Imam Haitham al-Haddad, considered an extremist and antisemitic, was invited to the BBC studios to express his views on the Right wing protests in Britain.
The presenter introduced him as a “highly respected imam.”
This is despite the fact that al-Haddad is considered one of the most dangerous preachers in the entire kingdom. During the October 7th massacre, while Israelis were still being murdered in the Gaza surrounding communities, al-Haddid posted a call to pray for “victory over Israel.”
“O Allah, support the people of truth in Gaza, Al-Qudus and Palestine - they have managed to cause confusion to the enemy’s calculations with a new tactic. Grant them victory and aid them against their oppressors in their struggle for Justice and Truth," al-Haddad wrote on October 7th morning.
A few days ago, shortly after the Right-wing riots began in Britain, al-Haddad told his believers at the Greenwich Islamic Center in South London that they were "rioters with a Zionist ‘agenda’.”
"Some of them [rioters] have an agenda and some of them have - maybe that agenda is connected to Zionism at large. Yes, we know this. And we know that some of them may want to divert the attention of the Government from condemning what the Zionist-state Israel is doing and they want to stop arming Israel, so they want to attract the attention or divert the attention of the Government,” he claimed.
The decision to invite the radical Muslim preacher to the BBC studios provoked sharp criticism. Nick Timothy, a Tory MP, said that "it is baffling” that the BBC should ‘justify its decision to platform and praise the notorious Haitham Al-Haddad by saying he was talking about conciliation’.”
A BBC spokesman said of Al-Haddad: “We invited Haitham al-Haddad onto the program to talk about conciliation following disorder in parts of the country. We accept we should have been clearer about the views he has expressed in the past and challenged him on them more robustly.