|
|
|
Quakers allow meeting of controversial Islamic group
Katie Davies
A RADICAL Islamic group that Tony Blair wants to ban was allowed to meet in a Quaker hall despite booking the room under a false name.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Germany and many Middle Eastern countries, held a conference at the Friends Meeting House in Euston Road on Sunday.
The group had originally booked the hall under the name Salsabill publishing.
When the Quaker Society uncovered the real identity of the group, it cancelled the booking two days before the conference.
But on Saturday, Quaker leaders made a dramatic u-turn and let the meeting go ahead after Hizb-ut-Tahrir sent a letter denying its links with terrorism.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir faces a UK ban because its leaders are accused of radicalising young Muslims to such an extent that they attract the attention of terrorist recruiters.
However, the letter from the group's media representative, Taji Mustafa, said: "The meeting will not incite violence, it will not incite religious hatred.
"We will not be advocating terrorism or supporting terrorism and we have never done so.
"We won't be advancing killing of innocent civilians here or anywhere else in the world."
Bosses at the meeting house decided the conference would go ahead and even sent an observer to make sure the group stuck to its word. A spokesperson from the meeting house said: "We let rooms to a range of communities, and we ask all to respect our commitment to peace and equality.
"Someone from the meeting house went to the conference and didn't find anything objectionable."
Hizb-ut-Tahrir came under the spotlight when its literature was found at the home of Omar Khan Sharif, the father-of-three from Derby who killed himself after failing to blow himself up in a Tel Aviv bar in April 2003.
In August, Tony Blair singled out Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which has threatened violence against
Jews, to be outlawed in new anti-terror legislation planned for autumn.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has also barred Omar Bakri Mohammed, a former leader of the group and leader of affiliated extremist group Al-Muhajiroun returning to the UK.
Mark Gardener, a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, a security advisory group to the Jewish community, said: "This group has been banned by the National Union of Students and is about to be banned by the government because of its radical extremist ideology.
"We are disappointed that the Friends Meeting House saw fit to host their event.
"They have called for Jewish people to be killed in the past. We support a ban on this group, the legislation is long overdue."
katie.davies@hamhigh.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|