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
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.”
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