UK media is reporting that Ibrahim Hewitt, an associate of the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens and noted for advocating harsh punishments for homosexuals and adulterers, is the head of a school that has received almost £1million of taxpayers’ money. According to a report at Mail Online, Mr. Hewitt is also the founder of another organization accused of orchestrating a plot in Birmingham in which Islamic extremists have allegedly taken over 25 state schools in the city:
Ibrahim Hewitt
April 19, 2014 A Muslim hardliner who says adulterers should be stoned to death and that gay men and fornicators should be lashed 100 times has set up an Islamic school that has received almost £1million of taxpayers’ money.
Ibrahim Hewitt, one of Britain’s most prominent Islamic firebrands – who also heads a charity branded a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the US – is the founder and chairman of trustees of the Al-Aqsa school in Leicester, which teaches 250 boys and girls aged between three and 11.
He has vilified homosexuals as paedophiles and said a man can take on a second wife if his first fails to satisfy him sexually. Mr Hewitt has published his views in a book on Islam, which he claims has sold more than 50,000 copies in Britain.
+3 A teacher at the Al Aqsa primary school in Leicester
The preacher is the founder of another controversial organisation called the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS), whose leader has been accused of orchestrating a plot in Birmingham called ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ in which Islamic extremists have allegedly taken over 25 state schools in the city.
Last night it was reported that six Birmingham, schools implicated in the plot will be placed in ‘special measures’ by inspectors, meaning their leadership team could be removed. Ofsted is also said to be taking action at a further nine schools where the attempted takeover is less advanced.
That news came as campaigners called for an investigation by the Department for Education (DfE) to be expanded to Mr Hewitt and his Leicester school.
In a surprising omission, the Mail report fails to mention that since 1997, Mr. Hewitt has been the chairman of the Palestinian charity INTERPAL, part of the Hamas infrastructure in the UK and designated by the US in 2003 as a terrorist organization for its funding of Hamas.
An onlineprofile provides biographical detail about Ibrahim Hewitt:
Ibrahim Hewitt is the Senior Editor of MEMO [Middle East Monitor]. He is a media and education consultant and has been the chairman of Interpal, the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, a British charity, since 1997. A school inspector, he is also the Head of Al-Aqsa School in Leicester. He was awarded the Alija Izetbekovic Award for Citizenship at the Muslim News Awards for Excellence ceremony in 2005, and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Islamic University in Gaza in 2011 for his support for the people of Palestine and the development of the university.
It should be noted that the center is an important center for Hamas activity.Mr. Hewitt is also atrustee of the International Board of Educational Research and Resources (IBERR), a little known organization headquartered in South Africa. IBERR was founded by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and distributes Islamic educational material around the world. An IBERR website identifies IBERR members including some prominent names from the global Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Hewitt was also the Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) from 2004-2006. The MCB is a U.K. umbrella group is dominated by the Pakistani-based Islamist group known as the Jaamat-e-Islami that is itself closely tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and the MCB usually acts in concert with the Global Brotherhood.
