"There are lots of challenges and lots of worries. I have to deliver to the community in a difficult climate," Bari said. (Reuters)

CAIRO – Daunting challenges, including marginalization, Islamophobia and extremism, await the new elected leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the umbrella body of the sizable Muslim minority.

"It's a huge responsibility," Muhammad Abdul Bari told the Guardian on Monday, June 5, a few hours after his election.

"I've been elected at a time when Muslims again are under scrutiny and suspicion," said the 52-year-old specialist teacher in behavior support.

"There are lots of challenges and lots of worries. I have to deliver to the community in a difficult climate."

Bari, who has a Bangladeshi origin, was picked from among 37 candidates at the MCB annual general meeting to replace outgoing Sir Iqbal Sacranie.

He was elected in a secret ballot of more than 250 delegates representing the major MCB national and regional bodies.

Bari, the current chairman of the East London mosque, had been the MCB deputy general secretary for the last four years.

The father of four has a PhD and a PGCE from King's College London and a management degree from the Open University.

The MCB, a coalition of some 400 organizations, is the largest Muslim umbrella group in Britain, home to 1.8 million Muslims.

Challenges

The new MCB leader vowed to address the major challenges facing the Muslim minority in Britain.

"One of which is the deprivation, the social alienation of the whole community," he told the BBC News Online.

"Also the elements of extremism and radicalism in a tiny section of the community. And of course the wider society - Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia."

Bari said recent developments in Britain have gravely worried the Muslim minority, said the Guardian.

"We know many British Muslims are feeling unsettled and fearful in the light of recent anti-terrorism raids."

"People don't know what is going on; we don't have the full picture. There is the perception by some people that Muslims are being made into a scapegoat."

The MCB has recently launched a report based on wide-ranging consultations with imams and mosque trustees to counter stereotypes on mosques as terror hotbeds.

The Muslim minority has complained of increasing harassment since the London terrorist bombings on July 7, 2005.

Nearly half a million Muslims contemplated leaving Britain after the attacks, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility.

Enlisting Youths

The new MCB leader said he will also work to strengthen bonds between young British Muslims and the overall Muslim minority, said the Guardian.

"One of my first priorities will be to engage young people in our mosques and other institutions as volunteers and trustees.

"If they have ownership, they feel as if they belong to Britain's Muslim community. It might be one way to turn them away from extremism."

In the wake of the London attacks, many accused the MCB of loosing grounds with the younger generations of British Muslims.

Outgoing Sacranie oversaw a difficult period in the MCB's history after the 9/11 attacks and the London bombings.

Serving in the post for four years, he was knighted in the Queen's birthday honors in 2005.

Sacranie has been regarded by the government as the voice of moderate Islam.