Amazon scheme supports extremists

Britain

Amazon has agreed to fund a hardline British charity whose leading ideologue supports child marriage, female genital mutilation and stoning people to death for adultery.

Under its charitable programme, the internet giant will make donations to the Londonbased group whenever its supporters buy products.

The Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF) has been described by the UK government’s counterextremism commissioner, Sara Khan, as ‘‘the main Salafist organisation in the UK’’.

Its founder and former chairman is Haitham al-haddad, 52, a Saudi-born Islamic scholar whose beliefs led him to be labelled ‘‘one of the most dangerous men in Britain’’ by the head of the counterextremism Quilliam Foundation.

Dr Haddad believes that: Husbands should not be questioned about hitting their wives; Homosexuality is an evil crime; All western women should submit to Allah and wear the niqab.

He has warned young Muslims that in the future paedophilia will be legalised in the West.

He also claimed that some western countries were discussing whether to sell aborted foetuses ‘‘as meat to be eaten, to be used as a barbecue’’ by people in east Asia.

Khan said: ‘‘Haitham alhaddad’s views are misogynistic, racist and homophobic.

They promote a supremacist ‘us versus them’ world view that wrongly makes Muslims feel that they can’t be fully British.’’ MRDF, which promotes the cleric’s belief that ‘‘Salafism is Islam’’, is one of many charities that have successfully applied to join the Amazon Smile programme since it was launched in the UK last autumn.

Online shoppers who buy Amazon products through the scheme select a charity to which the retailer sends 0.5 per cent of the purchase price. Since its launch five years ago in America, Amazon has donated more than US$80 million (NZ$125M) to eligible charities.

The company claims it only accepts registered charities that do not ‘‘engage in, promote or support hatred, intolerance or discrimination based on sex, religion or sexual orientation’’.

In 2015, when the government said that universities would be legally required to stop extremists radicalising students, it named six speakers who were ‘‘on record as expressing views contrary to British values’’. One was Haddad. He is said by Khan to play a leading role in a politicised grouping of Islamists and Salafists who claim to speak for Islam.

Haddad, who has a doctorate from SOAS, University of London, has publicly criticised jihadist terror attacks in the West against ‘‘innocent civilians’’ and the grooming of young British Muslims by Isis.

He maintains, however, that Muslims are engaged in an ‘‘eternal and global’’ struggle against ‘‘the enemies of Allah’’ that will eventually lead Islam to conquer the world. – The Times