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Daily Star on the ‘music haters’ infiltrating UK mosques

Daily Star on the ‘music haters’ infiltrating UK mosques

Categories: Latest News

Thursday June 26 2014

The Daily Star yesterday covered the story in Tuesday’s Times with the headline ‘Brits groomed by the ‘music haters’’.

The story repeats content published in The Times yesterday, about British Muslims ‘flocking to join Salafi’ (sic), a sect who are ‘on course to control half of all Britain’s mosques’.

The paper binds together the two men, Rayeed Khan and Nasser Muthana, who appeared in an online recruitment video for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), with Salafism by referring to the men as ‘followers’ of the movement and labelling the Al Manar Centre in Cardiff which the men are said to have frequented, as ‘Salafi-controlled’. The Centre has already issued a statement denying any culpability in the radicalisation of the two men stating:

“It is worth mentioning that ACT’s [Al Manar Centre] stance is well known, that we are opposed to going to Syria or any other country, to participate in an armed struggle and have always made this clear.

“We have on many occasions tackled the issues of extreme ideologies. Indeed, feeling the responsibilities towards our local community, especially those concerning the youth, we have engaged with parents warning against such dangers.”

The allusion to the use of the centre by the two men for worship is akin to the smearing of the East London mosque some years ago on the basis that Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab visited on three occasions.

The Daily Star goes on to elaborate that Salafis ‘hate music and TV and impose severe restrictions on women, including making them wear head-to-toe robes. They want to ban alcohol, segregate men and women and shut beaches where girls wear bikinis’.

The Daily Star repeats the misrepresentation in The Times on the issue of women by neglecting the context in which the ‘severe restrictions on women’ is mentioned, ie, in Saudi Arabia. The paper goes further by suggesting that Salafis make women ‘wear head-to-toe robes’ (again, the context of Saudi Arabia is neglected) and adds that Salafis want ‘to ban alcohol, segregate men and women and shut beaches where girls wear bikinis’.

An editorial in the Daily Star continues the theme claiming “Extremists are infiltrating UK mosques and grooming youngsters with a chilling brand of anti-British scorn.”

It goes on, “These fanatics live in Britain but they are against some of the best aspects of life in the UK: freedom, fun, trips to the seaside and enjoying our favourite tipple in the pub”.

It is noteworthy that the Daily Star’s coverage is premised on the Times’ publication of material drawn from Innes Bowen’s new book. But Bowen doesn’t speak of Salafis as ‘music-haters’, merely as people who ‘avoid music and television’. And nowhere in her book is there mention of them wanting to ban alcohol or shut beaches where girls wear bikinis’.

 

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