‘Supporter’ worked on anti-terror scheme

AN ISLAMIC scholar who claimed the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan was celebrated by ‘every single Muslim’ worked on the Home Office’s anti-terrorism Prevent programme, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Khola Hasan’s comments that the militant group should be ‘given a second chance’ caused widespread anger, including among fellow Muslims. A senior cleric at the UK Islamic Sharia Council in Leyton, East London, Ms Hasan presides over Muslim divorces.

But she also spent at least five years as a Home Office Prevent Intervention Provider (IP), working with teenagers and children who had shown signs of extremism. As an IP, Ms Hasan was regularly called by police to deradicalise youngsters after they were flagged up by their schools.

There was surprise among Islamic experts that someone with such views had been a vetted Prevent officer. One source said: ‘Just imagine if some kid was referred to her because he wanted to join the Taliban – what advice would she have given them?’

Last night, Ms Hasan, 54, said she no longer worked as a Prevent officer, adding: ‘I am not a Taliban supporter or advocate, but a realist who can see that they are in power. We can either bomb them, ostracise them or educate them.

‘The last option means that they may become a force for good.’