Hasan Afzal, the Director of the U.K. interfaith organization StandforPeace, has published an expose of extremism at the East London Mosque, headed by the former chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). According to the report:
As the world paused on Sunday to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks, much ink has been spilled over their legacy. In Muhammed Abdul Bari’s recent piece for the Huffington Post, he claims: Almost all mainstream Muslim organisations were put in the dock. Fear of Islamism was used to hide other real issues: job losses, economic insecurity, the profligacy of bankers, and so forth … Even ‘moderates’ were treated with suspicion – they could be viewed as part of the ‘conveyor belt towards extremism’. The hypocrisy is breath-taking. There is much Bari didn’t tell you about himself and his friends. Muhammed Abdul Bari is presently the chairman of the East London Mosque and a former chairman of an organisation called the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), which is based in the mosque’s London Muslim Centre. The IFE promotes extremism and aims to spread its influence through entryism. The IFE is closely connected to the political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). JI is the South Asian equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood. It supports theocratic government and was complicit in the Bangladeshi genocide in the 1970s. The mosque’s clear links to JI are outlined in this government report (pdf). When the author, Salmon Rushdie, was knighted for his services to literacy, Bari told the Daily Telegraph that Rushdie’s book of fiction, The Satanic Verses, “should have been pulped”. Why is it that Bari’s perception of freedom of speech only goes one way? Under his leadership of the Muslim Council of Britain, Bari’s organisation boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, raising the spurious argument that: “It should be inclusive, commemorating all massacres.”. Holocaust Memorial Day has, in fact, consistently commemorated a wide range of genocides. I’m sure readers of this blog will pick up on the irony that in the very same interview, Bari warned against Britain becoming like Nazi Germany. Whilst Chairman of the East London Mosque, the Mosque gave a controversial Saudi hate preacher his own plaque (pdf). The Saudi hate preacher in question was Abdul Rahman al Sudais. Here is what Sudais thinks of Jewish people: Read the history to know that yesterday’s Jews are evil predecessors and today’s Jews are worse successors. They an ingrate people, they altered God’s words, worshipped calf, killed Messengers and denied their Messages. They are exiled people and the worst of mankind. Allaah cursed them and cast His wrath upon them. He turned some of them to monkeys and pigs and worshippers of creatures. They are worst in position and are astray from the right path. History of Jews is full of deception, trickery, rebellion, oppression, evil and corruption. They always seek to cause mischief on the earth and Allaah loves not the mischief-makers.
Read the rest here. (Note: original article contains many links to works cited)
Earlier posts discussed Dr. Bari’s statements about Salman Rushdie as well as his contradictory statements on terrorism.
The MCB is a U.K. umbrella group which acts in concert with the U.K. and Global Muslim Brotherhood and previous posts have discussed the organizations stormy relationship with the U.K government. Current MCB Chairman Murad is also a trustee and former chairman of Muslim Aid, a UK charity originally founded by Yusuf Islam (fka Cat Stevens) and identified in a NEFA Foundation report as a member of the Union of Good, a coalition of Islamic charities that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. It is headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, and most of the trustees and member organizations are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood. The Union of Good was banned by Israel in 2002 and in 2008 was designated a terrorist entity by the United States. According to another NEFA report on the U.K .Union of Good members, a number of the organizations to which Muslim Aid made allocations have been identified by Israel and/or the U.S. as Hamas institutions.