Police review UK imam’s ‘call to arms’ sermon
Police in Britain are investigating an imam for possible criminal offences after a claimed call to arms during a sermon at a mosque attended by a suicide bomber.
Mustafa Graf’s sermon at Didsbury mosque in Greater Manchester in December 2016 included prayers for “mujahideen” fighting in Syria and Iraq, and was described by one scholar as “practically brainwashing” young people into taking action.
The sermon took place six months before a suicide bomb attack on the Manchester Arena killed 22 people, the BBC reported after obtaining a recording of the sermon.
The attack was carried out by Salman Abedi, 22, who attended the mosque. It was not known if Abedi attended the sermon in December 2016, but the broadcaster claimed that he bought his ticket for the concert by American pop star Ariana Grande 10 days later.
Mr Graf was reported saying that “we ask Allah to grant the mujahideen – our brothers and sisters right now in Aleppo and Syria and Iraq – to grant them victory”.
The sermon, during the bombing of Aleppo, also castigated western countries for doing nothing in Syria.
The BBC also aired footage that showed Abedi attending a protest in London against the military campaign by secular commander Khalifa Haftar in Libya. The protest was organised by a group led by Mr Graf.
Shaykh Rehan, a scholar, said that the imam was “giving them the narrative of them against us. He is psychologically and practically brainwashing young people into either travelling or to do something to take action”.
Mr Graf said on Friday that police had been in contact with senior officials at the mosque over the sermon but he declined to comment further.
The mosque authorities said that his comments about jihad and the mujahideen had been misinterpreted.
“Didsbury mosque does not encourage anyone to go and fight in any military struggle,” it said. “We refute strongly any suggestion that there is a link or association between Imam Mustafa Graf’s sermon and the criminal actions of Salman Abedi, or his radicalisation.”
The social media profile of Mr Graf, who had been imam since 1995, includes retweets of Yusuf Al Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader living in Qatar, who is banned from the UK and US because of his record for hate speech.
Mr Graf told The National last year that he knew Abedi’s father, who used to pray at the mosque and was a senior member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Al Qaeda-linked organisation. He was also aware that the suicide bomber’s brother used to study there.
He said he believed that Salman Abedi had “mental issues”. Mr Graf criticised the misuse of the term jihad, and claimed that he had challenged strict views within the community, a haven for groups opposed to Muammar Qaddafi.
He said that elements of the community were careful what they said to him.
“They always respected me but they left me in the corner,” Mr Graf said. “I was not one of the people to talk about everything with. I kept my distance from some things in the Libyan community.”
He was among Manchester Muslim leaders who condemned Abedi after the attack.
More than a dozen young men who lived close to the Abedis had been killed or jailed because of their allegiance to ISIS, some of them attending the same mosque.
Mr Graf had been jailed by Qaddafi loyalists in 2011 after travelling to Libya out of concern for his parents.
“Britain was a Nato founder member and in return Abedi did that,” he said at the time. “It’s very, very sad.”