Any observer of the British Jihadist and Islamic extremist scene will probably be very aware of the various controversies about the Lewisham Islamic Centre in South London. Not only is it a mosque where the murderers of Fusilier Lee Rigby worshipped but one of the Imams there, Shakeel Begg, was judged to be an extremist by a UK court after Begg took the BBC to court complaining that the BBC had called him an extremist. The court in that case decided that Begg was quite rightly being classed by the BBC as an extremist.
There have been some numerous controversies about this particular mosque including hosting speakers that have said that marital rape is permitted in Islam. There have also I believe been numerous other Press stories about some of the speakers that have been invited to this mosque.
Well the Government or rather the Charity Commission has decided to take an interest in the sort of people that the Lewisham Islamic Centre are hosting and as expected the response to this mosque from the Charity Commission is very weak tea indeed. The Charity Commission have decided that hosting speakers who include those who say that marital rape is fine and dandy is a ‘warning’ from them. With the adverse record that this mosque and its preachers have I’d say that a mere warning from the Charity Commission is not enough. The Lewisham Islamic Centre should have at the very least had its charity status removed.
If this incident was a one off then maybe a warning might have been an appropriate response but there is a pattern of behaviour with this mosque, its staff and some of those who choose to worship there. This is a mosque closely associated with controversies and a mere warning about speakers is really not tough enough.
If a place of worship associated with my faith, Judaism, decided to host speakers who decided to promote conduct that might have been acceptable in the period following the Bronze Age Collapse when Judaism first emerged but is not acceptable today, then you can bet your bottom dollar that the whole British state, not just the Charity Commission, would come down on that place of worship like the proverbial ton of bricks. If a Jewish religious organisation in Britain promoted stuff like stoning adulterers or gays or marrying off pubescent girls or the right of communal leaders to have many wives, then the feet of such people would not hit the ground on their way to the civil and possibly the criminal courts. In addition it would not just be the State turning against such a group but the wider Jewish community would do so as well.
What the Charity Commission has dished out to the Lewisham Islamic Centre is considerably less than a slap on the wrist. It’s a damned insult bearing in mind the unfortunate record of this mosque and its leaders. Christians preaching from the Bible in the street get greater punishments from the State than what has been handed down to this mosque, they get dragged off of the street and chucked in the cells or otherwise intimidated. A far more appropriate punishment for this mosque would have been either for the Charity Commission to use their statutory powers to step in and run this charity themselves until fresh management can be obtained, or to either temporarily or permanently remove this mosque’s charitable status. As an aside there’s the awful whiff of ‘two tier’ about this action by the Charity Commission as it’s likely that they’d be much more robust against other non-Muslim charities whether they be secular or religious, that promoted speakers of the calibre of those that the Lewisham Islamic Centre has hosted.
I’ve linked the Charity Commission’s report on this mosque below and in my view the response is much weaker than it should be. In my view, people including mad mullahs, have a right to freedom of speech as have the opponents of such people, but when an organisation is getting tax breaks for being a charity and is knowingly hosting speakers who call for such things as marital rape, then different rules may apply. British taxpayers are helping to fund this mosque by way of tax exemptions for charities which means that it’s the public that are helping to pay for a mosque that hosts extremist preachers. As I said before, a warning to this charity is not enough. Much tougher action should be taken against this and all other similar mosques when they promote extremism. I would not bet money on Lewisham Islamic Centre not hosting hate preachers or engaging in other types of extremism in the future. They might have done if the sanctions against them had been tougher but no after this perfunctory slap on the wrist.
Links
Charity Commission release.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/official-warning-issued-to-charity-for-inflammatory-comments
Shakeel Begg of Lewisham Islamic Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakeel_Begg
Rigby murderers and Jihadi John worshipped at Lewisham Islamic Centre
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/560746/Lee-Rigby-killers-Jihadi-John-prayed-same-mosque-link
Shekeel Begg sued the BBC for libel after the BBC called Begg an ‘extremist’. He lost that libel action after the Court determined that he was extreme.
“If a Jewish religious organisation in Britain promoted stuff like stoning adulterers or gays or marrying off pubescent girls or the right of communal leaders to have many wives [then] … it would not just be the State turning against such a group but the wider Jewish community would do so as well.”
And there is the big difference. As you say the wider Jewish community would turn on such a group. This never happens within Islam. The ‘moderate’ Muslims just stay silent (bar a few individuals that is) there is never a community backlash. This is partly from fear of course, not being thought of as a “good Muslim” can produce problems, but it is also in part because many ‘moderates’ actually agree with orthodox teachings and attitudes, they just think that the time is not right at present to implement them. They are “in Mecca” as they say, rather than “in Medina”.