The official narrative of a far-right thugs plotting to violently disrupt a mass gathering in Suffolk of up to 100,000 Muslims belonging to the hardline Tablighi Jamaat sect has collapsed following the release of all 12 suspects detained by counter-terrorism officers.
The three-day Ijtima, organized by the controversial Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, at Shrubland Hall, a Georgian manor, in Barham, Ipswich, from July 10-12, sparked protests from locals who warned that the village of 1,600 residents could not host the crowds.
Shabana Mahmood has misled Parliament.
Organizers said they shut down the Ijtima earlier than planned “solely in the interests of public safety after police shared intelligence indicating a credible risk of disorder from individuals intending to travel to the area.”
Home Secretary Fuels Speculation of Far-Right Threat
On July 13, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told parliament that police “acted with speed and skill” after becoming aware of a “credible threat to the lives of those present.” Mahmood noted that police had described the incident as “extreme right-wing terrorism related” and that “thanks to their actions, those attending the UK Ijtima in Barham were kept safe.”
“We must all stand united against hatred. The actions of a minority do not represent who we are as a country, and we should never be defined by those who plot violence against their fellow countrymen and women,” Shabana, who identifies as a practicing Muslim, stressed.
Reform UK Parliamentarian Challenges Government Narrative
On July 20, Zia Yusuf, Shadow Home Secretary for the Reform UK party, slammed Mahmood for “rampantly speculating about a now debunked terror plot.” In a letter to the Home Secretary, Yusuf wrote: “The public was gaslit and you misled the House [of Commons].”
Yusuf, a billionaire businessman and a Muslim, noted that Mahmood “put the words ‘extreme right-wing terrorism related’ into the record” and told parliament that “12 individuals had been arrested,” but “not one of those individuals had then been charged.”
“No evidence to charge anyone about a threat to the Islamic event. Yet your claim still stands, uncorrected, on your account and in the Parliamentary record,” he added. Asking her to correct the record, Yusuf warned: “Given there was no terror plot, failure to publish anything will be taken as prima facie evidence that you just made this up.”
“Shabana Mahmood has misled Parliament. She falsely claimed there was an attempted terror attack on an Islamic event and police arrests ‘undoubtedly saved lives,’” Yusuf tweeted. “Now the police say they ‘found no evidence to support anyone being charged with any offences linked to the alleged threat.’ … Mahmood is a disgrace and must resign.”
In his letter, Yusuf reminded Mahmood that “the Tablighi Jamaat sect behind [the] Ijtima is banned by numerous Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia” but “unsurprisingly, it remains permitted under Labour.”
Focus on Western Islamism has asked Mahmood for a response and will publish it when and if she responds.
Police Detain and Release All Suspects
Counter Terrorism Policing arrested 12 suspects on July 12 and 13. Three of those arrested were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, and eight others under terrorism laws.
On July 18, the Metropolitan Police issued a statement announcing that seven men had been released from custody without charge and that an eighth suspect had been released on bail.
Police charged a ninth suspect with possessing extendable batons and a stun gun. However, the items and the charges are not believed to be connected to the alleged threat against the Islamic gathering, the statement clarified. On July 28, local media reported that Counter Terrorism Policing had released three more men, aged 55, 60, and 85, with no further action.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, London, conceded that they “found no evidence to support anyone being charged with any offences linked to the alleged threat.” She added: “While I know this may still be very concerning to the public and particularly to those in the Muslim community, I want to reassure them that our enquiries are ongoing.”
Expert Flags Home Secretary’s “Racist” Accusation
“Reform is quite right to pursue the Home Secretary for misleading the House on this matter,” Tim Dieppe, Islamic scholar and head of Public Policy at Christian Concern, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). “There is actually an element of racism here,” Dieppe emphasized. “The 12 innocent people were white, and because they were white they were assumed to be ‘extreme right wing.’ This is plainly racist, and the Home Secretary should be called out for this.”
“Islamic terrorism accounts for 94 percent of deaths by terrorism in the UK since 1999. The government seems to want to play this down and emphasize an imagined equivalent threat from far-right terrorism,” Dieppe noted.
“Tablighi Jamaat is a fundamentalist Islamic sect which discriminates against women, not allowing them to travel unaccompanied or uncovered. It is very well funded and growing in influence in Britain. Terror suspects in the UK have been associated with Tablighi Jamaat in the past,” he added.
In early July, Mahmood ignored pleas to bar Shaykh Yosry Gabr (also spelled Yusri Jabr), a high-profile Islamist preacher from Egypt with a history of promoting hostility toward Jews and gays, from a tour of English mosques, FWI reported.
Tablighi Jamaat Espouses Jihadi Islamism
According to the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch, Tablighi Jamaat is an offshoot of the hardline Deobandi sect of Islam. It operates the world’s largest Islamic network with its ijtimas in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, attracting the largest number of Muslim devotees after the Haj.
The Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury.
(Betty Longbottom, via Wikimedia)
French expert on the movement, Marc Gaborieau, has suggested that the goal of Tablighi Jamaat is nothing less than a “planned conquest of the world in the spirit of Jihad.” US officials stated in 2003: “We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States and we have found that Al-Qaeda used them for recruiting now and in the past.”
The Markazi Mosque in Dewsbury, which reportedly serves as the European headquarters for Tablighi Jamaat, organized the Ijtima in Barham. Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four homegrown suicide bombers responsible for the July 7, 2005, London bombings, reportedly worshiped at the mosque.
Adding to speculations of a far-right threat to the Ijtima, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, which has faced long-standing accusations of ties with Islamists, said: “This cannot be treated as an isolated incident. Barely a month after racist pogroms in Belfast and a terror-related incident in Edinburgh that left five men injured, this once again highlights that the threat facing Muslim communities is real, not imagined.”
