LONDON: The Charity Commission is investigating allegations of misuse of more than £1 million and corruption at one of the UK’s largest mosques – Hounslow Jamia Masjid & Islamic Centre, in west London.
Viral video footage shows worshipers and mosque management – who are mostly Pakistanis – brawling inside the mosque – amid accusations of harassment, abuse, intimidation, shoving, punching and violence.
The dispute began – published in major British newspapers – after the former friends and mosque administrators fell out and began blaming each other.
Police and an ambulance were called to the scene, the Sun reported.
A mosque trustee resigned from his post after 20 years of service – including 10 years as president – and a councilor reported five suspected attacks on his home and car to the police, and begged the council and Labor bigwigs to intervene.
In his letter of resignation from the mosque, Abdul Majid recounted how, when he ran the Hounslow Jamia Masjid, the bank balance was constantly between £400,000 and £500,000 in credit.
Abdul Majid said: “Unfortunately, the current financial situation of the mosque is a source of great concern, with the account balance now very low. This, among other things, has forced me to conclude that I can no longer continue to carry out this role in good conscience.”
Around £300,000 of charitable donations collected at the mosque each year “do not appear in any official account or bank statement”. Important collections intended for the Gaza crisis are “missing,” he said.
Majid referred to documents in which company BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions filed a £150,000 claim against the mosque’s 11 trustees in a row over a 12-year lease of photocopiers. 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 was awarded to a close associate of the mosque’s senior management. Relatives were awarded the contract to supply groceries and meat to the mosque. A series of contracts have been reported without a transparent tender process, the Charity Commission has learned.
It has been suggested that “unqualified” people have been appointed to key financial positions. There is a major problem surrounding “family relationships”, the Charity Commission has been told.
The councilor also contacted Dan Bowring, chairman of the Brentford and Isleworth constituency Labor Party. He called for a formal Labor Party investigation into “the conduct of certain individuals within our party who abuse their official positions and community influence to incite hostility and endanger the safety of elected members”.
The mosque is attended by up to 4,000 Muslims per day.
A source at the mosque said of the leaked combat footage that some worshipers had been banned from the premises after leaders accused them of causing “disruption to public order”.
One of the people also banned from entering the mosque was the councillor. Those evicted were told that returning to the mosque would be considered an “intrusion” and tensions are still considered “high.”
The Charity Commission, responsible for ensuring that the governance, management and administration of a charity is fit for purpose, said in a statement: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case against Hounslow Jamia Masjid and the Islamic Center to assess concerns about the governance of the charity. »
A source at the mosque said: “It’s all about personal animosity. There is no truth in these allegations. Those involved in the dispute were best friends, had common business and social affairs. They fell out and took their personal issues to the mosque, making it a big issue. The allegations are baseless and frivolous.”
The mosque source said that they will state their position very soon and present the facts to the public and worshipers. He said all allegations of financial corruption were false.
