Finsbury Park Mosque

The Finsbury Park Mosque, also known as the North London Central Mosque, is a five-storey mosque located next to Finsbury Park station close to Arsenal Football Club's Emirates Stadium, in the London Borough of Islington. Finsbury Park Mosque is registered as a charity in England, serving the local community in Islington and the surrounding boroughs of North London.[2]

Finsbury Park Mosque
North London Central Mosque
Religion
AffiliationMuslim Council of Britain
Leadership
Location
LocationFinsbury Park, London
United Kingdom
Geographic coordinates51°33′49″N 0°06′21″W
Architecture
TypeMosque
Date establishedfounded 1988, main building 1994
Specifications
Capacity2,000 [1]
Minaret(s)1
Website
www.finsburyparkmosque.org

The mosque gained national attention when Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical preacher, became its imam in 1997. In 2003, the mosque was closed by its trustees following an anti-terrorist police raid, and re-opened in 2005 under new leadership.

History

1988–1997: Opening

In the 1960s a small room in a guest house at 7 Woodfall Road, London N4 was used as a Prayer Room and community centre for the handful of Bangladeshi Muslims then working and living in the district, and had become inadequate for the growing Muslim community by the time the building was compulsorily purchased by the local authority as part of a Housing Action Plan. The community formed a Muslim Welfare Centre, and in 1975 purchased its own property at St. Thomas’s Road, later also acquiring neighbouring plots. A mosque first came into use on the site in 1988, when it was one of the largest mosques in the UK.[3] In 1994 a new 5-storey mosque building was officially opened in a ceremony attended by Prince Charles and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who had contributed funds for the building.[4][5][6][7]

1997–2003: Under Abu Hamza al-Masri
Main article: Abu Hamza al-Masri
The interior of the dome inside the North London Central Mosque

The mosque rose to notoriety after Abu Hamza al-Masri became its imam in 1997.[8][9] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he consolidated his control of the mosque, with his followers preventing anyone they did not trust from entering it.[8] According to the mosque's current administration, although originally appointed by the trustees, Abu Hamza gradually took over the mosque from them.[4] When the mosque's trustees asked him to leave, they allege that he resorted to intimidation.[10] In October 1998, the trustees went to the High Court to stop Abu Hamza from preaching at the mosque.[10] They were granted an injunction, but it was not enforced. Many trustees reported being barred from their own mosque by Abu Hamza's supporters and even being assaulted.[10] In April 2002, the Charity Commission for England and Wales suspended Abu Hamza from preaching,[10] but he continued anyway.[11] Djamal Beghal used the mosque as his "base," as he planned a foiled 2001 suicide bombing of the American Embassy in Paris.[12][13]

During Abu Hamza's control, the mosque's attendance dropped.[4][14] Most of the attendees were his followers. The mosque also became a meeting point for many radical Muslims.[15][16] According to classified American documents released by WikiLeaks, Finsbury Park mosque previously served "as a haven" for Islamic extremists who subsequently fought against allied forces in Afghanistan.[17] Al Qaeda operatives including "shoebomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui attended the mosque.[18] In 2002, The Guardian reported that weapons training had taken place inside the building.[19] On 11 September 2002, a conference was held at the mosque titled "A Towering Day in History" to praise the September 11 hijackers on the anniversary of the attack with the participation of Anjem Choudary, Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri Mohammed, Mohammad al-Massari and others.[20][21] In the late 1990s, Abu Hamza and the mosque became the leading international spiritual reference supporting the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA) in the Algerian Civil War, at a time when the GIA was spurned even by most Salafi-jihadist groups for their massacres of civilians.[22][23]

The United States charged Abu Hamza as a "terrorist facilitator with a global reach" in 2004; he was arrested,[8] sentenced in the UK to a seven-year prison sentence in 2006,[24] and subsequently extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[25] According to disclosures via WikiLeaks, several Guantanamo Bay detention camp detainees passed through the mosque prior to their subsequent activities.[26][27]

The mosque's role in facilitating terror operations during these years is often mentioned in the context of the Londonistan, which was widely used by the international espionage community to describe London, due to the liberty afforded to Muslim extremists by British authorities.[28][29]

2003–2005: Shutdown and re-opening

In 2003, 150 anti-terrorist police officers conducted a nighttime raid on the building as part of the investigation into the alleged Wood Green ricin plot.[30][31] Police seized a stun gun and a CS gas canister, among other items,[30] and arrested seven men under the Terrorism Act 2000.[31] The police action had the effect of removing Abu Hamza and his supporters from the mosque.[32]

After the raid, the police handed the mosque to its trustees, who promptly closed it for repairs.[32] The trustees also stated that they were closing it “while it was cleaned of the physical and spiritual filth...".[33] Abu Hamza continued to preach each Friday in the street outside the closed mosque until his arrest in May 2004.[11]

In August 2004 the mosque was reopened, but after reports "hardliners" again asserted control in December 2004, the Charity Commission intervened again and appointed a new board of trustees with the support of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), who were asked by the police, the former trustees, and others to try to turn it around. After changing the locks and taking physical control of the building, the mosque was reopened under heavy police presence.[34][7]

Dr. Azzam Tamimi, a leading member of MAB, described the mosque takeover as "one of the very rare success stories where the Muslim community and others came together and decided to rescue the mosque", although a minority complained of lack of consultation, with Ashgar Bukhari of the campaign group Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK saying that the committee should have been elected.[3] The new management condemned former imam Abu Hamza.[4]

2006–2013: Reformation

Since reopening, it is widely acknowledged that the mosque has not been associated with radical views.[35][36] British authorities have described the transformation of the mosque to be a major accomplishment.[14] The Telegraph reported that Finsbury Park Mosque's transformation from "radical hotbed" to "model of community relations" has "since been widely regarded as a success story".[11] The mosque made an effort to build ties with the local community, including local MP Jeremy Corbyn, and started engaging non-Muslims and local authorities.[4]

In 2007 the Policy Exchange think tank, in a report titled The hijacking of British Islam, said they had purchased a number of allegedly extremist Islamic books at the mosque.[6] The mosque disputed the allegation, and sued for libel,[37] a case that was struck on the technicality that the mosque as an unincorporated charitable trust is not a corporate entity or legal person and thus not able to claim defamation.[38][39][40] Subsequent action by the mosque and its trustees was settled out of court, with the mosque paying some of Policy Exchange's legal fees and with Policy Exchange, while neither retracting nor apologising for their claim of sale, stating that they "never sought to suggest that the literature cited in the Report was sold or distributed at the Mosque with the knowledge or consent of the Mosque’s trustees or staff."; both sides claimed the settlement as a victory.[41][42]

2014–2016: Incidents
Prayers at the mosque in 2008

In 2014, HSBC bank closed Finsbury Park Mosque's bank account, and the mosque was unable to open an account with another high street bank being forced to turn to a small Islamic Bank. The closure was prompted by information in World-Check, a confidential database owned by Thomson Reuters, that was due to reported links to terrorism before 2005 as well as purported Muslim Brotherhood links of a current mosque trustee.[43] In response the mosque filed a legal case against Thomson Reuters, which was settled in 2017, with Reuters agreeing to issue an apology and pay damages.[44][45]

In August 2014, police arrived at the mosque after a dispute between an Al Arabiya reporter and the mosque's manager. Both men called the police: the mosque manager claimed the reporter was engaged in "malicious journalism", while the reporter claimed he was detained by the manager until the police arrived (30 minutes).[46][47]

In January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the mosque's "former links with radical preachers resurfaced after the Paris attacks as it was alleged that the Charlie Hebdo gunmen were followers of Djamel Beghal, a radical preacher based there in the late 1990s."[48] The mosque received death threats and hate mail.[48][49] In November 2015, following a mail threat, a man attempted to set fire to the mosque,[50] an attack which reportedly failed due to heavy rain.[51][52] In July 2016, a man threw rotten pork meat at the mosque.[53][54]

2017 terrorist attack
Main article: Finsbury Park attack

Shortly after midnight on 19 June 2017, several worshippers leaving the nearby Muslim Welfare House were struck by a hired van in a terrorist attack. One person died of multiple injuries and ten were injured. The attack was widely condemned and seen by local Muslim leaders as part of rising Islamophobia in the United Kingdom.[55] Following the attack, Mohammed Kozbar, the chairman of the Finsbury Park mosque, said that the mosque had received multiple death threats.[56][57] In February 2018 the perpetrator, Darren Osborne, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 43 years with simultaneous terms for murder and attempted murder.[58][59]

Community outreach

The Mosque received the "Best outreach programme" award at the British Beacon Mosque Awards in 2018.[60] The mosque is a member of the Islington Faith Forum, which received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2018,[61] and an affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain. It was the recipient of a Visible Quality Mark by the national body Community Matters in 2014,[62] the first time being awarded to a Muslim place of worship in the UK. The venue has often been used by the local MP, Jeremy Corbyn, Local Police and local Councillors for constituency surgeries, meetings and speeches.[62][63]

The Mosque organises various community events throughout the year, including an annual open day for the local community and schools, and since 2014, this has been held in association with Muslim Council of Britain as part of the national Visit My Mosque Day scheme.[64] This event consists of a tour of the mosque, an exhibition on Islam and the mosque and a wide range of activities that are also organised by members of the wider community. Since 2017, following the Finsbury Park Terror Attack where a worshipper was killed, and many were injured, the mosque has held an annual Street Iftar event during the holy month of Ramadan,[65] in which the local and wider community are invited to share a meal that coincides with the breaking of the fast. This event has been attended by various faith and community leaders, local councillors and MPs including Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry.[65]

The Mosque was part of Macmillan Coffee Morning initiative to raise Money to cancer victims and organised the first ever "Autism hour" in a mosque with the National Autistic Society.[66][67]

The Mosque has held various Hate Crime Awareness events throughout the years,[68] and in 2015, it launched the Meals for All initiative, in which the mosque provides a hot meal for the homeless people from the local community and those in need, once every week.[69]

See also

References
  1. London's Finsbury Park built trust between Muslims and others, and it paid off, LA Times, 20 June 2017
  2. "About us". finsburyparkmosque.org. London: Finsbury Park Mosque. 2018. Archived from the original on 9 March 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. Dominic Casciani and Sharif Sakr (7 February 2006). "The battle for the mosque". BBC News.
  4. "Finsbury Park Mosque: "Its more than just a mosque now"".
  5. Inisde Finsbury Park Mosque, TIME, January 2003
  6. MacEoin, Denis. "The Hijacking of British Islam." How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK (Policy Exchange 2007) (2007), page 77.
  7. Hard Law and Soft Power: Counter-Terrorism, the Power of Sacred Places, and the Establishment of an Anglican Islam Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, Peter W. Edge, RUTGERS JOURNAL OF LAW & RELIGION, Spring 2010, pages 366-371
  8. Abu Hamza profile, BBC News (January 9, 2015).
  9. Charlotte Philby (23 May 2014). "Finsbury Park Mosque: Emerging from the shadow of Abu Hamza". The Independent.
  10. "A haven for faithful hijacked by extremists".
  11. The Finsbury Park Mosque: radical hotbed transformed to model of community relations, The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2017
  12. Rotella, Sebastian (22 October 2001). "Embassy plot offers insight into terrorist recruitment, training". Chicago Tribune.
  13. Rayner, Gordon (8 January 2015). "Charlie Hebdo suspect 'mentored' by Abu Hamza disciple, Djamal Beghal". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  14. J. Gallagher, E. Patterson (2009). Debating the War of Ideas. pp. 213–214.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  15. "Mosque links to radical terrorism".
  16. Barling, Kurt. "Finsbury Park Mosque: from 'terrorist hostel' to symbol of modernity, openness and tolerance".
  17. "Finsbury Park mosque 'was a haven' for extremists". 26 April 2011.
  18. Neville Dean and Nick Allen, PA (7 February 2006). "Finsbury Park mosque's terrorist roll call". The Independent. London.
  19. Burke, Jason (17 February 2002). "AK-47 training held at London mosque". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  20. Radicals meet at north London mosque to mark 'towering day', Guardian, 12 September 2002
  21. Wiktorowicz, Quintan. "Joining the cause: Al-Muhajiroun and radical Islam.", The Roots of Islamic Radicalism conference, Yale. Devji, F (2005) Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality and Modernity. London: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd. 2004., (page 13)
  22. Lyubov Grigorova Mincheva, Lyubov Grigorova, Ted Robert Gurr (2013). Crime-terror Alliances and the State: Ethnonationalist and Islamist Challenges to Regional Security. Routledge. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-415-50648-9.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  23. Kepel, Gilles (2006). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. I.B.Tauris. p. 272. ISBN 978-1-84511-257-8.
  24. Archive: Abu Hamza guilty of inciting murder, BBC News (February 7, 2006)
  25. Nicky Woolf, Abu Hamza sentenced to life in prison on US terrorism conviction, The Guardian (January 9, 2015).
  26. WikiLeaks: how Britain 'became a haven for migrant extremists’, Telegraph, 25 April 2011
  27. Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism: Failing to Prevent, by Paul Thomas, 2012, ISBN 978-1849665254, page 28
  28. Londonistan Calling, Vanity Fair, June 2007
  29. Abu Hamza trial: Finsbury Park mosque informant Reda Hassaine sees his enemy jailed, The Daily Telegraph, January 2015
  30. "Archive: Police raid Finsbury Park mosque". BBC News. 20 January 2003.
  31. "Anti-terror police raid London mosque". BBC News. 20 January 2003.
  32. Mark Phythian (2008). Intelligence, Security and Policing Post-9/11: The UK's Response to the 'War on Terror'. pp. 129–130.
  33. Ramirez, Debbie and Quinlan, Tara Lai, "The Greater London Experience: Essential Lessons Learned in Law Enforcement - Community Partnerships and Terrorism Prevention" (2011). School of Law Faculty Publications. 351.
  34. New start for 'extremist' mosque, BBC, 11 February 2005
  35. "Van attack on London Muslims suggests new polarization". National Post. However, the mosque was shut down and reorganized and has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
  36. "London mosque attack suspect identified as U.K. authorities move to ease tensions". Toronto Star. After those attacks, the mosque was shut down and reorganized and has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
  37. Tories' favourite think-tank sued by Muslim group, Independent, August 2008
  38. North London Central Mosque Trust v Policy Exchange & Anor, Reference [2009] EWHC 3311 (QB), Court Queen's Bench Division, 29 November 2009
  39. Eady: Mosque charitable trust can't sue for libel, Press Gazette, 22 December 2009
  40. Mills, Tom, Tom Griffin, and David Miller. "The Cold War on British Muslims: An Examination of Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion." (2011). pages 40-42
  41. "Policy Exchange admits NLCM clear of any wrong-doing". Nlcentralmosque.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  42. North London Central Mosque's case against Policy Exchange ends. Mosque's appeal dismissed. Statement agreed. Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  43. ‘Why did HSBC shut down bank accounts?’, BBC, 28 July 2005
  44. Sherwood, Harriet (1 February 2017). "Finsbury Park mosque wins apology and damages from Thomson Reuters". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  45. Siddique, Haroon. "HSBC shuts accounts of Muslim organisations, including Finsbury Park mosque". The Guardian.
  46. ‘Locked up: Finsbury Park Mosque detains journalist after tricky questions’, Al-Arabiya, August 2014.
  47. ‘Boss of Finsbury Park mosque hits back at imprisonment claims’, The Islington Gazette, August 2014.
  48. Lizzie Dearden, 'London mosques receive death threats and Prophet Mohamed drawings after Charlie Hebdo attack', The Independent, January 2015.
  49. Hind Hassan, 'Death Threats Received At London Mosque', Sky News, January 2015.
  50. 'Finsbury Park mosque targeted in suspected arson attack', The Guardian, November 2015.
  51. "Finsbury Park Mosque: Rain 'saved us from arson attack'", BBC, November 2015.
  52. "Attempt to burn down prominent London mosque a 'terrorist attack'", The Middle East Eye, November 2015.
  53. 'Man throws rotten pork meat at mosque in hate crime', Newsweek, April 2016
  54. "Police hunt man after rotten meat thrown at Finsbury Park mosque in 'hate crime'", The Independent, July 2016.
  55. "Finsbury Park attack: Muslim leaders denounce 'most violent manifestation' of Islamophobia". The Daily Telegraph. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  56. London Mosque Targeted in Terror Attack Now Receiving Death Threats, Vice News, Hind Hassan, 30 June 2017
  57. Islamophobic 'rivers of blood' threats to Finsbury Park Mosque in wake of terror attack, International Business Times, Ewan Palmer, 30 June 2017
  58. "Finsbury Park attacker Darren Osborne jailed for minimum of 43 years". BBC News. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018. Darren Osborne, 48, was found guilty of murdering Makram Ali, 51, after deliberately ploughing into a crowd of people in Finsbury Park in June
  59. Rawlinson, Kevin (2 February 2018). "Darren Osborne jailed for life for Finsbury Park attack". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  60. minab. "Beacon Mosque Awards – minab.org.uk". Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  61. "Queen's award honours faiths forum role after terror attack". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  62. Dean, Jon. "Finsbury Park first mosque to win prestigious national award". Islington Gazette. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  63. Finsbury Park mosque in 'new era' following 'hostile' Abu Hamza days, Islington Gazette, 5 June 2014
  64. Farmer, Ben (19 June 2017). "The Finsbury Park Mosque: radical hotbed transformed to model of community relations". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  65. "Huge street party marks one year since Finsbury Park terror attack". Evening Standard. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  66. "Macmillan Coffee Morning at Finsbury Park Mosque". Finsbury Park Mosque. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  67. "Around 100 guests attended our "Autism Hour" event". Finsbury Park Mosque. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  68. Morris, James. "Islington leaders tell Finsbury Park Mosque meeting: National media should be held accountable over Islamophobia". Islington Gazette. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  69. Al Jazeera (8 August 2015). "London mosque offers help and hot meals to homeless". Al Jazeera.
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