This is a cross-post from Stand for Peace
Mohammed Kozbar, manager and trustee of Finsbury Park Mosque, recently ‘imprisoned’ Al Arabiya journalist Ben Flanagan. Video taken by Flanagan, posted on the Al Arabiya website, records Kozbar’s refusal to let Flanagan leave after conducting an interview.
According to Flanagan, Kozbar expressed displeasure with Flanagan’s questions about the mosque’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. Flangan recounts:
I asked if the mosque had any links to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has come under the scrutiny of the British government and is banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Kozbar quickly became defensive, saying that this was not the agreed subject of the interview. I argued that any political affiliations of the mosque management and trustees seemed to me very much on-topic; Kozbar reluctantly answered some questions on the matter.
But things took a turn for the worst immediately after the interview. Kozbar demanded a copy of the interview tape, something I said I was happy to provide on the spot. But as I was in the process of complying with that request, Kozbar called the police, saying that he was suspicious of my journalistic credentials. The door of his office was then locked, effectively imprisoning me in the mosque.
I then spent the next 30 minutes asking to be let out of the room, with Kozbar and another man who did not identify himself refusing to let me go. I too dialed “999” to alert police that I was being held there against my will.
Stand for Peace has frequently written about the Finsbury Park Mosque’s apparent connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.
After the former head of the mosque, Abu Hamza, was arrested on terrorism charges in 2004, the British Government, eager to rid the Finsbury Park Mosque of its pro-terror reputation, passed control of the institution in 2005 to the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), one of the most prominent Muslim Brotherhood groups in Britain.
The MAB’s founder, Kemal Helbawi, has proclaimed:
“Oh honoured brothers, the Palestinian cause is not a struggle on borders or on land only. Rather, it is an absolute clash of civilisations: a satanic programme led by the Jews and those who support them and a divine programme carried by Hamas and the Islamic Movement in particular and the Islamic peoples in general.
The other mosque director, Mohammad Kozbar – who was the one to detain Ben Flanagan – has also worked with Sawalha for several other Muslim Brotherhood groups, including the British Muslim Initiative and IslamExpo. Kozbar is also the trustee of a charity named UK Care for Children, which has promoted some of Britain’s most abhorrent hate preachers
Finsbury Park Mosque presently continues to promote the Muslim Brotherhood preacher, Jamal Badawi, who has described suicide bombers and Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters” and “martyrs.” Badawi also advocates the right for men to beat their wives, if they show “disregard for [their] marital obligations.”
That Kozbar expected the police to take his side after detaining the Al Arabiya journalist is not so surprising: both the police and Islington Council have provided several tens of thousands of pounds in grants to the mosque.
Moreover, exhibitions run by Finsbury Park Mosque continue to enjoy sponsorship from both the Council and Police, including events run jointly with the World Association of Muslim Youth [WAMY], a Saudi group that is a prolific publisher of anti-Jewish and anti-Shia material, and is accused by a number of governments of funding terrorism.
habibi adds: where you find thuggish extremists, all too often you find Labour too.
The council funding of the mosque is noted above. There’s more.
HSBC is one of the latest stories. Given Mr Kozbar’s links with Hamas and Interpal and the mosque’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, it really is no surprise that HSBC has closed the mosque’s account.
But Islington Labour is having none of it:
Islington Council has written to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, arguing that HSBC is “arbitrarily and capriciously denying a community faith organisation banking facilities”.
Crime chief Councillor Paul Convery and ward councillors Richard Greening and Andy Hull have called on HSBC to explain its reasons.
…
Cllr Convery said this week: “The simple truth is HSBC got completely whacked for absolutely scandalous money laundering and they have completely overreacted by applying a so-called risk principle to all sorts of accounts.“It is completely discriminatory and totally disproportionate. It is the worst excess of a vast bureaucratic institution who are incapable of thinking of the consequences of what they do.”
He added: “It is a public relations disaster for HSBC. It goes against everything they say they stand for and all the values they say they hold. If I was an HSBC customer I would have closed my account by now.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for Hamas and Hezbollah, added a sleazy accusation of bigotry:
“I have written to the Equality Commission to ask if they would investigate HSBC for its apparent targeting of religious-based Muslim organisations.”
Labour councillors and Corbyn also took part in a typical rally against Israel at the mosque just ten days ago.
Don’t forget Corbyn welcomed Abdullah Djaballah to the mosque earlier this year. Djaballah is a horrific antisemite and supported the murderers of British troops in Iraq.
Well done Labour!
