Jeremy Corbyn has held at least 15 meetings – including four since he became Labour leader – with a leading figure from Finsbury Park mosque who blames Britain for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), has called for the destruction of Israel and appeared to praise the recent wave of terrorist stabbings in that country.
Mr Corbyn has spoken of his “friendship” with the “legendary” Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the mosque and vice-president of the Muslim Association of Britain, which is closely linked to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Kozbar claims that the Finsbury Park mosque, formerly notorious as the base of Abu Hamza, has turned over a new leaf under his leadership. Mr Corbyn, too, has praised it as a “wonderful place” which “guides me and many others”.
But in a demonstration in December 2011 Mr Kozbar called for the destruction of Israel, saying: “This time it will be the end of Israel, inshallah [God willing.]”
On October 11 last year, amid a wave of stabbings of Israelis by Palestinians in Jerusalem and elsewhere, he wrote that “Palestine is uprising, Alquds [Jerusalem] is uprising and our brothers and sisters are giving everything to defend Alaqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem]. The question is what are we doing to support them and show them that they are not alone on this.”
He has praised as “always cracking the words of truth” the extremist cleric and Muslim Brotherhood ideological leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has supported suicide bombings of civilians and defended rape, saying that “to be absolved from guilt, the raped woman must have shown some sort of good conduct.”
He said that “foreign interference” in the Muslim world by Western powers had had an “impact on Muslims in the UK – the young in particular. It is no surprise therefore to see that a small minority of young British men and women have decided to join and fight alongside the extremists abroad, in recent times the so-called Islamic State, better termed as Da’ish.”
Under Mr Kozbar’s chairmanship Finsbury Park Mosquecontinues to host bigots, extremists and terrorist supporters. One of its other trustees, Mohammed Sawalha, is a leading activist and former commander in the terror group Hamas.
The mosque hosted as a guest-of-honour an Islamist leader, Abdullah Djaballah, who called on people to “wage holy Muslim war against the US and British invaders in Iraq.” Mr Djaballah was pictured with Mr Corbyn and Mr Kozbar on a visit to the mosque in 2014.
A regular preacher at the mosque, Fadel Soliman, says that wives who displease their husbands should be beaten, albeit that “the hitting must be done with a small stick”.
Mr Soliman ran a weekly lecture series at the mosque until six weeks ago.
Both Mr Kozbar and Mr Corbyn declined to comment when contacted by the Telegraph.