[wvns] Evidence of extremism in mosques 'fabricated'
Evidence of extremism in mosques 'fabricated'
Martin Hodgson
Thursday December 13, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2226704,00.html#article_continue
A rightwing thinktank which claimed to have uncovered extremist
literature on sale at dozens of British mosques was last night accused
of basing a report on fabricated evidence.
The report by Policy Exchange alleged that books condoning violent
jihad and encouraging hatred of Christians, Jews and gays were being
sold in a quarter of the 100 mosques visited.
But BBC2's Newsnight said examination of receipts provided by the
researchers to verify their purchases showed some had been written by
the same person - even though they purported to come from different
mosques.
Several receipts also misspelled the names or addresses of the mosques
where the books were supposedly sold.
The report, the Hijacking of British Islam, was based on the work of
four teams of two researchers each who visited 100 mosques. They
claimed to have found the controversial material in bookshops attached
to 25 mosques, including one at Regent's Park, London, and others in
Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Oxford and High Wycombe.
Published on the eve of a state visit by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah,
the report prompted front page news stories. Tory leader David Cameron
pledged to raise the revelations with King Abdullah, because much of
the literature was said to have been sourced from Saudi Arabia.
According to the report, one book, which said that there can be "no
brotherhood" between Muslims and non-Muslims, was bought at the Leyton
mosque in east London.
But the address on a receipt provided by the researchers was found to
be that of an unrelated bookshop next door.
A spokesman for the mosque, Dr Usama Hasan, said: "It has nothing to
do with us. It is totally inaccurate and misleading information. It is
completely false. In fact, we are considering taking legal action over
this because it has the potential to damage the good name of our mosque."
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council
of Britain, said: "Policy Exchange produced a report that was given a
lot of publicity, and Newsnight deserve credit for exposing the
incredibly shoddy and dubious methodology that Policy Exchange have
resorted to. It would seem that Policy Exchange had already decided
what they wanted to say about mosques and just went out to find or
should I say invent the evidence to justify their prejudices."
Policy Exchange's research director, Dean Godson, insisted it stood by
the report "100%". He said the thinktank had checked its evidence
thoroughly and the allegations did not challenge the substance of the
study - that such extremist literature was being widely sold.
"We are standing by our report and the Muslim researchers that helped
compile it," he added.
The researchers were unavailable for comment because they were all on
a religious retreat in Mauritania, Policy Exchange told Newsnight.
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