Catford and Bromley United Synagogue, a London Orthodox synagogue affiliated with the United Synagogue movement, hosted a Muslim cleric who has called for a jihad against Jews in the Land of Israel.
Shakeel Begg is head of Lewisham Islamic Centre and preaches to thousands of followers. In 2013 he sought to sue the BBC for defamation in a High Court case that concluded in October of last year, after Sunday Politics presenter Andrew Neill called him “an extremist preacher… with extremist positions”, reported Jewish News Online.
Begg unsuccessfully denied the presenter's remarks in the trial. The judge found that Begg “promoted and encouraged religious violence,” after scrutinizing Begg’s speeches from 2006-11.
The court noted Begg’s predeliction for quoting Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until he died in 1999, a leader within Salafi-Wahabi Islam.
The judge found that Begg quoted bin Baz “without equivocation” saying “solidarity amongst Muslims means making jihad against the Jews and fighting the Jews in an Islamic Jihad until the Territory goes back to its proper people”.
The judge said this was “encouraging offensive jihad against Jews to recover Palestine and return it to the Muslims”. Begg’s lawyers claimed that this is not Begg's intention, and he had referred to jihad in another context.
Synagogue leadership had defended Begg in the past. Reverend David Rome, a chazan, spoke on Begg’s behalf mentioning the imam’s “significant inter-faith work”. Gerald Rose, a retired schoolteacher, spoke of Begg’s “valuable work with different schools, including Jewish schools”.
Rome, together with Reverend Stewart Myers of South London Synagogue, spoke on a podium with Begg at Catford in a July event entitled "‘Religious Symbols in Faith."
Synagogue Chairman Joe Burchell at that time praised the event as “proving yet again the benefit of being part of all communities in South London, an example that other synagogues in north-west London might like to follow”.
This week community members expressed anger at Begg's inclusion and asked why the synagogue was associating with Begg, given his past remarks.
“Yet again the Orthodox Jewish community has proudly given a hescher to supposed interfaith ‘partners’ who in fact espouse some of the worst forms of extreme Islamism,” said London resident Jacob Lyons, board member of Patrons of the Conference of European Rabbis.
“Our community’s naïve support for people and organizations such as these helps them to mask their underlying messages of violence and terrorism. It hence poses a danger not only to the community, but to the public as a whole. The Orthodox rabbinate would better spend its time and energies focused on the promotion of Jewish life rather than politics.”