London, Jan 07: An undercover investigation by a
leading daily has revealed disturbing evidence of Islamic
extremism at a number of Britain's leading mosques and Muslim
institutions, including an organization praised by Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
According to the 'Observer', secret video footage
revealed Muslim preachers exhorting followers to prepare for
jihad, to hit girls for not wearing the Hijab, and to create a
"state within a state."
Many of the preachers are linked to the Wahhabi strain of
Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, which funds a number of
Britain's leading Islamic institutions.
A forthcoming channel 4 dispatches programme paints an
alarming picture of how preachers in some of Britain's most
moderate mosques are urging followers to reject British laws
in favour of those of Islam.
Leaders of the mosques have expressed concern at the
preachers activities, saying they were unaware such views were
being disseminated.
At the Sparkbrook mosque, run by UK Islamic Mission
(Ukim), an organization that maintains 45 mosques in Britain
and which Tony Blair has said "is extremely valued by the
government for its multi-faith and multicultural activities,"
a preacher is captured on film praising the Taliban.
In response to the news that a British Muslim soldier was
killed fighting the Taliban, the Speaker declares: "the hero
of Islam is the one who separated his head from his
shoulders."
Another Speaker says Muslims cannot accept the rule of
non-Muslims. "You cannot accept the rule of non-Muslim," a
preacher, Dr Ijaz Mian, tells a meeting held within the
mosque. "We have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the
others."
The 12-month investigation also recorded a deputy
headmaster of an Islamic high school in Birmingham telling a
conference at the Sparkbrook mosque that he disagrees with
using the word democracy.
"They should call it... Kuffrocracy, that's their plan.
It's the hidden cancerous aim of these people." The Darul
Uloom School said it no longer employed the teacher and that
one of the reasons he resigned "was the incompatibility of
many of his opinions with the policies of the school."
Inside the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, a preacher is
recorded saying, "Allah has created the woman deficient." A
satellite broadcast from the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia,
Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, beamed into the green lane mosque
suggests that Muslim children should be hit if they don't
pray: "when he is seven, tell him to go and pray, and start
hitting them when they are 10."
Another preacher is heard saying that if a girl 'doesn't
wear Hijab, we hit her.'
In a statement to channel 4, Lord Ahmed, the convener of
the government's preventing extremism taskforce, said he was
worried about the programme's consequences. "While I
appreciate that exaggerated opinions make good TV, they do not
make for good community relations."
Bureau Report