The seminar's poster on MCB Web site.

LONDON, September 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Facing an ‘unprecedented public and media scrutiny’, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said it is organizing Saturday, September 17, a seminar on the UK Muslims’ engagement with the media.

The seminar aims at helping develop the skills needed by British Muslims to ensure a better and more accurate representation of their faith and values in the print and broadcast media, according to the MCB Web site.

The special one-day seminar, entitled ‘British Muslims - Engaging with the Media’, will be held at the Islamic Center of England in London.

The seminar will prove beneficial for all British Muslims who want to learn about how the UK media operates, according to the group's Web site.

It will also help those who want to combat the Islamophobia that manifests itself all too frequently in the British media, it added.

Attendees will be given the opportunity to listen to and question a panel of senior journalists and executives from famous British media, such as The Sun, Daily Mail, The Times, The Independent, the London Evening Standard, the BBC and Channel 4 News.

“The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of how our newspapers and broadcast media work,” the Web site reads.

The 1.8-million Muslim minority, making up just under three percent of Britain's population, has been suffering increasing harassment since July 7 London attacks that killed 56 people including four bombers, three of them are Britain-born Muslims of Pakistani origin.

Nearly half a million Muslims contemplated leaving Britain after the terrorist attacks, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published on July 26.

Muslim minorities in Britain and the west in general have been facing difficult times since the 9/11 attacks for many reasons, including the misunderstanding of Islam in the west, fueled by distorted media coverage, according to many observers.

Earlier, a US academic criticized the western media for failing to meet the challenge of reporting on Islam after the 9/11 attacks on America, according to a press report Wednesday, August 31.

"It was as if two civilizations were completely unknown to one another," Stephen Schwartz said, referring to the Christian and Islamic civilizations, according to The Jakarta Post.

A prominent Swiss expert had said recently that the West misjudged Islam and did it injustice, largely because of shallow knowledge of the Muslim faith driven from the distorted writings of early Orientalists.

“Rising Islamophobia is the result of the West’s shallow dealing with and misunderstanding of Islam,” Arnold Hottinger, who spent 50 years in the Middle East reporting for the leading Neue Zurcher Zeitung newspaper, had said.

The seminar is not the first move by the MCB, the umbrella organizations of Muslim groups in the country, since the bombings.

It has set up an investigation into mosques, women's organizations and Islamic youth centers across the country to root out extremism.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, MCB Secretary General, told The Independent they had set up the focus groups to locate and combat the terrorist threat.

The move comes amid allegations that the MCB is failing mainstream Muslims and has its roots in extremist politics.

Sir Iqbal, who was knighted this year and is regarded by the government as the voice of moderate Islam, said the efforts to discredit the organization were born from an "Islamophobic agenda".

Flooded by a torrent of support e-mails and messages from Muslims and non-Muslims, The MCB also demanded the BBC Tuesday, August 23, investigate and apologize for a “dishonest” piece of journalism made by the broadcaster on the respectable Muslim organization.

The program was broadcast Sunday night, August 21, entitled “A Question Of Leadership.” It suggested the MCB is “in denial” about extremist views among its members.

The BBC program quoted former MCB member Mehboob Kantharia as saying the MCB was unwilling to accept the reality of the situation and therefore unable to deal with the issue in hand.

But when contacted by the MCB, Kantharia said his statements were taken out of context.

The MCB was inaugurated in 1997 at the Brent Town Hall in Wembley by representatives of more than 250 Muslim organizations from all parts of Britain, including Northern Ireland .

It defines itself as a "vibrant coalition of grassroot organizations and institutions and individual talent and skills that is making a positive and constructive contribution to meeting the needs and the aspirations of the Muslim community."

The MCB says it works for a more enlightened appreciation of Islam and Muslims in the wider society and to foster better community relations and work for the good of society as a whole.

A coalition of some 400 organizations and considered to be the most respected voice of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims, the MCB was made by Prime Minister Tony Blair a privileged dialogue partner after the July 7 attacks in the capital.