Abu Usamah

Last updated

Imam
Abu Usamah At-Thahabi
Born
New Jersey, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Islamic University of Medina Category:Islamic University of Madinah alumni
Occupation(s)Instructor, Imam
EraModern
Known forControversial views

Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is an Imam at Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, England. [1]

Contents

An American national, [2] he converted to Islam and studied at the Salafi-oriented University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic school popular with converts and international students. [3]

Controversies

The Undercover Mosque

During Abu Usamah's tenure at Green Lane Masjid, he was among a group of preachers whom were the focus of the Undercover Mosque program which was first aired on 15 January 2007 by Channel 4. In the program, Abu Usamah was quoted, among other things, to have said that "Christians and Jews are enemies to Muslims", to have taught that "jihad is coming against the unbelievers", and to have referred to non-Muslims by use of the term "kuffar" which translates to "unbelievers" or people who reject Islam. [4]

The story caused backlash that resulted in 364 viewer complaints to Ofcom. [4] In addition to this, on 10 August 2017 the West Midlands Police also raised a formal complaint to Ofcom regarding what it considered to be a "completely distorted" view of the intended message by Abu Usamah and the other preachers. [4] [5] [6] However, upon investigation of the matter Ofcom ruled in favour of Channel 4. [4] The West Midlands Police also later apologised for their initial accusation, and offered £100,000 in compensation to Channel 4. [7]

Other Controversies

According to a report by the Centre for Social Cohesion, Usamah "advocates holy war in an Islamic state; preaches hatred against non-Muslims; that apostasy and homosexuality are punishable by death; and that women are inferior to men", following an undercover recording of him preaching to his congregation which featured in a Channel 4 Dispatches episode on radical Islam at British universities. [8] During the documentary, Usamah also praised Osama bin Laden, [9] and defended his right to freedom of expression, saying: "If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that's my freedom of speech, isn't it?" [10] Usamah also stated that "He (Osama bin Laden) is better than a million George Bushs, he's better than a thousand Tony Blairs." [3]

Usamah was invited to speak at events held by University College London's Islamic Society on 1 February 2008 and 6 September 2009. [8] He was invited to speak at the same venue on 30 November 2009, but the event was cancelled due to pressure from gay rights and anti-extremism campaign groups. [11] In February 2013, he was invited to speak at the University of Reading, but the event was cancelled by the university after threats of violence. [12]

In 2012, Usamah was accused of sexually harassing Muslim women but a mosque spokesman said: “We have not been contacted by anybody regarding allegations of harassment, sexual or otherwise, against Abu Usamah who remains an employee of the mosque. However we have been made aware of the website and note that it appears unable to back up these serious allegations with any proper proof.” [1]

Related Research Articles

Abdullah el-Faisal is a Jamaican 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, Americans and other "unbelievers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulaiman Abu Ghaith</span> One of Al-Qaedas official spokesmen incarcerated in a US federal prison

Sulaiman Jassem Sulaiman Ali Abu Ghaith is a Kuwaiti regarded as one of al-Qaeda's spokesmen. He is married to one of Osama bin Laden's daughters. In 2013, Gaith was arrested in Jordan and extradited to the United States. In 2014, he was convicted in a U.S. federal court in New York for "conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists" and sentenced to life imprisonment He is serving his sentence at the federal ADX Florence prison in Colorado.

War against Islam is a term used to describe a concerted effort to harm, weaken or annihilate the societal system of Islam, using military, economic, social and cultural means, or means invading and interfering in Islamic countries under the pretext of the war on terror, or using the media to create a negative stereotype about Islam. The alleged perpetrators are non-Muslims, particularly the Western world and "false Muslims", in collusion with political actors in the Western world. While the themes of the "War against Islam" mostly concern general issues of societal transformations in modernization and secularization as well as current international power politics, the Crusades are often given as its starting point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anjem Choudary</span> Pakistani-British Islamist and political activist (born 1967)

Anjem Choudary is a Pakistani-British Islamist and a social and political activist who has been described as "the face" of militant Islamism or the "best known" Islamic extremist in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdullah Yusuf Azzam</span> Palestinian Islamic scholar and jihadist (1941–1989)

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was a Palestinian jihadist and theologian. Belonging to the Salafi movement within Sunni Islam, he and his family fled from what had been the Jordanian-annexed West Bank after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War and pursued higher education in Jordan and Egypt before relocating to Saudi Arabia. In 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa advocating for "defensive jihad" in light of the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War, and subsequently moved to Pakistan to support the Afghan mujahideen.

Abu Musab al-Suri, born Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Setmariam Nasar, is a suspected Al-Qaeda member and writer best known for his 1,600-page book The Global Islamic Resistance Call. He is considered by many as 'the most articulate exponent of the modern jihad and its most sophisticated strategist'.

Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz, popularly known as Bin Baz or Ibn Baz, was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar who served as the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999 (1420AH). According to French political scientist Gilles Kepel, ibn Baz was a "figurehead" whose "immense religious erudition and his reputation for intransigence" gave him prestige among the population of Saudi Arabia. He "could reinforce the Saud family's policies through his influence with the masses of believers". His death left the government without a comparable figure from amongst Salafi scholars to "fill his shoes". He was a leading proponent of the Salafi movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Lane Masjid</span> Former public baths and library complex and current Muslim centre in Birmingham

Green Lane Masjid & Community Centre (GLMCC), is a mosque in Birmingham. It has been a registered charity in England since 2008. The Masjid occupies a prominent corner site in Green Lane, Small Heath, Birmingham.

<i>Undercover Mosque</i>

Undercover Mosque is a documentary programme produced by the British independent television company Hardcash Productions for the Channel 4 series Dispatches that was first broadcast on 15 January 2007 in the UK. The documentary presents video footage gathered from 12 months of secret investigation into mosques throughout Britain. The documentary caused a furore in Britain and the world press due to the extremist content of the released footage. West Midlands Police investigated whether criminal offences had been committed by those teaching or preaching at the Mosques and other establishments.

Fehmi Naji El-Imam AM was the Grand Mufti of Australia from June 2007 to September 2011. Born in Lebanon, he arrived in Australia in 1951. He was elected to succeed Taj El-Din Hilaly on 10 June 2007, but by January 2011 Hilaly declared that Naji was no longer active, and that de facto he was functioning as mufti. Naji was succeeded on 18 September 2011 by Ibrahim Abu Mohamed.

Muqbil bin Hadi bin Muqbil bin Qa’idah al-Hamdani al-Wadi’i al-Khallali was an Islamic scholar in Yemen. He was the founder of a Madrasa in Dammaj which was known as a centre for Salafi ideology and its multi-national student population. Muqbil was noted for his fierce criticisms of the Egyptian Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb.

Osama bin Laden, a militant Islamist and co-founder of al-Qaeda, in conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, issued two fatawa – in 1996 and then again in 1998—that military personnel from the United States and allied countries until they withdraw support for Israel and withdraw military forces from Islamic countries. He was indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political views of Osama bin Laden</span>

Osama bin Laden took ideological guidance from prominent militant Islamist scholars and ideologues from the classical to contemporary eras, such as Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Sayyid Qutb, Nizamuddin Shamzai and Abdullah Azzam. During his middle and high school years, bin Laden was educated in Al-Thager Model School, a public school in Jeddah run by Islamist exiles of the Muslim Brotherhood; during which he was immensely influenced by pan-Islamist ideals and displayed strict religious commitment. As a teenager, bin Laden attended and led Muslim Brotherhood-run "Awakening" camps held on desert outskirts that intended to raise the youth in religious values, instil martial spirit and sought spiritual seclusion from "the corruptions" of modernity and rapidly urbanising society of the 1970s in Saudi Arabia.

Abdul-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak is a Saudi Salafi cleric.

Haitham al-Haddad is a British Muslim television presenter, and Islamic scholar of Palestinian origin. Al-Haddad sits on the boards of advisors for Islamic organisations in the United Kingdom, including the Islamic Sharia Council. He is the chair and operations advisor and a trustee for the Muslim Research and Development Foundation. Some of his views have been considered controversial, including remarks on (zionist) Jews, sodomy and female circumcision.

The Darul Uloom Birmingham Islamic High School is an Islamic independent high school in Birmingham, England. It was established in 1985 by Jami Masjid and Islamic Centre Birmingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj</span> Egyptian Islamist

Muhammad Abd-al-Salam Faraj was an Egyptian radical Islamist and theorist. He led the Cairo branch of the Islamist group al-Jihad and made a significant contribution in elevating the role of jihad in radical Islam with his pamphlet The Neglected Obligation. He was executed in 1982 for his role in coordinating the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat the previous year.

Saleh bin Awad al Maghamsi is a sunni Islamic scholar from Saudi Arabia. He was the Imam of the Quba Mosque of Medina. He was a student of Ibn Baaz among other Islamic scholars.

Jafar Umar Thalib

Jafar Umar Thalib was an Indonesian Islamist cleric. He was the head of Laskar Jihad, an Islamic fundamentalist militant organization active during the Maluku sectarian conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International propagation of Salafism</span>

Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."

References

  1. 1 2 "Birmingham mosque cleric accused of sexual harassment". Birmingham Mail . 12 August 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Outlawed Islamic group recruits near Swedish suicide bomber's Luton home". Telegraph.co.uk. 18 December 2010. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Britain's new preachers of hate". Daily Mirror . 11 January 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin, Issue 97" (PDF). Ofcom. 19 November 2007.
  5. ↑ "Channel 4 distorted mosque programme". BBC News. 8 August 2007.
  6. ↑ "Dispatches reported to Ofcom". Channel 4. 8 August 2007.
  7. ↑ "Police apologise over mosque show". BBC News. 15 May 2008.
  8. 1 2 "Radical Islam on UK Campuses: A Comprehensive List of Extremist Speakers at UK Universities" (PDF). Centre for Social Cohesion. April 2010.
  9. ↑ "Radical cleric praises bin Laden". Evening Standard. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  10. ↑ David Barrett; Patrick Sawer; Sean Rayment (3 January 2010). "Revealed: the true extent of Islamic radical influence at UCL". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  11. ↑ "'Anti-gay' cleric talk cancelled". BBC News . 25 November 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  12. ↑ "Reading University cancels events after violent threats". Student Rights. 27 February 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.