Founder of organisation linked to purchase of Wembley synagogue reportedly called on Muslims to avoid behaving as “imitations of the Jews”

The allegations come shortly after Dawat-e-Islami UK, the charity behind the purchase, was forced to issue an apology after it referred to the congregants of the synagogue as “non believers”.

The founder of a Pakistani organisation whose UK charity affiliate recently purchased Wembley United Synagogue has previously made inflammatory remarks about Jewish people, according to the JC.

A fundraising flyer which announced the purchase of the synagogue said: “A mega project in Wembley, London (a former place of worship of non believers).”

A spokesperson for Dawat-e-Islami UK said that he wished to “apologise for the hurt caused by our leaflet this week” and that the text would be amended.

However, it has now been reported by the JC that the charity has been discovered to have a troubling record.

In 2021, the charity reportedly hosted the cleric Sheikh Asrar Rashid, who has previously described Jews as “a cowardly nation” and is alleged to have said that Hitler did Jews “a favour”.

In addition, the JC also stated that the founder of Dawat-e-Islami in Pakistan, Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadri, published a book in which he called on Muslims to boycott Jewish goods and to avoid behaving as “imitations of the Jews”.

A spokesperson for Dawat-e-Islami UK’s legal department said: “We would like to point out that most mainstream religions including Judaism refer to others as ‘non-believers’ if they do not follow that religion’s beliefs. In relation to the other matters you have mentioned, we would like to remind you that the core texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as documented in the Torah, the Bible and Quran, all have identical positions of punishments for blasphemy. If we search for short, cherry-picked clips, we are sure we could find lots of example [sic] of reference to Leviticus 24:16 for the Seven Law of Noah.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “While it is right that Dawat-e-Islami has apologised for referring to a former synagogue as a ‘place of worship of non-believers’, it is hugely concerning that this multi-million-pound-a-year charity ever approved a leaflet where that was the secondary headline. It is no wonder that so many members of the Jewish community contacted us to raise concerns about the language used, and the relevance to Dawat-e-Islami in its fundraising campaign of replacing a synagogue with a mosque. We will be asking the Charity Commission to investigate this matter, as well as the disturbing allegation that the charity’s Midlands branch hosted Sheikh Asrar Rashid, a preacher accused of claiming that Hitler did Jews ‘a favour’.

“Additionally, we will be asking the Commission to investigate claims that the founder of Dawat-e-Islami in Pakistan called on Muslims to boycott Jewish goods and to avoid behaving as ‘imitations of the Jews’. The Commission should find out whether the alleged statements were made true and, if so, whether Dawat-e-Islami UK rejects them.”