Saudi Arabia's Export Of Radical Islam - Part Three

On Monday, January 15, UK television aired a documentary on Channel Four, entitled "Undercover Mosques".  This program has caused something of a seismic shock, with reactions to its broadcast being felt in Canada, Pakistan and Israel.  It has also led to government reaction in Australia.

I have uploaded a small QuickTime version of the documentary, which can be accessed here.  It is 106 mb in size.  Alternatively, versions can be found on HotAir and YouTube and HERE (Flash Player required).  The documentary needs to be seen in its entirety.

Channel Four sent an undercover reporter to the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, where he filmed secretly for four months.  This mosque is the headquarters of the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith.  The preachers at this mosque were shown inciting hate against "unbelievers", called disparagingly "Kuffaar" or "kaffir".

This of itself should raise concern, but the Markaz Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith has 41 other mosques and faith schools under its influence.  More disturbingly still, it is a registered charity, listed by the Charities Commission (Number 272001), and has been in existence as a charity since January 3, 1976.  The Charities Commission has a lax interpretation of what constitutes a "charity", as I demonstrated earlier in the case of Interpal.  Ahl-e-Hadith claims on the Charities Commission register that its objective is "the advancement of the religion of Islam", though its "area of benefit" is not defined.

The Channel Four documentary showed that the Green Lane mosque's brand of Islam is pure Wahhabism.  Via video links, members of the mosque sometimes communicate directly with the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia.  In one of these sessions, the Grand Mufti is asked by a Birmingham believer for a fatwa about understanding between religions.

The Grand Mufti is asked: "Some people think we shouldn't call Christians and Jews Kuffar and we should establish good relations with them. What's your answer to this?"

The Mufti replies: "This is not true.  Jews and Christians who do not follow the Prophet Mohammed are Kuffar.  They will go to Hell... Anyone who helps or defends an apostate, or a pagan, or an atheist, or anyone who attacks Islam, will be cursed."

The Grand Mufti is Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh. He has condemned the 9/11 attacks, but is supportive of cyber-terrorism. He has issued a fatwa approving the hacking of websites which attacked Islam, saying "if you are unable to respond to it, and you wanted to destroy it and you have the ability to do so, its ok to destroy it because it is an evil website."

Al-Sheikh is the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, Chairman of the Senior Ulema, and also a member of the Saudi government.  He objects to men and women mingling ("khalwat") and believes women should always be veiled. On the Channel Four documentary, the Grand Mufti is shown on a Saudi TV broadcast from March 2006 saying: "Tell your children to pray when they are seven, and hit them when they are ten".

The Green Lanes mosque frequently has guest preachers, and one of these is a man calling himself "Abu Usama".  This man is a black American, born in 1964. Formerly from Paterson, New Jersey he became a convert to Islam in 1986.  He now, according to one source, lives in Queens, New York.  He was educated at the Islamic University of Madina, which he attended for eight years, graduating from the College of Da'wah and Usool-ad-Din.  His sermons can be found on the internet, and they are not messages of peace and harmony.

Usama, whose full name is Abu Usaamah Adh-Dhahabi, has worked as a translator, and has been an imam at various mosques in the United States.  His audio cassettes, which are of poor technical standard, can be found in various archives on the internet.  In his native America, Abu Usama has not been making many appearances since 2004, when he fell foul of the Salafi Muslim community. An interesting condemnation by the Salafist Da`ee Abu Awais Abdullah Alee from Philadelphia can be found here or here (MP3 format).

Usama's audio sermons still seem popular amongst the members of the Muslim Students Associations at various US universities and colleges, such as that at Binghamton University, State University of New York.  Here, students can listen to his tape: "If you are visited by the FBI".

In Britain, Usama has a ready audience.  He has given talks at schools and universities.  He is shown in the Channel Four documentary at Green Lane mosque, saying: "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."

He describes all non-Muslims as liars, stating: "I don’t believe them, because they are kuffaar, lying is part of their religion.  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 ."

On terrorists, Usama states on a Green Lane mosque internet broadcast: "I don’t agree with those individuals, but at the same time they are closer to me than those criminals of the kuffaar.  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."

In another internet broadcast, Usama says: "Allah has created the woman, even if she gains a PhD, deficient.  Her intellect is incomplete.  Deficient.  She may be suffering from hormones…that will make her emotional.  It takes two witnesses of the woman to equal the one witness of the man."

It is strange that Usama allows himself to appear in such internet broadcasts and to appear on video, as I found an internet sermon in which he states that it is expressly forbidden to take photographs, or even to draw, any human being, and even an animal.

He is heard on the documentary saying: "Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain." His DVDs, in which his face appears are equally uncompromising.  In one, entitled "The Major Sins", from 2005, he says: "Whoever changes his religion from Islam to anything else - kill him in the Islamic state."

The hate-filled sermons preached at Green Lane mosque were often attended by children, and in one section of footage, a man called Sheikh Al-Jibali states: "What is sad to see is that for many parents they send their children to the kuffaar school.  They allow them to mix with the kuffaar, so that the lifestyle and the beliefs of the kuffaar become deep rooted in the hearts of the kids."

Another preacher at Green Lane mosque is Dr Ijaz Mian, who told a meeting within the mosque: "We have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others."

The Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, headquartered at Green Lane mosque, has already been exposed for its segregationist and offensive outlook.  On Sunday, August 21, 2005, the BBC showed a documentary on its Panorama strand "A Question of Leadership", made by journalist John Ware.  In this he examined the Muslim Council of Britain.  At that time, the website of the group urged Muslims to "be different from Jews and Christians" whose "ways are based on sick or deviant views".

John Ware confronted Iqbal Sacranie with this information.  Ahl-e-Hadith was then, and still is, affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain. Sacranie said: "I'm not a member of Ahle Hadith but it's a membership that we have, it's diversity that exists in the community, having different views on life."

The current head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, has condemned Channel Four, saying the documentary "mischievously tried to prove that key Muslim institutions are teaching exact opposite to Islam commanding Muslims to deal positively and peacefully with those around us." He said the producers were "resorting to the dishonest tactic of selectively quoting from some recorded speeches for purpose of misrepresentation.  Their aim is to attach guilt by association.  This continuing demonization of British Muslims and risible attempt at promoting sectarianism among British Muslims will be firmly rejected."

Bari, echoing the complacency of his predecessor, is refusing to accept that there is a problem in one of the 400 groups that the MCB claims to represent.  He would rather blame non-Muslims for exposing the words coming from Muslim mouths.

The most "devout" worshippers at Green Lane are being offered scholarships to study at Islamic universities in Saudi Arabia.  The aim, states Dr Irfan Al Alawi, a UK academic, is to create a new generation of Muslim imams and teachers.

Another preacher at the Green Lane mosque is Dr Bilal Phillips, who was born in Jamaica and became a convert.  A list of his lectures can be found on his website. He was shown at Green Lane, saying that it is permissible to marry off a girl before puberty.  The Prophet Mohammed became betrothed to a six year old girl, Aisha, when he was in his 50s.  He consummated the marriage when Aisha was nine, according to the Hadiths of Tabari and Bukhari.

On the documentary, Phillips states: "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 practiced it, it wasn’t abuse or exploitation, it was marriage."

It was child abuse and would be classed now as statutory rape, no matter how Phillips dresses it up.  Phillips preaches in both the United States and Britain.

The documentary also visited the giant mosque in Regents Park, north London. This mosque had been built with a donation of £2 million ($3.95 million) from the Saudi monarchy.  In the 1990s, the Saudis paid for its educational wing to be built. The mosque houses a bookstore, which is run by a British company, Dar-us Salam, linked to a company of the same name based in Saudi Arabia.

Here, videos of a jihadist nature were on sale. These included videos where one preacher, Feiz Mohammed, a former boxer, makes sermons. In the documentary, this Saudi-educated imam is shown saying: "The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the highest point, the pivot, the summit, of Islam, is jihad.  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."

This was in a clip taken from a DVD from the "Death Series", by Islam Productions.  This cleric, of Lebanese origin, is based in Australia. Long before Australia's Mufti, Taj Din al-Hilaly, made his comments in September 2006 that women who were not covered by veils invited rape, Feiz Mohammed was making similar remarks.

On March 18 2005, at Bankstown Town Hall in Sydney, he said at a lecture on "Death": "A victim of rape every minute somewhere in the world. Why? No one to blame but herself.  She displayed her beauty to the entire world... Strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans: all this to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature."

Feiz Mohammed said: "Would you put this sheep that you adore in the middle of hungry wolves? No . . . It would be devoured. It's the same situation here.  You're putting this precious girl in front of lustful, satanic eyes of hungry wolves.  What is the consequence?  Catastrophic devastation, sexual harassment, perversion, promiscuity."

Feiz Mohammed is head of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Liverpool, Sydney, which has about 4,000 followers, mostly of Lebanese Muslim origin.  His videos, which were also on sale outside Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, have been found to be on sale in Australia, and there has been strong reaction.

He fled from Australia to Lebanon in November 2005, after 23 people were arrested on November 8 in Melbourne and Sydney on terror charges.  The individuals were accused of plotting an attack upon a nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights in Sydney.

As a result of the revelations in the Channel Four documentary, the leader of the opposition in Australia, Kevin Rudd, has said that Feiz Mohammed should not return to the country.  He has said that the Saudi-educated preachers' comments on the DVDs "add up to an incitement to terrorism."  Kevin Andrews, acting Attorney-General, says the DVDs are "importation of hatred" and says an investigation has been launched.  The premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma, has asked the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, to have the DVDs withdrawn from sale in Australia, and the federal police are also investigating the matter.

The DVDs of Feiz Mohammed and other radical preachers were pointed out to the management of the Regents Park Mosque, and they were subsequently withdrawn from its bookshop to be reviewed.

The Director General of Regents Park Mosque is Saudi-born Dr Ahmed al-Dubayan.  When he took over as director of the mosque and Islamic Cultural Center (ICC), he was granted diplomatic status by the Saudi government.  This privilege has been granted to every head of the mosque since it began, even if they were not Saudi nationals.

This diplomatic status came in handy for Dubayan, when he was granted diplomatic immunity during a sexual discrimination case launched by his personal secretary, a woman called Mrs Nahid Mahmoud.  She had been accused of "witchcraft" and "black magic".  She won her case on September 12, 2006.

Dubayan told Channel Four: "It is false and misleading to make the sweeping generalization that the teachings from Saudi Arabia promote extremism, and it is also false to assert that the ICC is dominated by the influence of such teachings.

The Saudi government told the program makers: "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state, governed in accordance with the teachings of the Shari'a.  Islam is a religion of tolerance and respects the rights of all people, regardless of gender, age, religion or race.  Islam is a religion without national borders.  There is no such thing as "the religious establishment" in Saudi Arabia.  Here, as in every society, one can find extremists, as well as conservatives and moderates.  Saudi Arabia does not support radical or extreme ideology but strongly condemns all those seeking to politicize Islam, preaching, inciting or fostering hatred and violence, or legitimizing terrorist activities.  To this end, many imams have been re-educated in recent years and a misguided few have been dismissed."

Another preacher featured on the DVDs on sale at Green Lane mosque, and who is based in Britain, is an American convert, Sheikh Khalid Yasin.  He lectures around the world.  In the US, he appeared last year at Penn State university, a guest of the Muslim Students Association.

Yasin, who also studied in Saudi Arabia, has said on the DVD "Changing the World through Da'wah": 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 TVs, and your wife is watching it right now, and your children are watching it right now, and they are being polluted, and they are being penetrated, and they are being infected, so that your children and you go out as Muslims and you come back to the house as kaffirs."

On a DVD called "Some Advice to the Muslim women" he states: "This whole delusion of the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness. There's no such thing."

On another, entitled "Jihad or Terrorism" he says: "Now missionaries, from the World Health Organization, and Christian - and Christian groups, went into Africa and inoculated people, for diptheria, malaria, yellow fever, and they put in the medicine, the AIDS virus. Which is a conspiracy!"

Another mosque was featured in the documentary, based in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. Here, a deputy headmaster of an Islamic high school, Darul Uloom in Birmingham, told a conference that he disagreed with the word "democracy". He stated: "They should call it... kuffrocracy, that's their plan.  It's the hidden cancerous aim of these people."  The teacher has since been removed from his post at the school.

At a mosque in Derby, also run by the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith who govern Green Lane mosque.  Here, a traveling preacher called Dr Ijaz Mian praises the Saudi religious police, or muttawa, as they can imprison people for not praying. Mian studied Islam for six years at the Ibn Saud University in Riyadh, where Abdullah el-Faisal also studied. He says he wants religious police in Britain.  He states that Muslims should not accept democracy, and claims that Muslims will one day take over Britain.

The Sparkbrook mosque is run by the UK Islamic Mission (UKIM), a group described by Tony Blair as "extremely valued by the government particularly for its multi-faith and multicultural activities".  The UKIM, which runs Sparkbrook, works with the police, yet one speaker at the mosque is shown saying that Muslims should not work with police.  In the documentary, a preacher at this Mosque is shown to be praising the Taliban.

The imam states: "There was an individual who was killed in Afghanistan recently.  A Muslim name, he came from a Pakistani family. Do you know what they had written in a tabloid newspaper?  'Hero of Islam'. 'Hero of Islam' who went into Muslim Afghanistan to kill Muslims. Why? Because their crime is implementing Islam.  The 'Hero of Islam' is the one who separated his head from his shoulders."

The soldier referred to was 24-year old Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi, who was killed in Helmand province in 2006. When Anjem Choudary, former UK leader of Al-Muhajiroun, wrote a polemic against this soldier on his website, Lance Corporal Hashmi's family were deeply upset.  The soldier’s brother Zeeshar had said: "You can be proud to be Muslim and British - the two don't have to be separate."

For many Muslims subjected to Saudi Arabian teachings, it appears that this notion is completely alien.


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