Toaha Qureshi is not an accomplished spinner.
Listen if you like to the trustee of the mosque in Stockwell, south London, from 24 minutes into this BBC investigative report.
You will hear Mr Qureshi claim that the mosque’s connection to the anti-Ahmadi Pakistani group Khatm-e-Nubuwwat is limited to some “guidance” and “literature”. There is “no other link”.
“No other link”? Really? Qureshi is challenged by the BBC about a Khatm meeting at his mosque in 2015. He says he did not know about the meeting. He was “on holiday” during the summer, and maybe it happened then.
Here’s the poster for a Khatm meeting at the mosque in December 2015. Mehmoud ul-Hassan, an imam at the mosque, is listed as host and “Director of Khatme Nubuwat Stockwell”.
Qureshi goes on to insist that Khatm is not “a hate organisation”.
So, on top of the meeting in Mr Qureshi’s mosque, what about the “kill Ahmadis” leaflets found by the BBC in the mosque earlier this month? The answer is low and essentially amounts to further incitement to hatred. Qureshi suggests that Ahmadis, possibly working for the BBC, planted the leaflets.
In fact, hatred charges in Pakistan are fabricated by Ahmadis in order to gain refuge in the UK, you see.
Qureshi also denies that Khatm wants Ahmadis to be killed.
The truth is that Mr Qureshi’s mosque is very closely connected to Khatm, from ideology to agitation against Ahmadis. The doctrine does demand death for Ahmadis.
It’s nice to see this man finally taken apart in the media.
Mind you, none of this was all that hard to figure out. “Khatme” is written on the mosque’s entrance. A bit of a clue there!
Or simply look up the man’s record. According to this Pakistani news report, Qureshi was so incensed by a diplomat speaking up for Ahmadis that he called for him to stand trial. For blasphemy and treason, no less.
Renowned London-based intellectual Toaha Qureshi (Member British Empire) has said that the statement of Wajid Shamsul Hassan, former Pakistani envoy to UK, in which he dubbed Pakistani parliament’s unanimous decision to declare Qadianis non-Muslim wrong, is condemnable and he should be tried under blasphemy and treason from constitution laws.
Or see the latest accounts of Aalami Majilise Tahaffuze Khatme Nubuwwat, the registered British charity where Mr Qureshi is a trustee who signs official documents. They include this note:
9) Associated Organisations
Aalami Majilise Tahaffuze Khatme Nubuwwat
Hazoori Bagh Road
Multan Pakistan
Charity is registered in Pakistan.
That’s this Khatm lot, represented by an “overseas office” at Mr Qureshi’s mosque. On the website you will find ream upon ream of brutal hatred. A sample – see how just Islam is with “apostates”:
Why do then people disapprove of punishing a person who rebels against Allah’s Prophet (Sallallaho Alaihe Wassallam) and say: Do not put him to death! Islam does concede three days’ grace to enable the apostate to remove his doubts and come back into the Islamic fold. If he begs for mercy or repents, Shari’at grants him his life back. But if he is adamant and refuses to renounce his apostasy then Allah’s sacred soil must be cleaned of his foul existence.
Ahmadis, however, do not merit even the three days granted to an “apostate” to choose Islam or death. No, they are “dualist infidels” who deserve no mercy. The trouble is that the Pakistani government is too weak when it comes to “Qadiyanis” (a pejorative term for Ahmadis). Those annoying Jews and Christians are in the way as well.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN APOSTATE AND DUALIST-INFIDEL:
Shari’at enjoins upon us to preach to the apostate. If he as a result of preaching, undertakes penitence (‘Tauba’), he will save himself from capital punishment but this does not apply to a dualist-infidel. There is another saying from Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa, and one from Imam Ahmad, (Allah’s blessings on them all), that penitence (‘Tauba’) of a dualist-infidel is not acceptable because he has committed the crime of dualist infidelity (Zindaqa), i.e., he applied false coating of Islam over his ‘Kufr.’
I repeat, he has sold pork as mutton and wine as ‘Zam-Zam.’ This is a crime which is not excusable and is certainly punishable with capital sentence.
…
CONCESSIONAL TREATMENT OF QADIYANI BY MUSLIMS
By Law of Shari’at, they should be awarded capital sentence because they are Dualist-infidels ;’Zindiq’), calling Islam ‘Kufr’ and ‘Kufr’ Islam.
…
But the Government of Pakistan has given them a concession. The qadiyani occupy high posts and offices in Government administration and .public services. In spite of these concessions, they appeal to the United Nations and to the Courts of Jews and Christians, clamouring that the Pakistan Government has snatched their rights.
In addition, we have been here before. From a BBC report in 2011:
Leaflets circulating in Pakistan calling for the murder of members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect directed readers to a website naming Stockwell Mosque.
The website mentioned on the leaflets in turn advised people with queries to contact the mosque in Stockwell.
…
Angry trustees at the mosque said its name had been misused and it had no links to the Pakistani organisation.Trustee Toaha Qureshi said: “We don’t have any linkage with this organisation which is promoting hate.”
Uh huh.
Tooting imam Sulaiman Ghani is another reliable indicator for extremism in south London. Sure enough, here he is visiting and backing the Stockwell Khatm crew in 2015. The video caption on his Facebook post reads:
“Our visit to the Khatme Nabuwwat Centre in Stockwell. It is our duty to help and support the effort in safeguarding and protecting our Imaan, a fundamental belief of our Deen.”
Now you might hope prominent and important locals had been working against Qureshi and his mosque for many years. After all, south London has long been at the heart of anti-Ahmadi campaigns in this country, right out in the open.
Such a hope seems to be misplaced.
Quite misplaced.
