LONDON: The Charity Commission is investigating allegations of misuse of more than £1m and corruption at one of Britain’s largest mosques – the Hounslow Jamia Masjid & Islamic Center in west London.
A viral video footage shows worshipers and the mosque’s management – who are mainly Pakistani – getting into a brawl inside the mosque – amid allegations of harassment, abuse, intimidation, pushing, punching and violence.
The dispute started – publicized in mainstream British newspapers – after the former friends and trustees of the mosques fell out and started blaming each other.
Police and an ambulance were called to the scene, the Sun reported.
A mosque trustee has resigned after 20 years of service – including 10 years as chairman – and a councilor has reported five alleged attacks on his home and car to the police, pleading with the council and Labor bigwigs to act.
In his resignation letter from the mosque, Abdul Majid told how when he ran the Hounslow Jamia Masjid, the bank balance was consistently between £400,000 to £500,000 in credit.
Abdul Majid stated: “Unfortunately, the current financial state of the mosque is a cause for great concern, with the account balance now very low. This, among other things, has forced me to conclude that I can no longer continue in this role in good conscience.”
Around £300,000 of charitable donations collected each year at the mosque “do not appear in any official accounts or bank records”. Major fundraising for the Gaza crisis is “unaccounted for”, he has claimed.
Majid referred to documents in which the firm BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions filed a £150,000 claim against the mosque’s 11 administrators in a row over a 12-year lease of copiers. An out-of-court settlement – “without full board approval or proper discussion” – means the mosque will pay the company £5,000 a month until August 2027.
A lucrative security contract went to a close associate of the mosque’s top management team. Relatives were awarded the contract to supply groceries and meat to the mosque. A number of contracts have been reported without a transparent tender process, the Charity Commission was told.
It has been suggested that “unqualified” people have been appointed to key financial positions. There is a big problem around “familial relationships”, the Charity Commission was told.
The councilor also reached out to Dan Bowring, chairman of the Brentford and Isleworth Constituency Labor Party. He called for a formal Labor inquiry into “the conduct of certain individuals in our party who abuse their official positions and community influence to incite hostility and endanger the safety of elected members.”
The mosque is visited by up to 4,000 Muslims a day.
A source at the mosque said of the leaked fight footage that some worshipers were banned from the premises after leaders accused them of causing “breach of the peace and public disorder”.
One of the people who was also banned from the mosque was the councillor. Those expelled were told that returning to the mosque would be considered “trespassing” and tensions are still believed to be “elevated”.
The Charity Commission, which is responsible for ensuring that the leadership, management and administration of a charity is fit for purpose, said in a statement: “We have opened a compliance case at Hounslow Jamia Masjid and Islamic Center to assess concerns about the charity’s management.”
A source in the mosque said: “It is all about personal enmity. There is no truth in the allegations. The people involved in the dispute used to be best friends, had common business and social affairs. They fell out and have brought their personal problems to the mosque, making it a big problem. The allegations are baseless and frivolous.”
The mosque source said that they will very soon explain their position and bring the facts to the public and the worshippers. He said any allegation of financial corruption is false.
