East London Mosque responds to The Independent's smear over terror 'links'

The Independent published a letter yesterday from the East London mosque concerning the paper’s article on Monday ‘Nigerian in aircraft attack linked to London mosque’, linking ELM to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s radicalisation.

The article in Monday’s edition stated that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab ‘visited the East London Mosque, which has attracted criticism for hosting Muslim hardline preachers, three times.’

Bloggers at Harry’s Place and the Spittoon quickly followed the Independent’s lead in casting aspersion over the mosque with both reproducing the Independent’s claim of Abdulmutallab visiting the mosque three times so as to reinforce their suppositions against the ELM. Their style of McCarthyite witch-hunting of Muslim groups and institutions rarely requires more than this sort of flimsy allegation and a deep-seated prejudice has often clouded more rational analysis.

Not that this is at all surprising. The ELM has long been the target of those intent on undermining the good work of the institution and maligning its role in the community.

Last month Martin Bright, political editor of the Jewish Chronicle, called for a ‘strategic alliance between British Jews [and] anti-Islamists’ in London’s East End, saying the ‘East London Mosque and the London Muslim Centre…have played a central role in promoting a sectarian Islam…’

Bright’s claims were rubbished by organisations in the East End, London Citizens and the Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum, that have long partnered with the ELM/LMC on community initiatives. Then, as now, the actual work done by the ELM/LMC in roundly condemning terrorism and in working to promote integration is overlooked in favour of specious allegations that reinforce the prejudice of those determined to smear the organisation and deter politicians and others from engaging with it.

The ELM letter to the Independent reads:

‘Your report about our institution (“Nigerian in aircraft attack linked to London mosque”, 28 December), is misrepresentative. Many mosques, including our own, have been the subject of far-right violence, and such reports do not help diffuse feelings.

‘Given its community service to people of all faiths and none, the East London Mosque is appalled that it should be associated with such heinous acts. The mosque cannot comment on whether this individual attended here. More than 20,000 people, of Muslim and other faiths, visit us every week, for many purposes, including worship, weddings, and to use any of the 30 projects and services based here.

‘The East London Mosque condemns in the strongest possible terms the alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner. The mosque has consistently spoken out against such acts, and will continue to do so.

Ayub Khan
Secretary, East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre’