Corbyn election leaflet features endorsement from Muslim leader who praised Hamas founder
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Corbyn election leaflet features endorsement from Muslim leader who praised Hamas founder

Finsbury Park mosque chair Mohammed Kozbar, who is prominent on the flyer urging people to vote for the former Labour leader, called Sheikh Yassin the ‘master of the martyrs of the resistance’

Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist

Mohammed Kozbar is the first name on a leaflet of Corbyn supporters urging people to vote for the former Labour Party leader.
Mohammed Kozbar is the first name on a leaflet of Corbyn supporters urging people to vote for the former Labour Party leader.

Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to regain the parliamentary seat of Islington North as an independent MP in the general election has been endorsed by a Muslim leader who has publicly praised the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin.

Mohammed Kozbar, the chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque, is also deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain. His is the first name on a leaflet of Corbyn supporters urging people to vote for the former Labour Party leader. Corbyn, who has held his seat since 1983, was suspended from the Labour Party in 2020 after he declared that antisemitism in the party had been overstated.

When he formally announced that he was ready to run in the July 4 2024 general election as an independent, Labour expelled him. Corbyn has now issued a leaflet of people endorsing him — and Kozbar’s name leads the list.

Kozbar wrote: “Jeremy is full of humanity and compassion. He is a fantastic MP who cares about everyone in his community”. Previously, his description of Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin as “the master of the martyrs of the resistance” caused concern.

After his election as deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain in February 2023, the Muslim activist said: “I have demonstrated interfaith action at a local level, and it is much needed at a national level. I look forward to particularly building this with our Jewish friends, with whom we have so much in common. Antisemitism and Islamophobia must both be tackled vigorously. I have worked with many Jewish colleagues, who have looked past the Islamophobic smears that have been levelled at me in the past…”

But in February 2024, the Metropolitan Police decided to cut ties with Kozbar, who had been a member of its London Muslim Communities Forum. The police said they had decided to “cease engagement” with Kozbar “after a social media post from late January 2024 was brought to our attention and reviewed”.

It is understood that this may have referred to Kozbar’s “like” for a video post on Twitter/X by the profoundly anti-Israel rapper, Lowkey, which claimed that “Israeli intelligence companies” were “taking control of key functions of our intelligence and police services”.

Kozbar had also “liked” a post by the former head of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, Dr Wahid Shaida. On January 19 2024, Dr Shaida said he would “continue to speak about things I believe in”, despite Hizb ut-Tahrir being proscribed as a terror group by the British government.

In February, a Met Police spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: “Mr Kozbar is no longer an adviser to the Met. The decision was taken to cease engagement with Mr Kozbar as an adviser after a social media post from late January 2024 was brought to our attention and reviewed.

“The Met works with a range of faith and community adviser groups, locally and centrally. This vital work helps us improve our response to the crime and anti-social behaviour issues faced by all communities across London.

“We are currently reviewing how we work with our network of advisory groups to ensure that, like the Met, they are committed to building a better London that promotes mutual respect and inclusivity.”

Much of Kozbar’s Twitter/X content consists of repostings of opinions with which he allegedly agrees, rather than declarations of his own.

Previously, speaking in relation to his comments about Sheikh Yassin, the founder of Hamas, Kozbar said: “I spoke on the extra-judicial assassination of a paraplegic man who was wheelchair-bound… my comments were made well before this organisation [Hamas] was proscribed.”

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: