The government’s anti-terrorism strategy is an attack on Muslims, the chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque has claimed.
Mohammed Kozbar, who is also the vice president of the Muslim Association of Britain, has attacked the government’s latest Prevent measure that was launched following the identification of Jihadi John.
Prevent was introduced during Tony Blair’s premiership as part of his government’s post-9/11 counter-terrorism strategy, aimed at stopping young Muslims turning to terrorism.
The coalition government has now reaffirmed that it will ban people who promote “hate speech” in schools and colleges as part of the Prevent strategy.
However, in an interview with the Socialist Worker, Mr Kozbar argued that it is an attempt to silence Muslims.
The @metpoliceuk #WeStandTogether campaign at Regents Park Mosque 2pm today is a joke. They, M16 and #Prevent have alienated Muslim youth.
— Lee Jasper (@LeeJasper) March 8, 2015
“Some people want to stop Muslims speaking regardless of their views on different issues,” he said.
“They [the government] say that no one who promotes hate speech can talk. But what does that mean?
“Just last week I was at a meeting where someone got up and said I should not be allowed to speak. He didn’t know me or my views.”
A video of the meeting that Mr Kozbar was speaking about can be watched below.
The Prevent strategy has been heavily criticised in the past and this week a former senior Muslim police officer said Prevent had become toxic among Muslim communities.
Dal Babu, a chief superintendent with the Metropolitan police until two years ago, said most Muslims were suspicious of the scheme and see it as a tool for spying on them.
However, a Home Office spokesperson defended the Prevent programme in a statement: “This government fundamentally revised the Prevent strategy in 2011 to ensure it challenges terrorist ideology, supports people who are vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism and works with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation.
“We will soon be coming forward with a new extremism strategy that deals with the whole spectrum of extremism.”
Finsbury Park Mosque has long been accused of allowing hate speech. Its former imam was Egyptian cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who is now serving life without parole in America after being convicted of 11 terrorism offences in January 2015.
I am sorry but let’s face it, all the terrorism that is occurring right now is done under the name of Islam. If us Christians were blowing you up in planes flying them in to buildings and blowing up schools and hacking soldiers to pieces in your streets wouldn’t you all feel the same as us.
So what if the government wants to spy on you. If you haven’t got anything to hide then why would you worry. If they want to check me out let them as I have a clear conscious and know i am a good English girl. This is England and it has and always will be a Christian country. The population will only put up with so much before the people start to fight back for our rights. To keep this country free from extremists and people who want to make us an Islamic country with sharia law. Just won’t happen. Get used to it or go back home apparently it’s lovely there. So you say but why don’t you live there? Oh yeah you get everything on a plate here and we have to take it.
If you don’t want the government to have to spy on you then do something about the radicalisation and religious fundamentalism in your communities that ultimately (whether directly or indirectly) lead to terrorism or cause children to join terrorist movements.