A Muslim preacher who compared the October 7 attacks to Jews breaking out of concentration camps and attacking Nazis has been reported to the police.
Sheikh Jaffer Ladak, the imam of the Baab-Ul-Ilm Centre in Leeds, made numerous comments on social media stating that Muslims should not condemn Hamas.
West Yorkshire police were handed a dossier filled with remarks Ladak has made since Hamas massacred more than 1,000 Israeli civilians last year.
In one clip, the Iman compared Hamas’ attack to Jewish people breaking out of concentration camps and attacking their persecutors: “So why should you condemn when the people of Gaza break out of their concentration camp and attack the military bases around them?”
Sheikh Jaffer Ladak said that Muslims should not condemn Hamas
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In another video, Ladak complained about the media asking if Muslims “condemn Hamas”, to which he responded: “The answer is actually no, why should we condemn?”
He hosted a sermon called “Palestinians have a right to occupation” six days after the invasion of Gaza.
In the sermon, he said: “We have seen the Muslim ummah [community] come together, united in opposition of the atrocities carried out by the illegal and illegitimate Zionist state against our brothers and sisters, particularly in Gaza. Also in the West Bank and also in Lebanon and Syria.”
“Allah has given permission for people to fight back because they have been oppressed” and that “from the perspective of international law, it is the right of the Gazans to fight off their oppressors, at any moment that they see fit, and in any way they see fit.
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West Yorkshire police were handed a dossier filled with remarks Ladak has made since October 7
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“It is their right to overthrow their oppressors,” he added.
Ladak said that the displacement of the Palestinian people was a war crime and commended Gazans for “not bowing heads” to the Israelis.
He added: “You have seen many many thousand people realising the extent of the crimes committed by the Israeli regime and are beginning to understand the history of this conflict and the way in which the Palestinians have had their rights usurped systematically over the last 75 years.”
In another sermon posted on January 5, Ladak gave his support to Qasem Soleimani, a military commander of Iran’s revolutionary guard who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. Soleimani was infamous for his ruthlessness.
Ladak hosted a sermon called “Palestinians have a right to occupation” six days after the invasion of Gaza
ReutersThe mosque has slammed the police complaint as “ignominious Islamophobia”.
In a statement to The Times, they said: “It is absurd and baseless even to suggest that we would commit hate crime against any faith, race, or group of people.
“The allegations against us fail to demonstrate association with a proscribed organisation or that speeches were outside the remit of English law. Such unfounded accusations are ignominious Islamophobia.”
West Yorkshire police said that inquiries into the incident are ongoing.