A £2 million government grant to a controversial Mosque has been suspended amid outcry over extremist Islamist statements made by its imams including apparently advocating for stoning women to death for adultery and waging jihad against unbelievers.
Social Investment Business, which initially green-lit £2.2 million in taxpayer money to build a youth centre at the Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre in Birmingham, has blocked the delivery of the grant while investigations are held into allegations of radical rhetoric being spouted in the mosque.
Last month, footage emerged from a sermon from Zakaullah Saleem, the mosque’s head Imam, appearing to show the Sheikh telling worshippers that women found guilty of adultery should be buried in the ground up to their waist in order to “protect her modesty” and then stoned to death, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The Imam was also reported to have called on the government to take “legal action” against the former Batley School Grammar School teacher who was forced into hiding with his family amid death threats in response to him showing his class a caricature of the Islamic prophet during a class on blasphemy.
Another Imam at the Green Lane Masjid, Abu Usamah al-Thahabi allegedly compared British ISIS bride Shamima Begum to young white girl victims of largely Pakistani grooming gangs in the north of England. Al-Thahabi was previously featured in a Channel 4 documentary in which he was recorded telling congregants that a “jihad” would soon come against the “kuffar” — a derogatory term for unbelievers.
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— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 19, 2023
The mosque has claimed that the comments about stoning have been taken out of context and that “he did not suggest that these practices have a place in UK society.” They went on to claim that they reject violent extremism and hate crimes and seek to encourage tolerance between communities.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has acknowledged that the mosque has already received “a limited pre-construction grant from the Youth Investment Fund” from the Social Investment Business (SIB) but has “yet to receive funding for the construction of its youth facility”.
The Social Investment Business, which is run by former Labour Security Minister and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, refused to comment about the allegations of extremism against the mosque while investigations are ongoing, but said: “[We have] paused the distribution of the grant and are investigating the recent allegations.”
The SIB went on to say that the Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre “works with a range of local and regional bodies that have been supportive of their project, including the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner.”
For its part, the West Midlands Police said that after reviewing the videos of Imam Saleem’s speech, the force was “satisfied that there are no criminal offences” within the incendiary remarks.
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— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 30, 2023
