Lewisham Islamic Centre Responds to The Times
On 19 August 2024, the Murdoch press’s “respectable” newspaper, The Times published an article entitled, ‘London Imam claims ‘Zionists’ were behind far right riots’.
The article references a Friday sermon delivered by our Imam, Ashraf Dabous wherein he addressed three main points: (1) a message to the rioters that they are being manipulated, misled and misinformed by individuals that do not have their best interests at heart; (2) that Islam is a mercy for all and a mercy for mankind, and so as Muslims we should see those rioting as ignorant and in need of Islam, we should not take them as enemies but rather open our hearts to them whilst standing firm in defence of our communities; (3) that we as Muslims take what is happening as a moment to reflect and ask ourselves are we representing Islam to the best of our ability, and that we should take accountability for any wrong portrayal of Islam that may take place due to our actions.
The article from The Times is written by Fiona Hamilton, who is the chief reporter of The Times. Ms Hamilton appears to have quite an obsession with the Centre as she has now penned a few articles on us – quite why this chief reporter of the Murdoch press is so interested in the Centre, is beyond us. We previously asked Ms Hamilton in response to another article whether her issue with the Centre had anything to do with it being a Muslim organisation, however she failed to respond.
What is however even more peculiar is that Ms Hamilton’s hit piece in question here appears to have been potentially inspired by the rag tag Islamophobic troll/hate account of ‘Habibi’ who appears to have been the first to comment on Imam Dabous’s sermon in his post on X. It is concerning if The Times’ chief editor is placing reliance upon material which has been collated by a known Islamophobic propaganda/hate account. Habibi is one of the anonymous writers of ‘Harry’s Place’. A cursory look at their material will make it clear to any objective person that this is a page/site that is pro-Israel, Zionist and anti-Muslim/Islamophobic. Using them as a source therefore to raise questions to a Muslim organisation is in our view, highly offensive. We would not expect The Times to write to a Jewish charity with material from a neo-Nazi website or write to a charity representing members of the black community, with material from the BNP, it would simply be distasteful, and the same also applies here. It is clear that the material Harry’s Place and Habibi are uploading and disseminating are for the sole purpose of attacking and targeting Muslims, and if chief reporters like Ms Hamilton are then using their material to run stories, then it would mean that their article is tainted by the discriminatory stain from the source, Habibi.
We asked Ms Hamilton whether she was inspired by Habibi, whether she is someone who identifies as a Zionist, whether she agrees that Zionism is inherently racist and needs to be opposed as was found by the Employment Tribunal in the David Miller case. Ms Hamilton did not respond.
As for Imam Dabous’s statement that some of the agitators of the riots are Zionists, well this is well known, perhaps Ms Hamilton ought to do some real investigative journalism instead of writing non-stories like the article in question. One Zionist who has come under the spotlight as someone who has potentially instigated the riots is Douglas Murray, who has never made a secret of his loathing for Islam, and who, it has now emerged, explicitly endorsed the idea that the public should take the law into their own hands and “sort out” Muslims and immigrants. This was called out by many, including the former Labour MP, Alastair Campbell in his post on X, and by the journalist, academic and campaigner, Brian Cathcart in his piece in the Byline Times called, ‘Hate Sells: The Spectator Cannot Defend Douglas Murray But It Won’t Sack Him’. Another person of course is Tommy Robinson, and again such claims about his involvement, associations with Zionists, and their links to the riots were covered by David Hearst in the Middle East Eye in his piece, ‘How an unholy alliance between fascists and far-right Zionists fuelled UK riots’. We asked Ms Hamilton why is it that she has not written an article on Ms Hearst or Mr Cathcart, who are saying no different to our Imam Dabous has said and whether Imam Dabous being Muslim aggravates the claims for the very reason that he is a Muslim. Again she failed to respond.