A leading British Muslim today denied that his organisation would boycott this week's commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz but admitted to "an unwillingness to attend".

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the day, commemorating the slaughter of six million Jews in Nazi death camps, should also commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict and other violent events around the world.

Following reports that the Muslim Council had written to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, saying it would boycott the event, he told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "The council has not said that it would boycott the event.

"We believe that the Nazi Holocaust was a truly evil and abhorrent crime, and we stand together with our fellow British Jews in their sense of pain and anguish.

"But none of us must forget how the Holocaust began. This is absolutely crucial. We are saying that the memorial day is better observed by making it inclusive of all human rights abuses that have taken place, which of course includes Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya at the moment and also Palestine.

"We've always been told from day one that it has to be an inclusive event. The purpose behind this is to ensure that this tragic event should not be repeated and it can only not be repeated if we get the support of all the communities around the world.

"We want to seen some changes. It's an unwillingness to attend simply because we want it to be more effective. This should not just become a ritual of attending and this by the way is the view also shared by other members of the Jewish community as well."

Mr Sacranie went on to express concerns over the possible treatment by the British authorities of the last remaining British detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The Home Office minister Hazel Blears is meeting Mr Sacranie and other Muslim leaders today ahead of the detainees's return tomorrow.

Mr Sacranie said: "We all know that the detainees have gone through tremendous ill treatment and torture and on their return I think it's imperative that they are treated humanely and that we do not pile torture on torture.

"They are citizens who have been detained for the last number of years for absolutely no reason. If the normal process of debriefing has to be carried out that's very fair but it has to carried out sensitively baring in mind their mental state and also the physical state of their health."

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