Mosque where Imam made derogatory remarks about Jews denies radicalising Manchester terrorist

A mosque near Burnley where repeated derogatory references to Jews have been made in sermons has denied radicalising the Heaton Park Synagogue terrorist, who described in 2022 how he “rly [sic] love the mosque there.”

Jihad Al-Shamie, who carried out the terror attack at the North Manchester shul on Yom Kippur, where two were killed and three seriously injured, had attended the Masjid Sunnah Nelson, twenty-five miles north of Manchester. As reported by the Telegraph, in November 2022, Al-Shamie attended a three day  “knowledge conference” at the mosque with his younger brother. His message about how he “really love[d] the mosque” was sent to one of his three wives, who has since spoken about being raped by him.

On more than one occasion, Imam Abul Abbaas Naveed, has made comments about the “yahud” – Jews. In October 2023, as reported by the Telegraph, Naveed cited a hadith – a series of Islamic religious texts read alongside the Quran – which claimed that a Jewish woman from the conquered city of Khaybar served Mohammed and his companions poisoned meat.

“This also shows us the traits of the Yahud [Jews], how treacherous they are and how much they betray and oppress people, because they did this with the greatest of the humans,” Naveed said, in video footage.

Last week, Naveed gave a sermon in which he said that Jews had rejected Islam and that “Whoever has knowledge and does not act by his knowledge, then he has a resemblance to the yahud [Jews].”

Naveed has also referred to Israel in his speeches, saying in August that “each day when you think that the murderous Zionist regime cannot become more evil and more depraved, they surpass themselves, and they add a new level of cruelty and brutality not seen the day before.”

There is no indication of how many times Al-Shamie attended the mosque, and no suggestion that he was among the worshippers who heard these particular sermons given by Naveed.

The Masjid Sunnah Nelson was opened by a charity called Fountains of Knowledge in 2021. In 2023, Fountains of Knowledge was reported to the Charity Commission by the National Secular Society over a sermon given six days after the 7 October massacre by Naveed, in which he linked the situation in Gaza to the “plotting of the kuffar [non-believers] against Islam”.

At the time the Charity Commission said it had given “guidance” to the mosque about not using “inflammatory language”.

In comments reported by the I newspaper, Naveed, strongly denied that Al-Shamie had been radicalised at the Masjid Sunnah Nelson.

“I agree it looks like Islamic extremism; it’s obviously Gaza”, he is reported to have said.

“At the end of the day, any ideology, religious or otherwise, even secular, can be misconstrued. Something can be picked up. There would be nothing in the teachings itself.

“I don’t know what phase of life he was going through, I would like to know his mental state.

“Without knowing his mindset, or his personal life, I’ve read that he was going through a rape trial [Al-Shamie had been arrested on that suspicion, but not charged, and was out on police bail at the time he carried out the terror attack] and separately that he was abusive in his marriage.”

Naveed went on to suggest that Al-Shamie’s radicalisation might have taken place online.

“If they’ve got extremist views they might not have found what they were searching for,” he said. “So from there they go onto the internet and they find a Telegram channel.

“That might be his [Shamie’s] journey: he wasn’t a very good Muslim, he goes to a mosque and doesn’t find what he’s looking for there so he gets it on a Telegram channel.”

The Times reported that last month Naveed also said in a sermon that “The husband in the house is the one who has the word. He is the man, he has the first and last word. So, this is what they call guardianship. It means that the wife does not do anything except what? Except with his permission.”