Mosque ‘wilfully turned a blind eye’ to Islamist conflict

THE mosque attended by the Manchester Arena bomber showed “wilful blindness” to support within its congregation for the conflict in Libya, a report has found.

In the final instalment of his inquiry into the attack in May 2017, Sir John Saunders found that Didsbury mosque had downplayed its links to the bomber Salman Abedi and its chairman’s evidence “lacked credibility”.

Sir John yesterday concluded that MI5 missed a “significant” opportunity to thwart the bombing, which killed 22 people, by failing to act on intelligence that could have uncovered the bomb.

The report also examined Abedi’s links within the community and attendance at two mosques in Manchester.

While Sir John found that the Al-furqan mosque “played no part in the radicalisation” of Abedi or his brother Hashem, the picture at Didsbury was “more complicated”.

He said that Mohammed El-saeti, a former imam, was “generally truthful and reliable” but Fawzi Haffar, the mosque’s chairman, was “unreliable and, at some points, his evidence lacked credibility”.

Mr Haffar told the hearing the mosque had “no ties to Libya” and prior to the arena bombing had no knowledge of any jihadists among its worshippers even though one of its imams was detained there and pictured in military fatigues.

Abedi’s family had joined a campaign for Mr El-saeti to be sacked, which the inquiry said “demonstrates the strength of connection between the Abedis and the mosque” and how the political situation in Libya was “a prominent issue within its premises”.

He added: “My impression was that the leadership recognised that members of its congregation represented both sides of the conflict in Libya and wished to avoid offending either group.

“That led to a form of wilful blindness in respect of the activities that occurred at the mosque. That was weak leadership.”

Mr Haffar told the BBC ahead of the report’s publication he “would have done anything” to prevent the atrocity.