‘Agenda of hate in British mosques’

Extremist literature calling for the execution of gays and the oppression of women is being distributed in British mosques. Researchers found radical or hate-filled books and pamphlets at a quarter of the 100 Islamic religious institutions they visited.

The material found in the mosques urges Muslims to lead separate lives from “nonbelievers” and makes repeated calls for gays to be killed. Women should be subjugated and are warned not to pluck their eyebrows or wear perfume.

In the alarming report, drawn up by the Policy Exchange thinktank, the Saudis were accused of having a “powerful and malign” influence.

Hardline material was found at the East London Mosque which has been visited by Prince Charles and is closely linked to the Muslim Council of Britain. The think-tank said separatist or hateful material was also found at the former Finsbury Park Mosque in North London – made infamous by hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza – and institutions in Wycombe, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Blackburn, Bradford, Rochdale and Oxford.

Anthony Browne, Policy Exchange’s director, said: “It is clearly intolerable that hate literature is peddled at some British mosques.”

The report, The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting Britain’s mosques, was written by Denis MacEoin, an Islamic studies expert at Newcastle University. Dr MacEoin said the radical material was found by Muslim research teams working in 2006 and 2007. He added: “What is more worrying is that these are among the best-funded and most dynamic institutions in Muslim Britain – some of which are held up as mainstream bodies. Many of the institutions have been endowed with official recognition.”

Daily Mail, 30 October 2007


See also the Daily Telegraph and the Times (plus leader “Studies in hate“).

For the report itself see the Policy Exchange website.

The Preface to the Policy Exchange report states explicitly that its purpose is to launch a witch-hunt against representative Muslim organisations in the UK:

“Most readers will be shocked by this report. However, its contents ought not to come as a surprise. Over the past three years several highly responsible broadcasters and investigative journalists have sought to alert the public to the fact that some of Britain’s mainstream [emphasis in original] Islamic institutions give cause for concern. Those who have questioned their integrity or accused them of Islamophobia should now have second thoughts. The findings presented here demonstrate unequivocally that separatist and hate literature, written and disseminated in the name of Islam, is widely available in the UK. The report also lends weight to my longstanding conviction that senior politicians and government agencies too often confer legitimacy on those whose credentials are highly suspect.”

The author of the report is the same Denis MacEoin who backed the French ban on headscarves in state schools as “a sensible school uniform measure” that would counter the iniquitous creed of multiculturalism, and contributed an article entitled “Why do Muslims execute innocent people?” to Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Quarterly.

To describe MacEoin as “an Islamic studies expert at Newcastle University” is stretching the facts to say the least. He’s actually employed by the Royal Literary Fund to give advice to students on essay writing, and by his own account had previously “worked as a professional fiction writer for over twenty years”.

Update:  Over at the MPACUK forum one commentator provides another example of the extremist literature that is readily available in UK mosques: “I went into a mosque in Bolton once, when I was there visiting family. I came across a book in the mosque library that sent shockwaves through my whole body. I couldn’t believe my eyes what I was seeing. I thought the mosque must have made a mistake, but i was told by the imam that all kind of literature are kept here. The book in question was ‘Londonistan’ by Melanie Phillips.”