Today’s Sunday Times reports (£):
SECURITY officials have identified a network of 25 hate clerics who face being silenced under anti-extremism “Asbos” demanded by Downing Street.
The 25 are being targeted in an attempt to bar them from spreading ideological hatred at universities, mosques and other public places.
The new powers, which could be in place by the spring, would be similar to antisocial behaviour orders used by police and local councils to curb yobs.
“The intention is to explore legislation that might curtail their activities and stop people skirting around the current law and engaging in activity which in effect incites terrorism without breaking the law,” said a senior official.
One of the very worst hate preachers is in the frame:
One of those said by Whitehall sources to be the subject of scrutiny is Haitham al-Haddad, a controversial London-based Islamic scholar of Palestinian origin. He praised Osama bin Laden following the al-Qaeda leader’s death in 2011, saying he would enter paradise.
“He died as a Muslim and it is an established part of our Islamic creed that every Muslim, unlike the disbelievers, will eventually enter paradise,” Haddad wrote in May 2011, in an article entitled Advice to Muslims on the Death of Osama bin Laden.
The move against hate clerics follows the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, hacked to death outside Woolwich barracks in south London in May. His killers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, were convicted of his murder at the Old Bailey last week.
Haddad will be familiar to readers of this blog. He remains an appalling hater, as you can see in this clip from an interview last month.
Islam considers homosexuality as a sin, in fact a major sin, and in the Islamic state it is considered to be a crime as well.
We all know what the punishment is for this “crime”.
But punishment is not enough. Hatred is divinely mandated. Homosexuality is
…something that God hates
You can see the full interview here.
How would Haddad like it if a prominent Christian preacher welcome in churches and student societies across the land said God hates Islam and that following it should be a crime in a Christian state?
The next mosque to welcome Haddad will be the Al-Muntada centre in west London, which is holding a conference next weekend. Haddad used to be an imam there and in fact some of his worst rhetoric was delivered in sermons at al-Muntada.
Haddad and al-Muntada are a perfect match. Al-Muntada’s whole mission is the promotion of shockingly hateful Salafi preachers. It has a very long record of hosting all sorts of nasty extremists.
Perhaps Labour MP Andy Slaughter can spring to al-Muntada’s defence. After all, he has repeatedly praised it and even invited it to Parliament.
Take a look at him gushing.
There’s more here on his website.
We are proud that they have their UK headquarters here in Hammersmith and Fulham and I was honoured to be invited to their 25th Anniversary celebrations this week. One of the things I think Al-Muntada has done particularly well here is to build relationships here with the local community, with schools, public institutions and other faiths. I hope the work of Chairman Khalid Al-Fawaz and Managing Director Sameh Ramadan continues to bear fruit for the next twenty-five years, and many more after that.
