Islamic group sorry for branding synagogue a ‘place of non-believers’

The Islamic movement buying Wembley United Synagogue has “apologised profusely” after its fundraising flyers sought help to purchase “a place of worship of non-believers”.

Dawat-e-Islami, a global Sunni Muslim group founded in Pakistan, caused a wave of upset across social media sites including Facebook’s ‘Friends of Wembley Shul’ in recent days. The synagogue received a written apology on Wednesday morning.

In an email sent to Wembley Synagogue chair Charles Vitez from Dawat-e-Islami’s head of London region, a copy of which has been seen by Jewish News, Hasan Ali Safdar said: “I am writing to apologise for the hurt caused by our leaflet this week.”

He said: “The wording on the leaflet stated the building is ‘a former place of worship of non-believers’, which was referring to non-believers of Islam i.e. any other religion. The wording was never intended to cause any offence.

“We have removed this text from the campaign immediately and apologise profusely for any offence it may have caused… We will not distribute the old leaflets and will only use the amended material.”

The United Synagogue’s sale of the 14,500 sq. ft. building is close to completion, the two parties having already exchanged. Dawat-e-Islami established a presence in the UK in 1995 and now has a network of around 40 Islamic centres and schools.

In December, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis attended a farewell service at the shul on Forty Avenue, whose membership has dropped from 1,800 in the 1960s to about 150 families today, in part due to the shifting focus of north London’s Jewish community.

The building was listed for sale for £4m, but the Dawat-e-Islami leaflets cited a £5m fundraising project, believed to include the estimated cost of refurbishment. In November 2020, the shul bought a smaller purpose-built site nearby.

David Collins, the United Synagogue’s chief operating officer, told Jewish News: “We are pleased that the trustees of Dawat-e-Islami UK immediately recognised the hurt caused by the offensive language on their fundraising flyer. We are also glad that they have apologised to the members of Wembley United Synagogue and by extension the wider community, and have ordered a reprint of the flyer and removal of online content which contained the same language.

“The United Synagogue has robust due diligence processes.  The buyer was selected after a full marketing exercise for the sale. All the serious bids for the property came from other faith groups and following due diligence, the highest bidder was chosen as would be expected by the Charity Commission. In anticipation of the sale, we had already purchased and refurbished a new, fit-for-purpose site for Wembley United Synagogue and we look forward to supporting them to make the move and celebrate their first Shabbat in the new shul soon. We will invest the remainder of the proceeds in planned capital projects in our newer and growing communities.”