Manchester concert venue hosts imam who calls Jews corrupt warmongers
Bridgewater Hall welcomed Sheikh Mishary Alfasy on Sunday despite appeals for the event to be cancelled
An imam who claims Jews wage wars and spread corruption headlined a major venue in Manchester on Sunday despite calls for the event to be cancelled.
Sheikh Mishary Alafasy, the imam and preacher of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait, addressed the 2,000-capacity Bridgewater Hall arena as part of a tour of Britain.
Billed as “An of Evening of Inspiration’, the occasion promised “mesmerising Quranic recitation, soul-stirring nasheeds (hymns) and heartfelt duas (prayers)”.
The event was sponsored by UK-registered charity, the Al Mustafa Welfare Trust, to support its Palestine and Gaza emergency appeal.
Alfasy has a history of antisemitic rhetoric and calls for violence. On 7 October 2023, the day of the Hamas atrocities, in a post to his 15 million followers on social media platform Twitter/X, he wrote: “O God, cast terror into the hearts of the Zionists.”
A letter from UK Lawyers for Israel to Manchester City Council, the trustees and chief executive of Bridgewater Hall and the venue’s operators, ASM Global, had called for the event to be cancelled. The letter, shared with Jewish News, cites several further examples of Sheikh Alafasy’s comments on social media.
In August 2020, he posted about how a number of Muslim-majority countries had signed peace agreements with Israel, including Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Instead of celebrating the peace deals, he wrote: “There is no benefit in normalisation with the treachery/betrayal of the Jews. No matter what [countries] signed agreements with them.”
In April 2011, Alafasy wrote in Arabic on Twitter that “[The] characteristics of the Jews: their eagerness to wage wars and [spreading] corruption in the land.”
A spokesperson for the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region (JRC) told Jewish News: “Despite raising our concerns regarding previous racist and inflammatory comments made by Sheikh Alfasy including calls for violence against Jewish people and social media posts accusing Jews of condoning child rape, the Trustees of The Bridgewater Hall and Leadership of Manchester City Council have not seen fit to cancel this event.
“To allow an extremist a prominent platform in one of our city’s most iconic venues makes a mockery of the assurances we have received to tackle antisemitism in all its forms. It also raises the serious risk of further attacks on Jews and the Jewish community in Greater Manchester.
“We will be working communal partners to raise this issue with the charity commission and push for strict sanctions regarding this flagrant breach of their charitable objectives.”
In a post to Twitter/X, NorthWest Friends of Israel, called on Marian Sudbury, the chair of the trustees who run Bridgewater Hall for Manchester City Council, to resign for “allowing this iconic venue – which hosts the Manchester Jewish community’s annual Holocaust commemoration each year – to be used by a proven Jew hater, despite being made aware of Alafasy’s antisemitic statements and posts. It also shows how @ManCityCouncil and its leadership led by @bevcraig
have betrayed the Jewish community despite stating they would stand alongside it in fighting Jew hatred. It is disgraceful.”
A spokersperson for Manchester City Council told Jewish News: “The Council does not have a direct role in managing or programming events at the Bridgewater Hall. The Council has been in dialogue with the operator and trustees of the venue for reassurance that the necessary due diligence is undertaken ahead of events being booked.”
Jewish News has approached Bridgwater Hall, its operator ASM Global, Al Mustafa Welfare Trust and Sheikh Alfasy for comment.
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