-03}}{{cite web|url=http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2006/01/islam_and_gays.html#more |title=timescolumns.typepad.com |access-date=2007-06-18 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105005548/http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2006/01/islam_and_gays.html#more |archivedate=2007-01-05 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,9321,1688939,00.html | title =How police gay rights zealotry is threatening our freedom of speech | accessdate = 13 January 2013 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Jonathan | last=Freedland | author-link= Jonathan Freedland|date=18 January 2006}}

He was Chairman of Muslim Aid and, since 2012, is on its executive committee.{{cite web|url=http://www.muslimaid.org/index.php/media-centre/press-releases/833-muslim-aid-agm-elects-new-executive-committee-|title=Muslim Aid AGM Elects New Executive Committee|date=17 July 2012|publisher=Muslim Aid|accessdate=12 January 2013}}