Here is the transcript of the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
We should not be surprised by the findings, since the preaching is very much in line with the Quran and Hadiths. However, you may not be aware that this is so, if you have not understood the concept of abrogation.
Given that a quarter of Muslims in Britain are sympathetic towards the London bombers, it would seem probable that they would also be susceptible to this kind of preaching. The comment at the end of the program may well be true:
"Haras Rafiq: The radicalising power of this ideology is extremely dangerous. We are losing our children to extremists
Hakim Murad: I regard what the Saudis are doing in the ghettoes of British Islam as potentially lethal for the future of the community "
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PART ONE
Tonight on Dispatches – an ideology of bigotry and intolerance spreading through Britain
with its roots in Saudi Arabia
Sheikh Yasin: We Muslims have been ordered to do brainwashing
- on women’s rights
Abu Usamah: Allah has created the woman deficient
Sh Jibali: If she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her
- gay rights
Abu Usamah: take that homosexual man and throw him from the mountain
- living in a multicultural society
Dr Mian: You have to live like a state within a state until you take over
- and holy war
Sh Feiz: The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the summit, of Islam, is jihad
TITLES
A Dispatches investigation has uncovered a fundamentalist message, spreading from the Saudi Arabia religious establishment
through mosques run by major UK organisations
which claim to be dedicated to moderation and to dialogue with other faiths
Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham is a high-profile mosque
- and one we’d heard receives theological guidance from Saudi Arabia
Caption: Undercover filming
Our reporter went undercover last summer, joining thousands of worshippers
He’s staying anonymous
Caption: 12 August 2006
The theme of today’s lecture is – don’t believe in the arrests of alleged terrorists without proof
… as non Muslims are liars
Abu Usamah: I don’t believe them, because they are kuffaar, lying is part of their religion
Kuffaar is an Arabic word, meaning non-believer – an infidel
Abu Usamah: Unlike those kuffaar, they do whatever they want to do
It’s a term our reporter was to hear repeatedly being used in a derogatory way
Abu Usamah: they are liars, they are terrorists themselves, liars, they will come before the people and talk and they are lying, you can’t believe them, these are pathological liars
Shots of Green Lane website
Green Lane Mosque calls itself a “centre for interfaith communication”, welcoming people of all religions
But our reporter filmed there over four months, and found this speaker, Abu Usamah, was their main English-language preacher
He says Christians and Jews are enemies to Muslims
Abu Usamah: It has come to pass that the Christians and the Jews, America, the UK, France, Germany, they have come against the religion of Islam. Why give up your religion and your long legacy of Islam, to please someone who is an enemy to you?
Abu Usamah is an American convert
and a very popular speaker at Green Lane
Abu Usamah (shaking hands with everyone): Hey, my man, how you doing?
He preaches against non-Muslim laws
Abu Usamah: We want the laws of Islam to be practised, we want to do away with the man-made laws
And says British popular culture is a threat
Abu Usamah: The popular culture, if you are a person who gives yourself to that, your mind is going to be controlled by the so-called powers that be, who make these man-made laws
Green Lane’s official website says the mosque is “designed to counter the negative publicity and stereotyping of Islam”
But after a few weeks, our reporter was told by fellow worshippers how to access another, much more difficult-to-find internet chatroom
It’s run by Green Lane Mosque, and broadcasts Abu Usamah’s speeches live to a small band of listeners
He says Muslims should obey British laws and contracts, if they don’t contradict Islam, but he condemns non-believers
Caption: Green Lane internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: No-one loves the kuffaar, no-one loves the kuffaar, not a single person here from the Muslims loves the kuffaar, whether those kuffaar are from the UK or the US. We love the people of Islam and we hate the people of kufr, we hate the kuffaar
Filmed undercover, he says he doesn’t agree with the violent actions of Muslim terrorists - but he prefers them to non-Muslims
Abu Usamah: I don’t agree with those individuals, but at the same time they are closer to me than those criminals of the kufr
Cap: Green Lane internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: He’s better than a million George Bushes, Osama Bin Laden, and he’s better than a thousand Tony Blairs, because he’s a Muslim
The mosque films some of Abu Usamah’s speeches, and they’re sold locally as DVDs
Caption: The Major Sins: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2005)
In this one, he says even Muslims who don’t follow their strict rules can be ostracised as “kaffirs”
Abu Usamah: If you leave off the prayer out of negligence, then you are a kaffir. If he dies like that you have to bury him with the kuffaar. You can’t marry him
He preaches an ideal Islamic state
Abu Usamah: Muslims shouldn’t satisfied with living in other than the total Islamic state
His vision of the Islamic state includes extreme punishments, as he outlines in this DVD
DVD: The Major Sins: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2005)
Abu Usamah: Whoever changes his religion from Islam to anything else – kill him in the Islamic state
The religious leader, or imam, can decide the punishments
Internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: If the imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he is left there to bleed to death for three days
Abu Usamah condemns the Western interpretation of free speech, which means the Prophet can be insulted, but he can be censored
Abu Usamah: If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs, that should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech isn’t it? But they’ll say no, I’m not tolerant, but they feel that it’s OK to say something about the Prophet?
Our reporter has found these views being regularly preached at the head mosque of a major Muslim organisation
Green Lane Mosque, Birmingham, is the headquarters of the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, a registered charity which runs over 40 mosques and branches as well as Islamic schools
It’s an influential affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain, which has praised it as “a national body”, “respected for its educational and outreach programmes”
But our reporter secretly filmed Abu Usamah teaching that a “jihad” is coming against the unbelievers
Abu Usamah: Verily Allah going to bring a group of people that he loves and they love him, these people will who will be soft and kind to the believers and they will be rough and tough against the kuffaar, they will fight in the cause of Allah
I encourage all of you to be from amongst them, to begin to cultivate ourselves for the time that is fast approaching where the tables are going to turn and the Muslims are going to be in the position of being uppermost in strength, and when that happens, people won’t get killed – unjustly
After a few weeks, our reporter learns that Green Lane worshippers get regular religious instruction, direct from Saudi Arabia
Live, two-way video links are set up
Projected onto the wall is the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia
Caption: Saudi state television
He’s the country’s top religious leader– now being beamed live to worshippers in Birmingham
They ask questions through an interpreter, and get fatwas – religious rulings (CHK?)
By now, our reporter has become a regular at the mosque
The man who supervises the video links tells him they’ve recorded them
Man: We actually record them onto DVDs.
Reporter: You do?
Man: What we’ll do is, whatever the cost is of the DVDs you just contribute to that and it’s not a problem
And our reporter is given them
Man: These are the masters, whatever you want to do is fine
The DVDs show a Birmingham worshipper, who asks the Grand Mufti for a fatwa about understanding between Muslims and other religions
CAPTION: Saudi Broadcast, June 2006
Question: Some people say we shouldn’t call Christians and Jews kuffaar, and we should establish dialogue and good relations with them. What’s your answer to this?
His answer is uncompromising
Grand Mufti: This is not true. Jews and Christians who do not follow the Prophet Mohammed are kuffaar. They will go to hell
He says Muslims can’t help non-believers
Grand Mufti: Anyone who helps or defends an apostate, or a pagan, or an atheist, or anyone who attacks Islam, will be cursed
Green Lane Mosque is spreading a brand of Islam originating in Saudi Arabia – often known as Wahhabism
It’s an hardline theology, opposed by many British Muslims
Academic Dr Irfan Al Alawi investigates Wahhabism
He keeps his face hidden in interviews because of the dangers of his work
ASTON: Dr Irfan Al Alawi
Islamic Heritage Foundation
Dr Irfan Al Alawi: Wahhabis believe that you cannot show tolerance to other religions, so the religion of Islam has to rule the world. Green Lane in Birmingham, that mosque is one of the extreme Wahhabi centres in the UK
Caption: Saudi TV
Wahhabism is opposed to the traditional, tolerant beliefs of classical Islam, according to leading Muslim academic Abdal Hakim Murad
CAPTION: Abdal Hakim Murad
University of Cambridge
Hakim Murad: Its principle is totalitarian, it’s highly judgemental, it has no track record of dealing with other sorts of Islam or with unbelievers with any kind of respect. If you are outside the small circle of the true believers you are going to hell and therefore you should be treated with contempt
Non-believers are called “kaffirs” or “kuffaar”
It’s a term they use as an insult, according to moderate British Muslims like Dr Taj Hargey
ASTON: Dr Taj Hargey
Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford
Dr Taj Hargey: The word kaffir is a very pejorative, negative, disparaging term. When you call someone a kaffir, they are not worthy to be associated with. This kind of intolerance is something that gives rise to extremists
Many children were present at the Green Lane lectures our reporter filmed, where intolerance and bigotry were openly preached
In a DVD of a conference at Green Lane Mosque, a preacher called Sheikh Al-Jibali says Muslim children should be kept away from non-Muslims
Caption: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Sheikh Al Jibali: What is sad to see is that many parents they send children to the kuffaar schools, they allow them to mix with the kuffaar, so that the lifestyle and beliefs of the kuffaar become deep rooted in the hearts of the kids
In a fatwa given in the video links, the Grand Mufti says children should be hit if they don’t pray
Saudi Broadcast, May 2006
Grand Mufti: Tell your children to pray when they are seven, and hit them when they are ten
The Ahl-e-Hadith’s website directs readers to literature which says “Islam confers equal rights upon all”, regardless of sex
But in a crackly internet broadcast, Abu Usamah says women are “deficient”
Green Lane Internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a Phd, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man
Saudi-based clerics in the video links preach male supremacy
Caption: Saudi broadcast May 2006
Sheikh: Khunayn: Men are in charge of women. Wherever he goes she should follow him and she shouldn’t be allowed leave the house without his permission
Sheikh Al Jibali says the hijab must be enforced on young girls, if necessary with violence
Caption: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Al Jibali:. By the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab, and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her
Our reporter secretly filmed this preacher, Dr Bilal Philips, giving religious rulings at Green Lane
In a speech in the mosque, which was also broadcast in its internet chatroom, he claims marrying off a girl before puberty is permissible
He claims the Prophet Mohammed married a nine year old girl, so it’s permissible now
Dr Bilal Philips: The Prophet Mohammed practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty, with his practice he clarified what is permissible and that is why we shouldn’t have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman, which is looked down upon by this society today, but we know that Prophet Mohammed practised it, it wasn’t abuse or exploitation, it was marriage
RIGHT TO REPLY LIKELY FROM DR PHILIPS
Abu Usamah quotes what he says are the words of a companion of the Prophet, on the Islamic punishment for homosexuality
Abu Usamah: Do you practise homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain
And in a DVD, he attacks the idea of gay rights
DVD: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Abu Usamah: They have given them unprecedented rights, so that your child can be exposed and introduced to lesbians. Now they say, if you discriminate against them, you are going to jail
He says Muslims should discriminate
Abu Usamah: We’ll discriminate, but we’ll discriminate in a way where we don’t get in trouble. The Muslim is a dentist and one of those people comes I’m going to take a big needle and stick it in his gum
Then he says it’s a joke, as it might get the mosque in trouble
Abu Usamah: They’ll take this and get us all in trouble
On the anniversary of the 7th of July bombings, a speech by Abu Usamah was broadcast in the Green Lane chatroom, condemning terrorism
Green Lane Internet Broadcast
Abu Usamah: We want to make an official statement here, no way are we in agreement to what took place last year on this day in the kuffaar calendar
But he does believe in jihad
Abu Usamah: But in saying that, we do not apologise for any aspect of this religion, there is jihad in Islam. What’s most beloved and favourite thing to Allah? Jihad in the Way of Allah
He says the real jihad will come when the senior Islamic clerics declare it – and prays it will come soon
Abu Usamah: We ask Allah to bring about the means and the ways in which the Muslims will get the power and the honour of repelling the oppression of the kuffaar, where we can go out and perform the jihad. We ask Allah to bring that time, so we can be participants in that
Abu Usamah he told us: “Islam allows for any Muslim to peacefully coexist here in the UK with non-Muslims even though the UK is not an Islamic society
He said he had made it clear that it is a religious duty on all Muslims to obey UK law and the carrying out of Islamic law could only be done in an actual Islamic state
He said: “Homosexuality is an abomination against Allah and all mankind and I will never condone it. Even though this is the case, I do not believe in disobeying the law when it comes to the way people deal with homosexuals.”
A hardline message, influenced by Saudi Arabian clerics, is preached at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham
An imam from the mosque has helped advise the government
Abdul Hadi sat on a government taskforce on extremism, set up after the 7th of July bombings
He was part of its working group on combating extremism in mosques and imams
DVD: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Yet this DVD shows he took part in a Green Lane conference in which other speakers urged Muslims to discriminate against homosexuals and hit girls who don’t wear the hijab
He seemed to have no worries at the extremism of the message
Abdul Hadi: It is very hard to conclude such a beautiful programme, but we have to
The head of the working group on mosques and imams was Lord Nazir Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer
He’s previously praised Green Lane Mosque
In an interview with BBC radio in 2003, he named it as his favourite spiritual place in the country
Cap: Favourite Spiritual Places July 2003
Lord Ahmed: Number 20, Green Lane, Birmingham, is my favourite spiritual place
He said he’d worshipped there
Lord Ahmed: This is the most amazing place. When I walk into the mosque, I feel I am entering the biggest palace on earth
Lord Ahmed recently said he would ask the Lord Chancellor to meet an organisation called the Islamic Shari’ah Council, including its Secretary General, a preacher called Sheikh Suhaib Hasan
The meeting would be to discuss the introduction of Islamic divorce laws into the UK constitution
Undercover filming at Green Lane
Our reporter filmed Sheikh Hasan speaking at Green Lane
He’s a senior imam at a major mosque in East London, and a former President of the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
In a speech downloaded from his mosque website, he proclaims the supremacy of Muslims in encounters with the non-believers
Masjid Al Tawhid internet broadcast
NO SUBTITLES
Sh Hasan: And Allah made the words of the kuffaar dung/down and the words of the believers supreme
(footnote for the press – HE SAYS IT IS DOWN, NOT DUNG)
In speeches on other Islamic websites, he predicts the coming of an Islamic state
Suhaib Hasan: True Understanding of the Khilaafah
Sh Hasan: Allah has decreed this thing, that I am going to be dominant, the dominance of course is a political dominance
The Islamic state he predicts will have a single, lifelong ruler with no opposition parties or elections and it will bring in a strict version of Islamic law
Sh Hasan: The chopping of the hands of the thieves, the flogging of the adulterers and flogging of the drunkards
Then this state will launch jihad
Sh Hasan: Then jihad against the non-Muslims, against those people who are the oppressors
Sheikh Hasan told us that the word “kuffaar” was “not a racist or discriminatory term when heard in its Quranic sense”
He said he’d stated many times that the re-establishment of a “single Islamic state”, would be peaceful
He said he had often praised the British welfare state, its judicial, health and education systems
He said: “I have never promoted any form of extremism, whether religious or otherwise”
Lord Ahmed told us that Green Lane Mosque was one of many mosques he visited
He said: “It would be ludicrous to suggest that by visiting an institution I become responsible for, or aware of, every word spoken at that establishment
He said he had asked for the meeting with the Lord Chancellor on behalf of all Muslims, and said he was not aware of all the views held by Sheikh Hasan
Next, we investigate claims that radicalism, linked to the Saudi religious establishment has spread across the country
…. even reaching into Britain’s biggest and most mainstream mosque
PART TWO
A Dispatches reporter investigated one of Britain’s biggest and most mainstream mosques
Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham
uncovering a fundamentalist ideology emanating from the Saudi religious establishment
He found it promoting male supremacy
Abu Usamah: Allah has created the woman deficient
Green Lane preacher: If she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her
Condemning non-Muslims
Abu Usamah: We hate the kuffaar, we do not give obedience to the kuffaar
and predicting a future jihad
Abu Usamah: The tables are going to turn, and the Muslims are going to be in a position of being uppermost in strength
Now he was to discover how preachers trained in Saudi Arabia are spreading the same message around the country
Last summer, a two-week Islamic Studies course was arranged at the mosque, and our reporter was accepted onto it
It was to be taught by clerics, flown specially from the University of Medinah, in Saudi Arabia
But then it was cancelled at short notice
Our reporter went to their office to find out more
The preacher Abu Usamah tells him what the aim of the course was
Abu Usamah: From what I know is, people were going to come and teach the course from Saudi Arabia. Part of the programme was, the students who did good like the first three or top five students, would get a scholarship to go. That was part of the conditions they had agreed with the Professors who are coming, because the Professors are from the university
Reporter: Of Medinah?
Abu Usamah: Yes
The most devout worshippers at Green Lane are being offered scholarships to Saudi religious universities
Abu Usamah: It’s for people like you
The aim is to train new preachers, according to Dr Irfan Al Alawi, who keeps his face hidden in interviews
Dr Al Alawi: Medinah University is a very hardcore Wahhabi institution. Over the years they have been giving bursaries to students from United Kingdom and throughout the world to recruit students to be brainwashed, then they are trained to go abroad and teach their poison and inject it into others
Medinah graduates are now spreading the word in mosques up and down the UK
Like Dr Bilal Philips, who says marrying girls before they reach puberty is permissible
.…. Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, who preaches a future Muslim supremacy
……. and Abu Usamah himself
Hakim Murad: This is one of the most important items I think on the Saudi radical agenda, to push out the more hospitable types of religious leadership and replace them with firebrands, trained and programmed in the major Saudi universities
Our reporter finds that Saudi-trained preachers are being promoted in DVDs and CDs throughout the UK
He found typical examples being sold in the car park at Green Lane Mosque
Children are buying them
And the stalls are manned by local kids
Reporter: Salamu aleikum brother
Reporter: Thank you brother
He buys a DVD of Sheikh Feiz, another Medinah-trained preacher
Reporter: Thank-you brother
- in which he preaches jihad
Cap: Death Series: Islam Productions
Sheikh Feiz: The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the highest point, the pivot, the summit, of Islam, is jihad
He criticises Muslim parents who don’t want their children to learn this
Sh Feiz: Today, many parents, they prevent their children from attending lessons, why? They fear they might create or place in their hearts, the love, just a bit of love, of sacrificing their lives for Allah.
We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam. Teach them this, there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid, put in their soft tender hearts the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom
The Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, who run Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham told us it was “committed to promoting interfaith dialogue and political harmony in our society”
Scholars from many different backgrounds spoke at its mosque, and we had quoted many out of context
It had not known what each speaker would say beforehand and did not necessarily agree with everything that may have been said
It said the word kuffaar was a neutral term, and said:
“We reject the assertion …. that we are influenced by and teach an extreme version of Islam…We accept the rule of law and we treat our non-Muslim neighbours with respect.”
It said Islamic punishments are an effective deterrent in Islamic societies
The most notorious convert to preach in Britain was Sheikh Al Faisal, who studied Islam at Riyadh University
He circulated his own tapes, urging followers to kill and to plant bombs, and was jailed for inciting racial hatred
Al Faisal cassette: You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews you kill them physically
In an interview with the BBC, Al Faisal claimed that he learned his anti-Semitic views from his university training in Saudi Arabia
El Faisal: I learned at University that the Holocaust was orchestrated in order that the Jews will establish a homeland in Arab territories
The war to convert is waged on the internet
This website says it’s run by an Islamic charity, which is based in Saudi Arabia
It directs readers to a fatwa website, which says it’s supervised by a Saudi scholar
Readers can email in questions and get religious rulings
The rulings say Muslims in the West must have “an attitude of enmity and hatred of the kaffirs …. all of the kuffaar are the enemies of the Muslims”…
Jihad –“ pursuing the kaafirs in their lands…. and fighting them if they do not … submit to the rule of Islam” – is a “communal obligation” on Muslims
…. “men are superior to women and are better than women” and husbands can hit their wives – though only lightly
……. it recommends “prodding with the fist”
DVDs, books and the internet are all ways that the message is spread, according to Saudi expert Mai Yamani
Caption: Mai Yamani
Saudi analyst
Mai Yamani: Since the 1980s, there has been an increase in the export of Wahhabi teachings to the Muslim world, from Kosovo to Jakarta, and to the United States and Great Britain, supercharged with oil money
They sent in money for teachers, for schools, they printed books, they educated imams, so it is like a wave of teachings hitting at the shores of Western countries
Islamic bookshops in Britain are offered free literature
Hakim Murad: A number of bookshops known to me have actually gone out of business because they have been undercut by the more fundamentalist literature being supplied for free by Saudi Arabia
Dr Taj Hargey set up the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford to promote an Islam of tolerance and peaceful co-existence
He’s opposed to Saudi influence over British Muslim life
Dr Hargey: The Saudi funding of British Muslim institutions come from a variety of official, semi-official and private sources, in addition to government funding through the Ministry of Religious Affairs and other government agencies.
Money from Saudi has even reached the most famous mosque in Europe
London Central Mosque, better known as Regent’s Park Mosque, is the most recognisable symbol of moderate, mainstream Muslim life in Britain
It says it acts on behalf of the whole Muslim community in dealing with the government
The Saudi monarchy gave two million pounds to help build it, and in the 1990s, they built its educational and administrative wing
Wajid Shamsul Hasan was a trustee of the mosque in the 1990s, in his capacity as the Pakistan High Commissioner to Britain
He had concerns about the direction the mosque was taking
Aston: Wajid Shamsul Hasan
Trustee 1994-1996
Wajid: The Islam that I personally would like to follow is liberal Islam. This is a centre where 5,000 people once in a week gather, it should be a cradle for the promotion of liberal Islam, but unfortunately, because of the predominant Saudi influence and Saudi money that comes in, it is supportive of Wahhabism
Caption: Undercover filming
The mosque’s official bookshop is run by a company called Darussalam
It’s a British company, but it’s linked to Darussalam Publications - a global publishing house, whose head office is in Saudi Arabia
Our reporter visited – and bought another video of Sheikh Feiz, the Saudi-trained preacher – condemning the non-believer
Caption: Signs of the Hour: Islam Productions
Feiz: Kaffir, the worst word that can ever be written, a sign of infidelity, disbelief, filth, a sign of dirt
He calls Jews “pigs” who will be killed when the end of the world comes
Feiz: This creature will say Oh Muslim behind me is the Jew come and kill him. They will be (snorting), all of them, every single one of them
Regular interfaith meetings with other religions take place at this mosque
Yet in a DVD bought from its bookshop, a British-based convert called Sheikh Khalid Yasin, who studied Arabic in Saudi Arabia, condemns the teachings of other religions
Cap: Changing the World Through Da’wah: IBC Ltd/1Islam Productions
Yasin: We don't need to go to the Christians or the Jews debating with them about the filth which they believe. We Muslims have been ordered to do brainwashing because the kuffaar they are doing brain defiling. You are watching the kaffir TV and your wife is watching it right now and your children are watching it and they are being polluted and they are being penetrated and they are being infected, so that you come out of the house and your children come out of the house as Muslims and come back as kaffirs
Cap: London Central Mosque website
In this DVD from the mosque bookshop, he preaches against the equality of women
Cap: Some Advice to the Muslim Women: 1 Islam Productions
Sh Yasin: This whole delusion of the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness…. There’s no such thing
In this DVD, he claims AIDS is a Western and Christian plot
Cap: Jihad or Terrorism?: Ahlussunnah wal Jama’ah
Yasin: Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus, which is a conspiracy
The mosque bookshop sells speeches by the Green Lane Mosque preacher, Abu Usamah
In this one, he says Muslims and non-Muslims cannot coexist
Cap: Natural Disasters: WISE Islamic Centre
Abu Usamah: The fire of the Muslim and the non-Muslim, they cannot co-exist, one of them is going to impact the other. The non-Muslims have the authority, and they have the power, their lifestyle is going to impact upon the Muslims. Because the good and the bad, they do not co-exist
And they sell audio CDs of Murtaza Khan, a preacher who speaks in many UK mosques
He’s also an Islamic Studies teacher at Al Noor Muslim Primary School in Essex
In this CD from the mosque, he claims the Koran condemns Jews and Christians
CD: Time to Return to the Quran: Knowledge Books and Audio
Murtaza Khan: Those whom the wrath of Allah is upon, is the Jews, is the Christians
And he criticises Muslims who follow their ways
Murtaza Khan: We have become Jews in our clothing, Jews in our eating, Jews in everything that we do, and the other half is Christian in everything we do. Muslims are following one of these accursed nations. And people are still not waking up to understand the fact that these people are enemies towards us
He says Muslims should become doctors, so women don’t have to go to non-Muslim doctors
Murtaza Khan: We should have a sense of shame. For how long have we seen our mothers, our sisters, and our daughters have to go and uncover themselves before these filthy non-Muslim doctors?
Murtaza Khan told us: “My discourses have never been delivered with the intent to malign any individual/group or race. They are delivered to inspire Muslims to better themselves and then to play a positive role for their own and wider community in Britain.”
Al Noor Muslim Primary School told us: “We can confirm that Mr M. Khan is employed as a teacher at Al-Noor Primary School and can also categorically state that the alleged remarks .. do not reflect the views of this educational establishment. No extreme or discriminatory views are expressed or taught at our school by any of our teachers”
Darussalam International Publications Ltd, which runs the mosque bookshop, told us it sells a wide range of material and did not necessarily agree with it
It said it was “totally unfair” to blame them for the views expressed in the lectures
The current director general of Regents Park Mosque, Dr Al Dubayan, is from Saudi Arabia
A recent employment tribunal concerning a sex discrimination complaint at the mosque revealed that they had no jurisdiction over Dr Al Dubayan, because he’s actually a serving Saudi diplomat
Dr Hargey: It’s scandalous. The director general of this mosque is a Saudi diplomat, he leads the largest and most prestigious mosque in this country.
Dr Al Dubayan told us his diplomatic status had been extended to him as a courtesy by the Saudi Arabian government following his appointment
He said the mosque bookshop was run independently and he was seriously concerned to hear that inappropriate materials may be on offer
The materials had been removed immediately until it was ascertained whether they were “damaging to the principles of tolerance, multiculturalism and equal rights.”
He said: “It is simply not true that the London Central Mosque has become dominated by the influence of Saudi Arabia and its religious teachings”
The Saudi government says it’s cracked down on clerics who preach extremism
It says it does everything it can to “confront and combat extremism”
It’s a major ally of Britain
Caption: May 2006
Jack Straw: We proclaim our shared attachment to civilisation and to the basic human values, of respect, of dialogue and freedom
Haras Rafiq heads the Sufi Muslim Council, which promotes a tolerant Islam and is opposed to the spread of radical teachings
Haras Rafiq: A lot of these institutions that are set up by and funded by Wahhabis and their offshoots, are teaching Muslims youngsters to be isolationist, are teaching Muslim youngsters to be segregationalist, are teaching Muslim youngsters that America and Britain are against them and therefore they need to get up against them and fight against them or struggle against them
Hakim Murad: Some Wahhabis believe that this is how the West is to be brought down, by spreading Wahhabism in the heart of the West’s cities.
Next, we find radicalism, openly preached at a major mosque
run by an organisation praised by Tony Blair for its support for multiculturalism and interfaith
PART THREE
A Dispatches reporter has uncovered a message of bigotry and intolerance
spreading through Britain from the Saudi religious establishment
Sheikh Feiz: We want to have children and offer them as soldiers, put in their soft, tender hearts, the zeal of jihad
Now he was to find more radical speakers, preaching in a mosque run by a major organisation
praised by Tony Blair for its interfaith work
While filming undercover, our reporter met this preacher - Dr Ijaz Mian
He’s a travelling speaker, who talks at different organisations in Britain
Our reporter filmed his talk at a mosque run by the Ahl-e-Hadith organisation in Derby
It’s the same organisation that runs Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, which our reporter found promoting extreme teachings
Dr Mian praises the Saudi religious police, saying they can imprison people for not praying
Dr Mian: They send the police, and they say, well, if you don’t come for prayer, close your shop, we will arrest you But if you don’t, then we have to bring the punishment on you, you will be killed, and nobody will pray on you
Dr Mian is yet another UK preacher who was taught in Saudi Arabia
He spent six years studying Islam at Ibn Saud University in Riyadh
He wants to see religious police operating on the street
Dr Mian: They would make sure that every person prays to Allah, five times. Every woman will be covered properly, hijab, otherwise the police will just collect them
He has a radical plan for this country
Muslims shouldn’t accept British democracy
Dr Mian: King, Queen, House of Commons. If you accept it, you are a part of it. You don’t accept it, you have to dismantle it. So you being a Muslim you have to fix a target, there will be no House of Commons. From that White House to this Black House, we know that we have to dismantle it
Muslims must grow in strength then take over
Dr Mian: You are in a situation in which you have to live like a state within a state, until you take over. But until this happens, you have to preach, until you become such a force that the people they just submit to you, hands up, until you become strong enough to take over
It’s an extreme vision – that Muslims will one day take over Britain and bring about an Islamic state with sharia law
Dr Mian invites our reporter to visit Birmingham, where he’s based
Dr Mian: We can come to you, you can come to us
He takes him up on the offer and a few weeks later they meet in Birmingham
Dr Mian takes him to Sparkbrook Islamic Centre, where he wants to arrange a talk
The centre is run by the UK Islamic Mission a major organisation dedicated to interfaith work
This is their annual conference last year in Birmingham
It runs over 45 mosques and branches in Britain and has 6,000 children in its part-time Islamic schools
The Prime Minister has said the UKIM “is extremely valued by the government”, particularly for its “multi-faith and multicultural activities
Caption: UKIM website
Yet despite his radical views, Dr Mian has worked with the UKIM and given talks at its events
At their annual conference, he was a guest on stage
Today, he’s making a presentation to the UKIM committee at the Sparkbrook Islamic Centre
He suggests that the committee invites a small group of non-Muslims to the mosque and tries to convert them
Dr Mian: Every kaffir has a right to Islam
He says Muslims cannot accept non-Muslim rule
Dr Mian: You cannot accept the rule of the kaffir. We have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others
Although his radical beliefs are obvious, the UKIM committee is happy to go ahead with his talk
UKIM man: If we invite people, would you be available to speak to them?
Dr Mian: Of course, this is my full time duty
UKIM Man: We will organise it
The UKIM hosts regular interfaith events at this mosque
Yet when our reporter joined the worshippers at Sparkbrook for a Friday sermon – he heard the UKIM imam preaching against non-Muslims
Preacher: God, help us win the fight against the kuffaar, in every field, in every department of life. We beg you to help us fight against the enemies of our religion. Help us fight the kuffaar
The UKIM runs dawah, or missionary centres, which spread the word
Our reporter visits one of them, at Alum Rock Islamic Centre, in Birmingham, to see what kind of materials they circulate
Reporter: Is the dawah centre open upstairs?
Dawah man: Yes, what do you want?
Reporter: I’m looking for some books
Man: yes, yes
He’s given some free leaflets
Man: Yes this one. If you start with these, these are easy to understand, for everybody who doesn’t know anything about Islam
They’re by a Pakistani religious leader called Sayyid Mawdudi
He He wwas the founder of a fundamentalist political party in Pakistan called Jamaat-Islami
The UKIM literature outlines his radical message
Pamphlet: “Islam is a revolutionary ideology which seeks to alter the social order of the entire world”
Muslims form an “International Revolutionary Party”
The pamphlets contain some of the ideas that Dr Mian preaches …..
that Muslims must work towards doing away with all non-Islamic governments, and set up an Islamic state
The party Mawdudi founded, the Jamaat Islami, has links to the Saudi religious establishment
Although it stands in Pakistani elections, its aim is to set up an Islamic state run by sharia law
Protesters: Long Live sharia constitution!
The man who runs the missionary centre in Birmingham says the UKIM is an independent organisation, with its own objectives
… but he says they follow the same ideology as the Jamaat Islami
Man: ideologically we are affiliated to Jamaat Islami
Reporter: It’s the same ideology?
Man: Yeah you can say that, it’s the same ideology
He claims the UKIM shares the same ideology with other fundamentalist organisations, like Hamas in Palestine, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Bookshop man: Some are in Pakistan, some are in Egypt, wherever they are their ideology is the same, so you can say our ideology is the same with them
Our reporter finds the UKIM accepts money from Saudi sheikhs
Every week at its Sparkbrook mosque, a list of donors is read out
Speaker: Saudi Arabian Professor Sheikh
Caption: August 2006
Our reporter attended a day of talks, arranged at the UKIM’s Sparkbrook mosque
When we contacted the UKIM, they said they had hired their centre out to another organisation, who arranged this event
In public, the UKIM has told Muslims they can participate in British democracy, and it invited politicians to its annual conference last summer in Birmingham
Rob Marris, Labour MP: I’m here as a friend of Islam and as a Labour politician
But in the day of talks in their mosque, invited preachers condemned democracy
Speaker: Today we find ourselves bearing the brunt of a pervasive attack against Islam, trying to win the hearts and minds of Muslims over to become advocates and supporters of a democratic system
Never will the Jews and Christians be happy with you until you follow their way, and their system and their way of life. Call the people to avoid and renounce the way of the Jews and the Christians, which is the way of freedom, which is the way of equality, which is the way of democracy
The next speaker is introduced as the deputy headmaster of Darul Uloom Islamic High School, a single faith secondary school in Birmingham
The government has urged single faith schools to promote “tolerance … inclusion … and understanding between different sections of society”
Deputy head: They talk about integration, there is an overt as well as a covert plan, a programme, they talk about you need to integrate, if you don’t you are a freak, you’re strange, there’s something wrong with you, like if you have something against homosexuality, they’ve got a name to call you now, you’re a homophobic man there is something wrong with you, not with this gay – sorry homosexual. Which part of this society are we supposed to take and adopt as our life, which one?
His criticism of Western society even extended to democracy itself
Deputy head: And they’ve got all these people, all these organisations talking about it, let’s be “democratic”. And I disagree with using the word democracy. They should call it according to the Islamic understanding of the word, which is kuffrocracy, kuffrocracy that’s their plan. It’s the hidden, cancerous aim of these people
Darul Uloom School told us that the deputy headmaster had left the school after this speech was made and said his views and opinions did not represent those of the school
It said: “We` promote the view that students should integrate and become good and upright citizens of this country”
The UKIM works with the police and invited officers to its annual conference
Police officer: I take huge comfort from the really positive messages from the Muslim community
But in the event which they allowed at their Sparkbrook mosque, another invited speaker said Muslims can’t join the police
Speaker: Is it correct, is it viable, to join the police? How can you be implementing the laws of kufr? It means a rejection of the concept of democracy, rejecting the entirety of the system
He mentions a Muslim who joined the British Army and was killed fighting the Taliban last summer
Speaker: There was an individual who was killed in Afghanistan recently - what was his name? His name was a Muslim name you know what they’d written in a tabloid newspaper? Hero of Islam!
A hero of Islam who went into the Muslim Afghanistan to kill Muslims. Why? Because they are implementing Islam
Then, he praises the Taliban fighters who killed him
The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders.
((((((IN LIEU OF THEIR STATEMENT TO COME, taken from the Oberver RTR and our letter)))))
The UKIM told us its Sparkbrook hall had been available for hire and said: “Some of the organisations that hired it allowed some speakers with views that are not our own. No more external groups will be allowed to hire our community hall at Sparkbrook”
It said the UK Islamic Mission has no organic links with Jamaa’t-e-Islami in Pakistan or any other Islamic party or society overseas
It said the UKIM believed in “genuine plurality, multiculturalism, universal human rights, cultural diversity
Dr Mian told us that he did not advocate that Islam would be forced upon anyone, and said we had not quoted his many speeches condemning terrorism and the killing of innocent people
Our investigation has uncovered religious bigotry and intolerance spreading from the Saudi religious establishment through major, mainstream British organisations
Haras Rafiq: The radicalising power of this ideology is extremely dangerous. We are losing our children to extremists
Hakim Murad: I regard what the Saudis are doing in the ghettoes of British Islam as potentially lethal for the future of the community
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Humanity needs peace not Islam.
