At least three of the eight Muslim organizations consulted by West Midlands Police ahead of the Maccabi Tel Aviv ban have hosted antisemitic preachers. This was first reported by The Telegraph but was confirmed independently by The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
In November, the West Midlands Police force made the controversial decision to ban Maccabi TLV fans from attending an away match against Aston Villa. However, following the revelation that the police used bogus intelligence to secure the ban, the matter has been subject to extensive media scrutiny and an investigation by the Home Affairs Committee.
Chief Constable Craig Guildford confirmed in his Community Impact Assessment report on December 19 that West Midlands Police had carried out “extensive community engagement” prior to the fixture, including with Muslim community leaders and mosque representatives.
Guildford listed these as: the Muslim Reference Group, Bahu Trust, Green Lane Masjid, Masjid Al Falah, Witton Islamic Center, Great Barr Muslim Foundation, Al Habib Trust, and Jamia Masjid Sadam Hussain.
It has now been revealed that several of these mosques have hosted antisemitic preachers or have called for violence against Jews, women, or non-Muslims. Jamia Masjid Mosque preacher Zahir Mahmood, for example, said, “Allah, count them all and kill them one by one, and don’t let any one of them get away,” in a sermon shortly after October 7, 2023.
He also called for Allah to “Humiliate the polytheists and destroy your enemies, the enemies of the religion” and “deal with the enemies of Islam [referring to Israel here], divide them, destroy their homes, scatter them around, make them argue with each other, make their weapons not work.”
Various people, including strategic affairs expert Amjad Taha, have said that the Jamia Masjid mosque was formerly run by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates.
Green Lane Mosque has also hosted many extremist preachers, including Zakaullah Saleem, who provided a guide on how to stone a woman to death (“There must be a hole dug in the ground, and she must be buried up to half of her body, and then she is stoned to death”).
'Jews resemble Satan'
The government suspended its £2.2 million funds to Green Lane in 2023 after it found one of its preachers, Shaykh Abu Usamah At-Thahab, stating that “homosexuality is not permissible.” The same preacher has made antisemitic claims and even appeared in the 2007 British TV series Undercover Mosque on Channel 4, where he was found to give sermons glorifying Osama bin Laden.
In June 2024, Usamah gave a sermon in Florida in which he said, “The Jews resemble Satan; they trick and deceive you. Jews are poisoning our community; [they] are slumlords; I make supplications against them every day.”
Al Habib Trust hosted a preacher who, just days after October 7, urged followers to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous antisemitic propaganda text detailing a Jewish plot for global domination. The preacher described The Protocols as an “eye opener” that he had read “cover to cover.”
Al Habib Trust has also been connected to Yasser Al-Habib, a Shia cleric based in the UK. In 2022, his film The Lady of Heaven faced protests for its anti-Sunni content, but reports also note his broader ties to divisive rhetoric that echoes antisemitic tropes in Islamist circles.
'Islamists in Power'
All of the mosques listed did sign an open letter on 17 November, 2023, condemning “antisemitism and Islamophobia in Birmingham” and expressing support for Gaza. However, there was no mention of any Israeli or Jewish victims of October 7.
Separately on Sunday, The Sunday Times revealed that police produced false evidence to retrospectively justify banning the Israeli fans after the move was already agreed. The force is said to have drawn up the “intelligence” after the local council privately said it had been “challenged” over the decision and needed a clearer “rationale.”
“Confirmed: the police concocted ‘intelligence’ at the behest of Islamists to ban Israelis from Villa Park,” MP Nick Timothy said on X/Twitter after the publication of the piece. “This is not about football or foreign fans. This scandal shows in parts of our country, the Islamists are in power.”