Undercover Mosque is a documentary from British Television Channel 4 programme Dispatches which aired on 15 January 2007 in the UK. The film caused a furor in Britain and the world press due to the content of the released footage.
The documentary presents film footage gathered from 12 months of secret investigation into mosques throughout Britain.
Undercover Mosque generated controversy because it contained footage depicting British imams making the following statements:
* Dr Ijaz Mian on the subject of non-muslim laws: "You cannot accept the rule of the kaffir [non-Muslim], We have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others" [1]
* Preaches hatred of non-muslims who are repeatedly labeled as Kuffirs.[2]
* Abu Usamah saying of apostates: "Whom ever changes his religion from Al Islam to anything else kill him".[3]
* Abu Usamah speaking on the deficiency of women's minds: "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."
* Praises the killer of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan, stating "The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders.” [4]
* Sheikh Al Faisal: "You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews you kill them physically" [5]
* Advocates violent Jihad against the non-muslims and predicting that an army of Muslims will arise against the non-muslims in England.[6]
* Dr Bilal Philips on marriage with pre-pubescent girls: "The prophet Muhammad 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" [7]
* Condemns Muslim integration into British society.[8]
* Calls for the overthrow of the British government and democracy.[9] "They will fight in the cause of Allah. I encourage all of you to be from among 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."[10]
* Dr Mian: "You are in a situation in which you have to live like a state within a state, until you take over. But until this happens, you have to preach, until you become such a force that the people they just submit to you, hands up, until you become strong enough to take over" [11]
* Sheikh Al Jibali: "by the age of 10 if she doesn't wear a hijab, we hit her."
* Dr Mian saying of the Saudi religious police: they can imprison people if they do not pray; "if you don't come for prayer, we will arrest you. But if you still don't, then we have to bring the punishment on you - you will be killed"[12]
* Abu Usamah saying that homosexuals should be killed by throwing them off a cliff, stating "throw [the homosexual] off the mountain." [13]
Jewish groups as well as members of the British Conservative and Labour parties have requested an official investigation into the alleged dissemination of hate speech at mosques. [14][15] Muslim groups such as the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) have condemned the documentary as "another example of anti-Muslim hostility," stating that it represents the "problems of inherent Islamophobia and racism within the mainstream media."[16] The Muslim Council of Britain criticized it as "heavily hyped," while its Secretary-General, Muhammad Abdul Bari, described it as employing the "dishonest tactic of selectively quoting from some recorded speeches for the purpose of misrepresentation."[17] The Islamic Cultural Center (London), the UK Islamic Mission, and the Markazi Jamiat Ahle-hadith organizations, all of whom feature in the documentary, have issued separate responses.[17] So too has Abu Usamah of Green Lane mosque, alleging that his words were taken out of context.[18] In a press release, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London denied the charges made by the documentary, labelling them as "false allegations."[19]
The Saltley Gate Peace group, which describes itself as an inter-faith action group based at the Saltley Methodist Church in Birmingham, was reported on Wikinews as having made a press release [4] prior to the airing of the Channel 4 documentary. Wikinews records that press release as having included, amongst others, the following statements:
* That Imam Abu Usaamah, one of the preachers featured in the documentary, is acknowledged by the a significant portion of his congregation and the wider interfaith community "to be a peaceful man and is known to promote peace to his congregation", and that he has denounced terrorism.
* That the Green Lane Mosque is not known to promote extremism and the founders and committee of the mosque have always distanced themselves from such extremism
* That the UK branch of Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith are based at the Green Lane mosque and Islamic. The statement explains that Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith is known loosely as 'Salafism', and that this school of thought does not promote extremism. However, it concedes that there may be a minority that feel otherwise. Nonetheless it states that those following the the Salafi methodology strive to follow the earliest traditions so that their Islam is peaceful and pure.
These views were echoed on the BlackBritain website. [5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercover_Mosque
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