Muslim Council of Britain Supports Lineker over BBC Exit in Anti-Semitism Row

The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) has shown sup­port for Eng­lish soc­cer leg­end Gary Linek­er over his recent exit from the BBC. Linek­er had faced heavy crit­i­cism after shar­ing the post about Zion­ism that includ­ed an illus­tra­tion of a rat, his­tor­i­cal­ly used as an anti-Semit­ic insult. On 20 May 2025, the Dai­ly Mail revealed that MPs had tabled a Com­mons motion hon­or­ing Gary Lineker’s career after his ear­ly BBC depar­ture and apol­o­gy, with the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain voic­ing sup­port. The arti­cle high­lights Lineker’s lega­cy and the broad response to his exit. The arti­cle begins:

Gary Linek­er’s con­tri­bu­tion to Match Of The Day has been marked in a motion tabled in the House of Com­mons. Foot­ball fans will ‘deeply miss’ Linek­er’s ‘warmth, wit and wis­dom’ fol­low­ing his depar­ture from the BBC show on Sun­day, accord­ing to Inde­pen­dent MP Shock­at Adam. Linek­er first host­ed Match Of The Day in 1999 and he will leave his pre­sent­ing role at the BBC fol­low­ing the final episode for the 2024/25 sea­son. The 64-year-old’s ear­ly exit from the cor­po­ra­tion came after he made an unre­served apol­o­gy for a now-delet­ed social media post crit­i­cised as anti­se­mit­ic. It means Linek­er will no longer front the cor­po­ra­tion’s cov­er­age of the 2026 World Cup or the FA Cup next sea­son. Mr Adam, the MP for Leices­ter South, wrote in his ear­ly day motion (EDM) tabled in the Com­mons: ‘That this House pays trib­ute to the extra­or­di­nary career and endur­ing lega­cy of Gary Linek­er as he retires from his role on Match Of The Day.’

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14730193/Gary-Lineker-Match-Day-allies-support.html

Key Points

• The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain sup­port­ed Linek­er over his BBC exit, join­ing oth­ers in rec­og­niz­ing his broad­cast­ing contributions.

• A Com­mons motion was tabled to hon­or Lineker’s lega­cy fol­low­ing his ear­ly depar­ture and pub­lic apology.

• Lineker’s exit fol­lowed con­tro­ver­sy over a social media post crit­i­cized as anti­se­mit­ic and his sub­se­quent apology.

• Linek­er will not present BBC’s 2026 World Cup or FA Cup cov­er­age after retir­ing from Match of the Day.

How the Muslim Council of Britain Seeks to Influence UK Politics

The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) employs a mul­ti­fac­eted strat­e­gy to influ­ence UK pol­i­tics, lever­ag­ing pub­lic advo­ca­cy, coali­tion-build­ing, and engage­ment with both gov­ern­ment and civ­il soci­ety. By join­ing par­lia­men­tary events on Islam­o­pho­bia and engag­ing in police ini­tia­tives to com­bat Islam­o­pho­bia, the MCB posi­tions itself as a key inter­locu­tor on issues affect­ing British Mus­lims, seek­ing to shape both pub­lic dis­course and pol­i­cy out­comes. The organization’s influ­ence extends to coor­di­nat­ed cam­paigns for Pales­tin­ian state­hood recog­ni­tion and oppo­si­tion to the Pre­vent strat­e­gy, where it mobi­lizes alliances with oth­er Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed groups to apply pres­sure on gov­ern­ment deci­sions. High-pro­file gatherings—such as anniver­sary din­ners fea­tur­ing the Lon­don May­or and Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lead­ers—fur­ther cement the MCB’s sta­tus as an umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion with access to polit­i­cal elites and the abil­i­ty to ampli­fy its ide­o­log­i­cal nar­ra­tives. The MCB’s activ­i­ties, includ­ing pub­lic hon­ors for inter­na­tion­al reli­gious lead­ers and pub­lic align­ment with reli­gious schol­ars on cul­tur­al issues, reflect its ongo­ing efforts to exer­cise soft pow­er and shape the nation­al con­ver­sa­tion. Despite per­sis­tent gov­ern­ment reluc­tance to engage formally—stemming from con­cerns over rep­re­sen­ta­tive­ness and con­tro­ver­sial affiliations—the MCB con­tin­ues to exert influ­ence through pub­lic state­ments, strate­gic alliances, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in high-lev­el dia­logues, mir­ror­ing broad­er advo­ca­cy trends observed in civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions worldwide.

Exter­nal References:

• Writ­ten evi­dence from The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB)
• Out­go­ing Mus­lim Coun­cil leader crit­i­cis­es lack of gov­ern­ment contact
• Mus­lim Broth­er­hood tops Britain’s list of groups of concern

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.