Green Lane
Mosque in Birmingham is a high-profile mosque
and one we’d heard receives theological guidance from Saudi Arabia
Caption: Undercover filming
Our reporter went undercover last summer, joining thousands of worshippers
He’s staying anonymous
Caption: 12 August 2006
The theme of today’s lecture is – don’t believe in
the arrests of alleged terrorists without proof … as non Muslims are liars
Abu Usamah: I don’t believe them, because they are kuffaar, lying
is part of their religion
Kuffaar is an Arabic word, meaning non-believer – an infidel
Abu Usamah: Unlike those kuffaar, they do whatever they want to do
It’s a term our reporter was to hear repeatedly being used in
a derogatory way
Abu Usamah: they are liars, they are terrorists themselves, liars, they
will come before the people and talk and they are lying, you can’t believe them, these are pathological liars
[ Ed. kaffar or kuffar is the Anglicized plural form of an Arabic word (sing. kafir), originally in the Qur'an to categorize those guilty of rejection or non-acceptance
of “the truth,” even when they have fully comprehended it. Today out of Arabia, it is used to designate in a derogatory manner all non-Muslims, aka infidels, faithless, unbelievers,
including polytheists, pagans, blasphemers and apostate Muslims. The latter is anyone born Muslim who questions, chooses for
himself (heritic) or tries to convert to another “faith.”
If one is a Muslim and is caught converting another Muslim away
from Islam, your punishment would probably be painful death, in the Saudi. In the self-proclaimed Vatican of world Islam, the very strict Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the derogatory terms kuffar or apostates are often applied
also to Muslims who are from other sects of Islam but not Sunni Wahhabists (aka Salufists.) The Muslim Sufis of the dancing
dervishes are particularly despised.
In some parts of Islamia there are questions
about whether or not Jews and Christians
are kuffar;
but from the University of Medinah in the Saudi
the word is out that they definitely are
kuffar — and
anyone who doesn’t agree is also a
kafir.
So, that’s what this Holy War is all
about,
this jihad of the Saudi Arabian clergy-scholars-priests,
whose “schools” indoctrinated Osama and the
whole cadre of brainwashed Islamist warrior-terrorists,
“supercharged with oil money.”
Believe it or Not!
Of course, for the multitudes of kuffar,
it’s also about oil from the main World Energy Fountain.
Its also about their questions about
their kuffar governments for not stemming
the funding for the spreading of
this militant madness, flowing slick as
oil —
from the oil-rich, family-owned, police
enforced,
royal Saudi nation state.
But that’s another question,
perhaps made moot in a growing
Persian-Arab conflict of “faiths,”
an itching schism of dogmas,
ruled by the swords in the hands of
Muslim prince-despots of earthly power.
That war could cause an awesome
firestorm at the world’s gas station.
This is the voice of the oil-gushing Saudi faction
in the great Muslim division,
the voice of Wahhabist Sunni Islam,
which is the voice of al'Qaeda,
enemy of the royal Custodian of the
Two Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina.
]
“You have to live like a state within a state
until you take
over."
Ijaz Mian, at the Regents Park Mosque in London
]
THE EXPOSE "Undercover Mosque" CONTINUES
SOFT JIHAD
Shots of Green Lane website
Green Lane Mosque calls itself a “centre for interfaith communication”,
welcoming people of all religions
But our reporter filmed there over four months, and found this speaker,
Abu Usamah, was their main English-language preacher
He says Christians and Jews are enemies to Muslims
Abu Usamah: It has come to pass that the Christians and the Jews, America, the UK,
France, Germany, they have come against the religion of Islam. Why give up your
religion and your long legacy of Islam, to please someone who is an
enemy to you?
Abu Usamah is an American convert and a very popular speaker at Green Lane
Abu Usamah (shaking hands with everyone): Hey, my man, how you doing?
He preaches against non-Muslim laws
Abu Usamah: We want the laws of Islam to be practised, we want to do
away with the man-made laws
And says British popular culture is a threat
Abu Usamah: The popular culture, if you are a person who gives yourself
to that, your mind is going to be controlled by the so-called powers that be, who make these manmade laws
Green Lane’s official website says the mosque is “designed to counter the negative
publicity and stereotyping of Islam”
But after a few weeks, our reporter was told by fellow
worshippers how to access another, much more difficult-to-find internet
chatroom It’s run by Green Lane Mosque, and broadcasts Abu Usamah’s
speeches live to a small
band of listeners
He says Muslims should obey British laws and contracts, if they don’t
contradict Islam, but he condemns non-believers
Caption: Green Lane internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: No-one loves the kuffaar, no-one loves the kuffaar, not a single person
here from the Muslims loves the kuffaar, whether those kuffaar are from the UK or the US.
We love the people of Islam and we hate the people of kufr, we hate
the kuffaar
Filmed undercover, he says he doesn’t agree with the violent actions of Muslim terrorists - but he prefers them to non-Muslims
Abu Usamah: I don’t agree with those individuals, but at the same
time they are closer to me than those criminals of the kufr
Cap: Green Lane internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: He’s better than a million George Bushes, Osama Bin
Laden, and he’s better than a thousand Tony Blairs, because he’s a Muslim
The mosque films some of Abu Usamah’s speeches, and they’re
sold locally as DVDs
Caption: The Major Sins: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2005)
In this one, he says even Muslims who don’t follow their strict
rules can be ostracised as“kaffirs”
Abu Usamah: If you leave off the prayer out of negligence, then you
are a kaffir. If he dies like that you have to bury him with the kuffaar. You can’t marry him
He preaches an ideal Islamic state
Abu Usamah: Muslims shouldn’t satisfied with living in other than
the total Islamic state
His vision of the Islamic state includes extreme punishments, as he
outlines in this DVD
DVD: The Major Sins: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2005)
Abu Usamah: Whoever changes his religion from Islam to anything else
– kill him in the Islamic state
The religious leader, or imam, can decide the punishments
Internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: If the imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him.
The person is put up on the wood and he is left there to bleed to death for three days
Abu Usamah condemns the Western interpretation of free speech, which
means the Prophet can be insulted, but he can be censored
Abu Usamah: If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy
dogs, that should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech isn’t it? But they’ll say no, I’m not tolerant,
but
they feel that it’s OK to say something about the Prophet?
Our reporter has found these views being regularly preached at the
head mosque of a major Muslim organisation
Green Lane Mosque, Birmingham, is the headquarters of the Markazi
Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, a registered charity which
runs over 40 mosques and branches as well as Islamic
schools
It’s an influential affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain,
which has praised it as “a national body”, “respected for its educational and outreach programmes”
But our reporter secretly filmed Abu Usamah teaching that a “jihad”
is coming against the unbelievers
Abu Usamah: Verily Allah going to bring a group of people that he loves
and they love him, these people will who will be soft and kind to the believers and they will be rough
and tough against the kuffaar, they will fight in the cause of Allah
I encourage all of you to be from amongst them, to begin to cultivate
ourselves for the time that is fast approaching where the tables are going to turn and the Muslims are going to be in the
position of being uppermost in strength, and when that happens, people won’t get killed – unjustly
After a few weeks, our reporter learns that Green Lane worshippers get regular religious instruction, direct from Saudi Arabia
Live, two-way video links are set up
Projected onto the wall is the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia
Caption: Saudi state television
He’s the country’s top religious leader– now being beamed live
to worshippers in Birmingham
They ask questions through an interpreter, and get fatwas – religious
rulings (CHK?)
By now, our reporter has become a regular at the mosque
The man who supervises the video links tells him they’ve recorded
them
Man: We actually record them onto DVDs.
Reporter: You do?
Man: What we’ll do is, whatever the cost is of the DVDs you just
contribute to that and it’s not a problem
And our reporter is given them
Man: These are the masters, whatever you want to do is fine
The DVDs show a Birmingham
worshipper, who asks the Grand Mufti for a fatwa about understanding between Muslims and other religions
CAPTION: Saudi Broadcast, June 2006
Question: Some people say we shouldn’t call Christians and Jews
kuffaar, and we should establish dialogue and good relations with them. What’s your answer to this?
His answer is uncompromising
Grand Mufti: This is not true. Jews and Christians who do not follow the Prophet Mohammed are kuffaar. They will go to
hell
He says Muslims can’t help non-believers
Grand Mufti: Anyone who helps or defends an apostate, or a pagan, or
an atheist, or anyone who attacks Islam, will be cursed
Green Lane Mosque is spreading a brand of Islam originating in Saudi Arabia – often known as Wahhabism
It’s an hardline theology, opposed by many British Muslims
Academic Dr Irfan Al Alawi investigates Wahhabism
He keeps his face hidden in interviews because of the dangers of his work
ASTON: Dr Irfan Al Alawi
Islamic Heritage Foundation
Dr Irfan Al Alawi: Wahhabis believe that you cannot show tolerance to other religions,
so the religion of Islam has to rule the world. Green Lane
in Birmingham, that mosque is one of the extreme Wahhabi centres in the
UK
Caption: Saudi TV
Wahhabism is opposed to the traditional, tolerant beliefs of classical
Islam, according to leading Muslim academic Abdal Hakim Murad
CAPTION: Abdal Hakim Murad
University of Cambridge
Hakim Murad: Its principle is totalitarian, it’s highly judgemental,
it has no track record of dealing with other sorts of Islam or with unbelievers with any kind of respect. If you are outside
the small circle of the true believers you are going to hell and therefore you should be treated with contempt
Non-believers are called “kaffirs” or “kuffaar”
It’s a term they use as an insult, according to moderate British
Muslims like Dr Taj Hargey
ASTON: Dr Taj Hargey
Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford
Dr Taj Hargey: The word kaffir is a very pejorative, negative, disparaging
term. When you call someone a kaffir, they are not worthy to be associated with. This kind of intolerance is something that gives rise
to extremists
Many children were present at the Green Lane lectures our reporter filmed, where intolerance and bigotry were openly preached
In a DVD of a conference at Green Lane Mosque, a preacher called Sheikh Al-Jibali says Muslim children should be kept away from non-Muslims
Caption: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Sheikh Al Jibali: What is sad to see is that many parents they send
children to the kuffaar schools, they allow them to mix with the kuffaar, so that the lifestyle and beliefs of the kuffaar become deep rooted
in the hearts of the kids
In a fatwa given in the video links, the Grand Mufti says children
should be hit if they don’t pray
Saudi Broadcast, May 2006
Grand Mufti: Tell your children to pray when they are seven, and hit them when they are ten
The Ahl-e-Hadith’s website directs readers to literature which
says “Islam confers equal rights upon all”, regardless of sex But
in a crackly internet broadcast, Abu Usamah says women are “deficient”
Green Lane Internet broadcast
Abu Usamah: Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a Phd, deficient.
Her intellect is incomplete, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses
of a woman to equal the one witness of the man
Saudi-based clerics in the video links preach male supremacy
Caption: Saudi broadcast May 2006
Sheikh: Khunayn: Men are in charge of women. Wherever he goes she should
follow him and she shouldn’t be allowed leave the house without his permission
Sheikh Al Jibali says the hijab must be enforced on young girls, if
necessary with violence
Caption: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Al Jibali:. By the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force
her to wear hijab, and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her
Our reporter secretly filmed this preacher, Dr Bilal Philips, giving religious
rulings at Green Lane
In a speech in the mosque, which was also broadcast
in its internet chatroom, he claims marrying off a girl before puberty is permissible
He claims the Prophet Mohammed married a nine year old girl, so it’s permissible now
Dr Bilal Philips: The Prophet Mohammed practically outlined the
rules regarding marriage prior to puberty, with his practice he clarified what is permissible and that is why we shouldn’t
have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman, which is looked down upon by this society today, but we know
that Prophet Mohammed practised it, it wasn’t abuse or exploitation, it was marriage
RIGHT TO REPLY LIKELY FROM DR PHILIPS
Abu Usamah quotes what he says are the words of a companion of the Prophet,
on the Islamic punishment for homosexuality
Abu Usamah: Do you practise homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual
man and throw him off the mountain
And in a DVD, he attacks the idea of gay rights
DVD: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Abu Usamah: They have given them unprecedented rights, so that
your child can be exposed and introduced to lesbians. Now they say, if you discriminate against them, you are going to jail He says Muslims should discriminate
Abu Usamah: We’ll discriminate, but we’ll discriminate in
a way where we don’t get in trouble. The Muslim is a dentist and one of those people comes I’m going to take a
big needle
and stick it in his gum
Then he says it’s a joke, as it might get the mosque in trouble
Abu Usamah: They’ll take this and get us all in trouble
On the anniversary of the 7th of July bombings, a speech by Abu Usamah was broadcast
in the Green Lane chatroom, condemning terrorism
Green Lane Internet Broadcast
Abu Usamah: We want to make an official statement here, no way are we
in agreement to what took place last year on this day in the kuffaar calendar
But he does believe in jihad
Abu Usamah: But in saying that, we do not apologise for any aspect of
this religion, there is jihad in Islam. What’s most beloved and favourite thing to Allah? Jihad in the Way of Allah
He says the real jihad will come when the senior Islamic clerics declare
it – and prays it will come soon
Abu Usamah: We ask Allah to bring about the means and the ways in which
the Muslims will get the power and the honour of repelling the oppression of the kuffaar, where we
can go out and perform the jihad. We ask Allah to bring that time, so
we can be participants in that
Abu Usamah he told us: “Islam allows for any Muslim to peacefully coexist
here in the UK with non-Muslims even though the UK is not an Islamic society
He said he had made it clear that it is a religious duty on all Muslims to obey
UK law and the carrying out of Islamic law could only be done in
an actual Islamic state
He said: “Homosexuality is an abomination against Allah and all
mankind and I will never condone it. Even though this is the case, I do not believe in disobeying the law when it comes to
the way people deal with homosexuals.”
A hardline message,
influenced by
Saudi Arabian clerics,
is preached at
Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham
An imam from the mosque has helped advise the government Abdul Hadi sat on a government taskforce on extremism,
set up after the 7th of July bombings He was part of its working
group on combating extremism in mosques and imams
DVD: Preparing to Stand Before Allah: Ahlus Sunnah Productions (2004)
Yet this DVD shows he took part in a Green Lane conference in which
other speakers urged Muslims to discriminate against homosexuals and hit girls who don’t wear the
hijab He
seemed to have no worries at the extremism of the message
Abdul Hadi: It is very hard to conclude such a beautiful programme,
but we have to
The head of the working group on mosques and imams was Lord Nazir Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer He’s previously praised Green Lane Mosque In an interview with BBC radio in 2003, he named it as his
favourite spiritual place in the country
Cap: Favourite Spiritual Places July 2003
Lord Ahmed: Number 20, Green Lane, Birmingham, is my favourite spiritual place
He said he’d worshipped there
Lord Ahmed: This is the most amazing place. When I walk into the mosque,
I feel I am entering the biggest palace on earth
Lord Ahmed recently said he would ask the Lord Chancellor to meet an
organization called the Islamic Shari’ah Council, including its Secretary General, a preacher called
Sheikh Suhaib Hasan
The meeting would be to discuss the introduction of Islamic divorce laws into the
UK constitution
Undercover filming at Green Lane
Our reporter filmed Sheikh Hasan speaking at Green Lane
He’s a senior imam at a major mosque in East London, and a former President of the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
In a speech downloaded from his mosque website, he proclaims the supremacy
of Muslims in encounters with the non-believers
Masjid Al Tawhid internet broadcast
NO SUBTITLES
Sh Hasan: And Allah made the words of the kuffaar dung/down and the
words of the believers supreme
(footnote for the press – HE SAYS IT IS DOWN, NOT DUNG)
In speeches on other Islamic websites, he predicts the coming of an
Islamic state
Suhaib Hasan: True Understanding of the Khilaafah
Sh Hasan: Allah has decreed this thing, that I am going to be dominant,
the dominance of course is a political dominance The
Islamic state he predicts will have a single, lifelong ruler with no opposition parties or elections and it will bring in
a strict version of Islamic law
Sh Hasan: The chopping of the hands of the thieves, the flogging of
the adulterers and flogging of the drunkards
Then this state will launch jihad
Sh Hasan: Then jihad against the non-Muslims, against those people who
are the oppressors
Sheikh Hasan told us that the word “kuffaar” was “not
a racist or discriminatory term when heard in its Quranic sense”
He said he’d stated many times that the re-establishment of a
“single Islamic state”, would be peaceful
He said he had often praised the British welfare state, its judicial,
health and education systems
He said: “I have never promoted any form of extremism, whether
religious or otherwise”
Lord Ahmed told us that Green Lane Mosque was one of many mosques he
visited
He said: “It would be ludicrous to suggest that by visiting an
institution I become responsible for, or aware of, every word spoken at that establishment
He said he had asked for the meeting with the Lord Chancellor on behalf of all Muslims, and said he was not aware of
all the views held by Sheikh Hasan
Next, we investigate claims that radicalism,
linked to the Saudi religious establishment
has spread across the country …. even reaching
into Britain’s
biggest and most mainstream mosque