Undercover Mosque - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Undercover Mosque is a documentary programme produced by the independent television company hardcash productions
Hardcash productions
Hardcash Productions is an independent television production company set up by David Henshaw in 1992.Hardcash specialises in current affair programmes and has won three Emmys, three RTS Journalism Awards and a BAFTA for Channel 4's Dispatches....

for the Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

series Dispatches
Dispatches (TV series)
Dispatches is the British television current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, usually featuring a mole in an organisation.-Awards:*...

which first aired on 15 January 2007 in the UK. The film caused a furore 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 mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

s throughout Britain. West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...

investigated whether criminal offences had been committed by those teaching or preaching at the Mosques and other establishments and found that there had been insufficient evidence to bring charges against anyone featured in the documentary.

Content

Undercover Mosque generated controversy because it contained footage of British imams making the following statements:

Dr. Ijaz Mian on the subject of non-Muslim laws: “You cannot accept the rule of the kaffir
Kafir
Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...

…[w]e have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others.”
Abu Usamah
Abu Usamah
Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is an Imam at Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, England.-History:Abu Usamah, Khalifah At-Thahabi was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey, the third eldest of four children....

saying of apostates
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...

: “If the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

wants to crucify him he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he's left there to bleed to death for three days.”
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
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, stating "The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders.”
Abdullah el-Faisal
Abdullah el-Faisal
Abdullah el-Faisal is a muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, and...

: “You have to bomb the Indian businesses
Indophobia
Indophobia refers to hostility towards Indians and Indian culture. Indophobia is formally defined in the context of anti-Indian prejudice in East Africa and Australia as follows: "Indophobia is a tendency to react negatively towards people of Indian...

, and as for the Jews you kill them physically.”
Advocates violent Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

against the non-Muslims and predicting that an army of Muslims will arise against the non-Muslims in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.
Dr Bilal Philips
Bilal Philips
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips is a contemporary Islamic scholar, teacher, speaker, and author, resident in Qatar...

on marriage with girls before puberty
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...

: “The prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

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.”
Condemns Muslim integration into British society.
Calls for the overthrow of the British government and democracy. “[T]hey will fight in the cause of Allah. I encourage all of you to be from amongst 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, and when that happens, people won’t get killed – unjustly.”
Dr. Mian: “You are in a situation in which you have to live like a state within a state, until you take over.”
Al Jibali: “By the age of ten, it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....

, and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her.”
Dr. Mian praised the Saudi religious police practice of imprisoning people who do not pray: “They send the police, and they say, well, if you don’t come for prayer, close your shop, we will arrest you But if you don’t, then we have to bring the punishment on you, you will be killed, and nobody will pray on you.”
Abu Usamah saying that homosexuals should be killed by throwing them off a cliff, stating “throw [the homosexual] off the mountain.”

Mosques and Islamic Centers investigated

Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
UK Islamic Mission (UKIM)
London Central Mosque
London Central Mosque
The London Central Mosque is a mosque in North London, England. It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1978, and has a prominent golden dome. The main hall can hold over five thousand worshippers, with women praying on a balcony overlooking the hall...

and Islamic Cultural Centre in Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
Green Lane Mosque
Green Lane Masjid
The Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK, commonly referred to as Green Lane Mosque, is one of Birmingham's and Britain's major mosques.Established in the 1970s, the Masjid occupies a prominent corner site in Green Lane, Small Heath, Birmingham...

, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
Ahl-e-Hadith mosque, in Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
UKIM's Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook
Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.-Etymology:...

Islamic Centre, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

Response

Members of the British Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

and Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

parties have requested an official investigation into the alleged dissemination of hate speech at mosques.

Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

groups such as the Islamic Human Rights Commission

Islamic Human Rights Commission

The Islamic Human Rights Commission is a non-profit organization. Its stated mission is to, "... work with different organizations from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds, to campaign for justice for all peoples regardless of their racial, confessional or political background.". The group is...

(IHRC) have condemned the documentary as “another example of anti-Muslim hostility,” stating that it “exemplifies the problems of inherent Islamophobia

Islamophobia

Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....

and racism within the mainstream media.” The Muslim Council of Britain

Muslim Council of Britain

The Muslim Council of Britain is a self-appointed umbrella body for national, regional, local and specialist organisations and institutions from different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds within British Islamic society. It was established in 1997 to help Muslims, to increase education about the...

criticised it as “heavily hyped,” while its Secretary-General, Muhammad Abdul Bari

Muhammad Abdul Bari

Muhammad Abdul Bari, MBE FRSA , is the Chairman of the East London Mosque, and was the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain from 2006 until 2010.-Life and career:...

, described it as employing the “dishonest tactic of selectively quoting from some recorded speeches for the purpose of misrepresentation.” The Islamic Cultural Center

London Central Mosque

The London Central Mosque is a mosque in North London, England. It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1978, and has a prominent golden dome. The main hall can hold over five thousand worshippers, with women praying on a balcony overlooking the hall...

of London, the UK Islamic Mission, and the Markazi Jamiat Ahle-hadith organisations, all of whom are featured in the documentary, have issued separate responses. In a press release, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London denied the charges made by the documentary, labelling them as “false allegations.”

The Saltley Gate Peace Group

Saltley Gate Peace Group

The Saltley Gate Peace Group, is an inner city interfaith organisation based in Birmingham, England.-Background:The Saltley Gate Peace Group was initially formed as a joint Christian/Muslim peace initiative in response to the threat of war in Iraq as a part of the growing peace movement in Britain...

issued a press release giving its “undiminished support” to the Green Lane Masjid

Green Lane Masjid

The Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK, commonly referred to as Green Lane Mosque, is one of Birmingham's and Britain's major mosques.Established in the 1970s, the Masjid occupies a prominent corner site in Green Lane, Small Heath, Birmingham...

stating that Imam Abu Usamah “…is accepted by much of his congregation and the wider interfaith community to be a peaceful man and is known to promote peace to his congregation,” and that Abu Usamah “…encourages worshippers to avoid ‘political Islam and radicalism.’”

"The 'throwing the homosexual of the mountain' comment was actually a quotation from Ibn 'Abbas, the famous Sahabi, who said: "Look for the highest building in the town, and then throw them down and stone them like the abode of Lut's people." It is from a book called Al Kabair (major sins) by Adh-Dhahabi, on which the imam in the Dispatches program was giving a lecture series.

Abu Usamah

Abu Usamah

Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is an Imam at Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, England.-History:Abu Usamah, Khalifah At-Thahabi was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey, the third eldest of four children....

of Green Lane mosque

Green Lane Masjid

, also has alleged that his words were taken out of context.

Similar programme on the BBC

The BBC's

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...

programme, aired on 21 August 2005, had previously studied similar issues at various mosques in the UK. The Muslim Council of Britain denounced the Panorama programme as "deeply unfair". The BBC rejected allegations of institutional or programme bias.

Investigations by the police and the CPS; Ofcom, libel case

West Midlands Police

launched an investigation, immediately after the programme was transmitted, into whether criminal offences had been committed by those teaching or preaching at the mosques and other establishments. They presented their evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...

who advised that “a realistic prospect of a conviction was unlikely”.

However Bethan David of the CPS agreed with West Midlands Police Assistant Chief Constable Anil Patani (security and cohesion) that a damaging and distorting impression had been given of the speakers by the programme. On 7 August 2007 the CPS issued a statement:

"West Midlands Police have completed their investigation into the Channel 4 Dispatches programme 'Undercover Mosque' broadcast in January 2007.
The police investigation initially looked at whether there had been any criminal offences committed by those featured in the programme and following careful consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), West Midlands Police have been advised that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against those individuals featured within the programme.

"West Midlands Police acknowledge the concerns that some parts of the programme may have been considered offensive, however when analysed in their full context there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against any individual. ACC Anil Patani for West Midlands Police said: "As a result of our initial findings, the investigation was then extended to include issues relating to the editing and portrayal of the documentary. The priority for West Midlands Police has been to investigate the documentary and it’s making with as much rigour as the extremism the programme sought to portray".

""The police investigation concentrated on three speakers and their comments in the programme. CPS reviewing lawyer Bethan David considered 56 hours of media footage of which only a small part was used in the programme. She said: "The splicing together of extracts from longer speeches appears to have completely distorted what the speakers were saying. "The CPS has demonstrated that it will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible for criminal incitement. But in this case we have been dealing with a heavily edited television programme, apparently taking out of context aspects of speeches, which, in their totality, could never provide a realistic prospect of any convictions".

"The CPS was also asked by the police to consider whether a prosecution under the Public Order Act 1986 should be brought against Channel 4 for broadcasting a programme including material likely to stir up racial hatred. Miss David advised West Midlands Police that on the evidence available, there was insufficient evidence that racial hatred had been stirred up as a direct consequence of the programme. It would also be necessary to identify a key individual responsible for doing this together with an intent to stir up racial hatred, which was not possible.

"West Midlands Police has taken account of this advice and explored options available to them and has now referred the matter to the broadcasting regulators Ofcom as a formal complaint. West Midlands Police has also informed Channel 4 of this course of action."

West Midlands Police then complained to Ofcom

Ofcom

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

that the programme had been subject to such an intensity of editing that those who had been featured in the programme had been misrepresented (creating an unfair, unjust and inaccurate perception of both some speakers and sections of the Muslim community within the West Midlands); the footage had been edited in a way that resulted in material being broadcast in a form so altered from the form originally delivered that it was “sufficient to undermine community cohesion”; and the programme was “likely to undermine feelings of public reassurance and safety of those communities in the West Midlands for which the Chief Constable has a responsibility”.

The resulting complaints to Ofcom were rejected by Ofcom on 19 November 2007. "Undercover Mosque was a legitimate investigation, uncovering matters of important public interest... On the evidence (including untransmitted footage and scripts), Ofcom found that the broadcaster had accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context."
Ofcom also did not uphold complaints from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Diplomatic missions of Saudi Arabia

This is a list of diplomatic missions of Saudi Arabia. King Faisal established the General Directory for the Foreign Affairs in 1926. Four years later it was given ministry status, even though it had a staff of fifteen employees in total—and no diplomatic missions abroad...

, from the Islamic Cultural Centre

London Central Mosque

, and from the London Central Mosque

London Central Mosque

.
In a move supported by Channel Four, the makers of the documentary then launched a libel action against the CPS and West Midlands Police. In a statement released for Kevin Sutcliffe and programme makers Hardcash Productions said:

"The statements made by both the West Midlands Police and the CPS were completely unfounded and seriously damaging to our reputation. We feel the only way to set the record straight once and for all is to pursue this matter through a libel action."

On 15 May 2008 when the matter came to the High Court, West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service apologised to the makers of the documentary for accusing them of distortion and agreed to a payment of £100,000. The statement, released to the media by West Midlands Police, after the High Court hearing, said they now accepted there had been no evidence that Channel 4 or the documentary makers had "misled the audience or that the programme was likely to encourage or incite criminal activity".

It added that the Ofcom report showed the documentary had "accurately represented the material it had gathered and dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context". The police statement concluded: "We accept, without reservation, the conclusions of Ofcom and apologise to the programme makers for the damage and distress caused by our original press release." The same statement was later posted on the Crown Prosecution Service website.

Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head of current affairs at Channel 4, said the apology was a vindication of the programme team in exposing extreme views.
"Channel 4 was fully aware of the sensitivities surrounding the subject matter but recognised the programme's findings were clearly a matter of important public interest. "The authorities should be doing all they can to encourage investigations like this, not attempting to publicly rubbish them for reasons they have never properly explained," he said. Channel 4 boss Julian Bellamy said they had had no choice but to pursue action when the police and CPS refused to withdraw their remarks.

The National Secular Society

National Secular Society

The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...

subsequently called for a Public Enquiry into the role of the West Midlands Police and the CPS in referring the matter to Ofcom in the first place. Keith Porteous Wood

Keith Porteous Wood

Keith Porteous Wood is the Executive Director, formerly General Secretary, of the National Secular Society in the United Kingdom, a position he has held since 1996....

, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “While the Police and CPS have now apologised, they have yet to explain why this apology was not issued in response to the widespread public outcry during 2007 about their targeting of Channel 4 or even to the total rejection by OFCOM of Police/CPS complaints on 19 November 2007. It had to be forced on them by the courts. The intransigence of the Police and CPS has seriously undermined public confidence in both institutions."

Sequel

On 1 September 2008, Channel 4, Dispatches broadcast Undercover Mosque: The Return
Undercover Mosque: The Return
Undercover Mosque: The Return is a documentary programme produced by the independent television company hardcash productions for the Channel 4 series Dispatches which aired in the UK on 1 September 2008 at 8pm....

.

Video

BBC News clip on result of police investigation. BBC News. 8 August 2007.

External links

Stephen Brook, Channel 4 rapped over mosque probe, Media Guardian (2007)
Salafimanhaj.com Research division Does Saudi Arabia Preach Intolerance in the UK and the US? (2007)
Tom Harper, TV 'preachers of hate' escape police action, Daily Telegraph (2007)
Channel 4 blasted for demonising Muslims - The Muslim Weekly
Channel 4 vindicated over Undercover Mosque, Daily Telegraph
Salafimanhaj.com Response to Andrew Anthony's Article 'When did the police start collaring television?'
C4 'distorted' mosque programme, BBC News, 8 August 2007
Brum's extreme Muslims exposed, Birmingham Mail, 16 January 2007
Mosque launches probe after TV claims, Birmingham Mail, 15 January 2007
Channel 4 accused of creating mischief over portrayal of Black Muslim in Dispatches, Black Britain, 15 January 2007
Church group backs 'extremist' mosque, Wikinews, 13 January 2007
Birmingham mosque leader critical of hate speech, Birmingham Post, 12 January 2007
Britain's New Preachers of Hate - Bobby Pathak, Daily Mirror, Thursday 11 January 2007
Muslim preacher defends TV comments - Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail, Thursday 18 January 2007
Revealed: preachers' messages of hate - Jamie Doward, The Observer, Sunday 7 January 2007

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Content

Mosques and Islamic Centers investigated

Response

Similar programme on the BBC

Investigations by the police and the CPS; Ofcom, libel case

Sequel

See also

Video

External links