Britannia Radio

Arrest after claims of assaults and anti-Semitism at Mosque

By James Martin - Thursday 17th February 2011

Police this week arrested a man over alleged assaults on children at a mosque following a documentary which uncovered cases of pupils at Islamic schools being physically abused and taught to be anti-Semitic.

Monday's Channel 4 documentary, Dispatches: Lessons in Hate and Violence, secretly filmed what appeared to be a man hitting and kicking children during Koran lessons at a Sunday school in the Markazi Jamia mosque in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire Police have subsequently arrested a man over alleged assaults on children at a local mosque. They said in a statement: "We have recently become aware of a number of incidents of alleged assault at a mosque. One man has been arrested and released on police bail pending further inquiries."

The footage also showed a preacher at Darul Uloom, a fee-paying school in Birmingham, making offensive remarks about non-Muslims, in particular Jews.
He was recorded saying: "If you are travelling and the person next to you happens to be a Jew, the harm which he may do may be less than the harm of a (Muslim) person who has less than a fistful of beard."

A teacher at the same school told 11-year-olds that Hindus "have no intellect" and "drink cow piss".

The school was praised in 2009 by government-approved inspectors for interfaith teaching that promoted "respect among its pupils for other religions".

Fiyaz Mughal, director of the interfaith group Faith Matters, told the Jewish News: "The uncovering of extremist indoctrination in some Muslim schools is both chilling and shocking. But this is not typical of faith schools and we must not ignore the good work taking place across the UK where pupils are routinely warned of the consequences of prejudice and hatred."

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest Muslim umbrella body, said: "As far as we are concerned, one incident of child abuse is too many.

"Our community must work together to root out any such behaviour in our precious institutions.

"We, along with the vast majority of British Muslims, consider freedom of conscience in religion without fear of harassment or ridicule to be a fundamental Islamic value and a universal human right."

The spokesman added that the Muslim Council "do not believe the abuse of children in mosque-based education is widespread".

Read the latest copy of The Jewish News Online by clicking here.