Central Rochdale Mosque’s Antisemitism Problem

A study conducted in 2014 concluded that only two out of 1,700 mosques follow an interpretation of Islam compatible with British values. Over 40% of British mosques are affiliated with the Deobandi sect of Islam. One of the biggest in the North West of England is the Central Rochdale Mosque providing education for children and adults and boasting several satellite centres. The website of the Central Rochdale Mosque encourages the reader to ‘deep dive into our archives and further your understating of Islam’. By doing just that, it is possible to fish out some pretty incendiary material.

There is a section which presents an ancient ‘history’ of ancient Israel thoroughly revised to show that the Palestinians are the indigenous people. A table of ‘Interesting Facts’ mentions the following concerning the mother of Solomon:

interesting facts

The desire to concoct a novel genealogy for Bathsheba appears to be driven by the need to strip her descendants of their Jewish ancestry: Solomon was neither Jewish or semitic so what right do Jews have to claim any rights to The Temple? Similar outlandish ‘fake Jew’ theories are commonly regurgitated by antisemites; the Khazar myth maintains that Ashkenazi Jews are not semites but descendants of Khazar converts and do not therefore have no history in the region.

The revisionism continues in a dateline presenting a ‘Recent History’ of Israel/Palestine which quickly unveils a one-sided agenda driven narrative. There is no mention of the anti-Jewish pogroms or of a historical Jewish presence in the land. The Arab pogroms of 1929 where innocent communities were massacred in Hebron, Tzfat and Jerusalem are called a ‘war’. Whilst every single Arab aggression is omitted, any act of violence by a Jew – presumed or otherwise – is listed. The British Mandate – assigned to Britain by the San Remo conference in April 1920 – is described as an ‘occupation’. Although the ‘Recent History’ timeline is dated from 1878 to 1997 and constantly reminds the reader of the Palestinian ‘expulsions’ and Israeli ‘massacres’, it makes absolutely no reference to the over 700,000 Mizrachi Jewish refugees from Arab lands which Israel eventually absorbed.

Disturbingly, evidence of sympathy and support for jihadist ideology can be gleaned from the Mosque’s website. The Islamist terrorist Izz ad-Din al-Qassam after whom Hamas have named their military wing is lauded as a ‘martyr’. The year entry for 1935 in ‘Recent History’ reads:

timeline

Al-Qassam was not a Palestinian, he was born in Syria. He indiscriminately targeted innocent Jewish civilians as well as the British. After murdering a Jewish British police officer in 1935, he was eventually cornered and died in a shoot-out. Conferring the mantle of ‘martyrdom’ to a killer of civilians is unsettling but should not come as a surprise for Al-Qassam is admired in some parts of the Muslim world.

The Central Rochdale Mosque links to several Islamic websites. It ought to be mentioned here that links do not necessarily constitute an endorsement. However, two of the linked websites are of particular interest here. One is The Council of Muslim Theologians KZN – the spiritual clergy of the movement which the Central Rochdale Mosque is affiliated with – also known as the Jamiatul Ulama.  The other is Albalagh whose founder Khalid Baig contributes material to the Mosque’s own website and whose works have the approval of Jamiatul Ulama.

Interspersed within the Islamic content at Albalagh there are pages with headlines screaming: Why Zionism Is Racism and  Holocaust Remembrance Veils Criminal Policies. The site links to Neturei Karta, a tiny Jewish sect which seeks the dissolution of Israel and are often trotted out by Islamists at anti-Israel rallies. Also linked is the now defunct Al-Aqsa Foundation, designated as a terrorist organisation by most Western nations and sponsored by the radical cleric Raed Salah who in 2012 successfully fought British government attempts to deport him to Israel.

Even more chillingly, there are open calls for jihad at Albalagh. In ‘Jerusalem: History Lessons (Aqsa)’ an article written by Baig, the history of the city is portrayed as an eternal battleground between the forces of monotheism versus paganism and underpinned by replacement theology:

Prophet Muhammad’s (Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam) night journey in which he lead all the prophets in prayers at al-Aqsa also signified that the leadership role had been transferred from the Children of Israel to the Children of Ismail.

On Zionism and Israel:

First, Israel is ruled today by Zionism and not Judaism, which in any case, over the centuries, has been “reformed” beyond recognition as the original revealed religion. And Zionism is just a particularly poisonous form of Western political nationalism. Second, Western civilization, despite all the polishing and enlightenment, remains at heart a pagan civilization. Any doubts in this regard could be quickly dispelled by looking at the Halloween and Christmas observations alone.

There is a stout rejection of any peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestine conflict and a battle cry for war:

Can such reasoning lead to pacifism? Not as long as the concept of Jihad is alive and clear, for the sins that we must avoid include the sin of abandoning Jihad when it is called for. On the contrary it can save us from humiliation of continuously looking for the solutions in all the wrong places.

The world needs monotheism for only it can provide true universalism. And only it can provide peace and justice for all as it did in the past. The world is waiting for the forces of true monotheism to conquer Jerusalem once again.

This supposed future jihad against Jews is described in genocidal detail by the Jamiatul Ulama.

Muslim defeat

Evidently, this is not a fringe belief confined to the Hamas Charter.

To conclude, the evidence suggests that some British mosques teach and endorse antisemitic ideologies. Anyone, including children, who explore the website of Central Rochdale Mosque or follow its endorsed websites would be exposed to the extremist material highlighted above.

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