Imam Ashraf Dabous, of London’s Lewisham Islamic Centre, said that the right-wing participants in anti-Muslim riots were being “manipulated and misguided” to Zionists an opportunity to cast aspersions on Muslims, UK media reported on Saturday.
“It is quite well known now, publicly, due to information that has been released online, that they are Zionists and they are supporters of the state of Israel,” Dabous said, adding, “And that with the ground that has been lost over the past few months something had to take place that would try to win some ground back for the Zionist agenda. And what better way than to paint the Muslims as being savages and killers and barbaric and so on and so forth – which in reality is a projection of the Zionist state itself.”
Several UK Islamist leaders addressed the motivations of rioters during their Friday prayer sermons, against the background of a period marked by violent confrontations between right-wing demonstrators and Muslim protesters.
Advocacy groups have expressed concern over this trend, describing it as “alarming” and criticizing the rhetoric as “divisive.” These organizations have called on the Charity Commission for England and Wales to take action.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We are aware of potential concerns at several charities relating to claims about the recent public disorder. We are assessing information to determine if there is a role for the Commission.”
We’ll wait.
Sheikh Ali Abbas Malik, speaking at Masjid al Husayn, a Muslim community center in Leicester, told his flock: “Then you have Zionists such as Tommy Robinson, paid by, supported by the fathers of all genocides, the Zionist regime, to perpetuate these ideas amongst them.”
Tommy Robinson, 42, a British anti-Islam campaigner and prominent right-wing activist, has emerged as the leading figure of Britain’s decentralized or “post-organizational” right-wing movement. Instead of leading a traditional political party, he garners support by promoting his beliefs online. His ideas have clearly struck a chord with many Britons, as evidenced by the thousands who participated in his “patriotic rally” in London on Saturday, July 27—the largest right-wing demonstration since the English Defense League’s decline. He also draws strong backing and financial support from the US, where he has become a favorite among the Trumpian and libertarian Right.
Shaykh Mostahfiz Gani, speaking at Kingston Muslim Association on Friday, told those who had gathered for Friday prayers on Aug 9 that “there is a link between Tommy Robinson and the IDF. There is a link between Zionists and the Right-wing fascists.”
At the Greenwich Islamic Center, radical preacher Haitham al-Haddad told worshippers that some of the rioters have a “Zionist” agenda and are attempting to “divert the attention” of the Government away from “condemning what the Zionist state Israel is doing.”
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told The Telegraph: “This pattern of blaming the riots on ‘Zionists’ is as alarming as it is prevalent. According to our representative polling, an overwhelming majority of 80% of British Jews consider themselves to be Zionist, and only 6% do not. They know what these preachers mean when they say ‘Zionists.’
“Religious leaders should be trying to ease communal tensions right now, yet those who invoke these tropes are doing exactly the opposite. We urge the Charity Commission to investigate any charities that platform this sort of extremist rhetoric and divisive rhetoric, and we are submitting complaints whenever cases are brought to our attention. They cannot be left unchallenged.”
