IQBAL SACRANIE'S LETTER TO CHIEF CONSTABLE WILMOT

16 January 2003

The MCB contacted the Chief Constable of Manchester on Tuesday 14 January to express its heartfelt condolences to the family of DC Stephen Oake, tragically killed in Manchester in the course of the execution of a warrant for the detention of a 23-year old Algerian. The MCB has also responded to the Daily Telegraph's editorial on the tragedy (Imams must speak out, 16 January 2003) by noting that " imams and community leaders have continually been speaking to the community on issues of moral and public concern, as they should do, and at the same time trying also to advise the community that no matter how strongly they might feel on any particular issue, they should never lend their ears to any agent provocateur nor take the law into their own hand. Any dissent or disagreement has to be expressed in decent and Islamic manner".