Almost half of Britains mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to shed blood for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found. This article is bone-chilling. The details of the takeover are scary. And at the link you can find links to Mr. ul-Haq's speeches. Why haven't we heard more about him? | Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and preaches contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement, which gave birth to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of Britains 1,350 mosques, according to a police report seen by The Times.
Most Deobandi mosques in Britain employ Pakistani imams, but the new generation of Deobandi preachers are graduates of seminaries in Britain.
The first in Western Europe, Darul Uloom al-Arabiya al-Islamiya, in Holcombe, near Bury, Greater Manchester, opened in 1975 after receiving financial support from the Saudi Arabian Embassy. Behind its closed doors boys and young men aged from 12 to 23 study GCSE subjects alongside advanced Islamic studies.
Bury acts as the mother madrassa for other Deobandi seminaries in Britain and there was outrage when security officials and counter-terrorism police, acting on intelligence information detained its founder, Yusuf Motala, at Heathrow for seven hours of questioning in 2003. He was not charged with any offence. | The Times investigation casts serious doubts on government statements that foreign preachers are to blame for spreading the creed of radical Islam in Britains mosques and its policy of enouraging the recruitment of more home-grown preachers.
Mr ul Haq, 36, was educated and trained at an Islamic seminary in Britain and is part of a new generation of British imams who share a similar radical agenda. He heaps scorn on any Muslims who say they are proud to be British and argues that friendship with a Jew or a Christian makes a mockery of Allahs religion.
Seventeen of Britains 26 Islamic seminaries are run by Deobandis and they produce 80 per cent of home-trained Muslim clerics. Many had their studies funded by local education authority grants. The sect, which has significant representation on the Muslim Council of Britain, is at its strongest in the towns and cities of the Midlands and northern England.
Figures supplied to The Times by the Lancashire Council of Mosques reveal that 59 of the 75 mosques in five towns Blackburn, Bolton, Preston, Oldham and Burnley are Deobandi-run.
It is not suggested that all British Muslims who worship at Deobandi mosques subscribe to the isolationist message preached by Mr ul Haq, and he himself suggests Muslims should only shed blood overseas.
But while some Deobandi preachers have a more cohesive approach to interfaith relations, Islamic theologians say that such bridge-building efforts do not represent mainstream Deobandi thinking in Britain.
The Times has gained access to numerous talks and sermons delivered in recent years by Mr ul Haq and other graduates of Britains most influential Deobandi seminary near Bury, Greater Manchester.
Intended for a Muslim-only audience, they reveal a deep-rooted hatred of Western society, admiration for the Taleban and a passionate zeal for martyrdom in the way of Allah.
The seminary outlaws art, television, music and chess, demands entire concealment for women and views football as a cancer that has infected our youth.
Mahmood Chandia, a Bury graduate who is now a university lecturer, claims in one sermon that music is a way in which Jews spread the Satanic web to corrupt young Muslims.
Nearly every university in England has a department which is called the music department, and in others, where the Satanic influence is more, they call it the Royal College of Music, he says.
Another former Bury student, Bradford-based Sheikh Ahmed Ali, hails the 9/11 attacks on America because they acted as a wake-up call to young Muslims. This, he says, taught them that they will never be accepted in Britain and has led them to return to Islam: sisters are wearing hijab . . . the lion is waking up.
Mr ul Haq, the most high-profile of the new generation of Deobandis, runs an Islamic academy in Leicester and is the former imam at the Birmingham Central Mosque. Revered by many young Muslims, he draws on his extensive knowledge of the Koran and the life and sayings of the prophet Muhammed to justify his hostility to the kuffar, or non-Muslims.
One sermon warns believers to protect their faith by distancing themselves from the evil influence of their non-Muslim British neighbours.
We are in a very dangerous position here. We live amongst the kuffar, we work with them, we associate with them, we mix with them and we begin to pick up their habits.
In another talk, delivered a few weeks before 9/11, he praises Muslims who have gained martyrdom in battle and laments that today no one dare utter the J word. The J word has become taboo . .. The J word is jihad in the way of Allah.
The Times has made repeated attempts to get Mr ul Haq to comment on the content of his sermons. However, he declined to respond.
A commentator on religious radicalism in Pakistan, where Deobandis wield significant political influence, told The Times that blind ignorance on the part of the Government in Britain had allowed the Deobandis to become the dominant voice of Islam in Britains mosques.
Khaled Ahmed said: The UK has been ruined by the puritanism of the Deobandis. Youve allowed the takeover of the mosques. You cant run multiculturalism like that, because thats a way of destroying yourself. In Britain, the Deobandi message has become even more extreme than it is in Pakistan. Its mind-boggling.
In some mosques the sect has wrested control from followers of the more moderate majority, the Barelwi movement.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities said: We have a detailed strategy to ensure imams properly represent and connect with mainstream moderate opinion and promote shared values like tolerance and respect for the rule of law. We have never said the challenge from extremism is simply restricted to those coming from overseas.
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