Mosques downplay Islamist fanatic’s tour

BRITAIN’S most influential Muslim sect yesterday appeared to defend historical links with a notorious Islamist extremist.

The Deobandi sect, which controls almost half of the UK’s 1,600 mosques, hosted fanatic Masood Azhar for a tour of speeches in 1993 in which he promoted jihad. He is said to have taught young Muslims that the Koran encouraged murder and urged them to undergo terror training in Pakistan.

Azhar, a former associate of Osama bin Laden who has links to al-Qaeda and runs a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, was allowed to tour 42 mosques during his month-long visit.

Deobandi scholars last night said only that they should not be “guilty by association” of events two decades ago.

In a statement, they said: “If it were an acceptable standard of journalism, it would mean that the many foreign secretaries who met and supported the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and others who were once supported but turned out to be terrorists or dictators etc, should all be found guilty by association. British relation- ship with the Sinn Féin has evolved over decades from being considered terrorists to (now) a legitimate political party involved in the British democratic process.”

Among Azhar’s disciples were Omar Saeed Sheikh, who went on to behead American journalist Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan, and Rashid Rauf, who helped organise the 2005 London bombings.

Last night it emerged that schools run by the sect were being investigated after evidence emerged of the influence of radical clerics and alleged terrorist sympathisers.

A scholar named Qari Hanif Jallundari was a guest at the Rabia school in Luton, Bedfordshire, in 2013, The Times reported. According to an audio recording, he had previously addressed fighters of Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) in Pakistan, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

The school is run by the Rabia Educational Trust charity, which is part of the Deobandi movement. The Department of Education is investigating.

Zubair Akbar, the principal of Rabia school, said it had always condemned terrorism and extremism.