An Islamic preacher who called Hamas terrorists ‘resistance fighters’ has been hosted by a UK mosque visited by Sir Keir Starmer last week.
In a 16-minute YouTube video posted on October 12, Ali Hammuda, who held talks at the mosque as recently as July 31 this year, also denied a “huge massacre” of Israeli festival-goers took place on October 7.
Hammuda, whose diatribe has been viewed 115,000 times, hosted a 21-part series of lectures in the South Wales Islamic Centre (SWIC) that ran from January 26 to the end of July 2023.
In the video shared with his 161,000 YouTube subscribers, the cleric accused the media of “concocting stories that simply never happened, the latest of them being, of course, this claim that a huge massacre took place at a rave where 260 people were killed as they were dancing and singing”.
The British-Palestinian preacher asked rhetorically: “Where is the evidence for all this? Where is the proof?
“How is this to be understood other than to say there was no massacre of 260 people, there was no mass rape that took place at all, there was not the beheading of a single child, let alone 40 of them.
“There is zero evidence.”
Appearing to celebrate the killing of Israeli civilians by Palestinians forces in May 2021, which Human Rights Watch categorised as “war crimes”, Hammuda said: “The events of May 2021, or Ramadan 1441 will go down in history as one of the most influential events that irreversibly shaped collective thinking in and around Palestine.”
He added: “The path to liberation is a long one, and you and I may never see the end. But thank Allah, for what you saw in the last weeks was undoubtedly the beginning.”
SWIC promoted Hammuda’s lecture series on January 26 in a video posted to Facebook. It was captioned: “Alhamdulillah [thank God] the first lecture of Enjoy Salah series by Sheikh Ali Hammuda was a huge success! This is a short clip from the evening!”
Sir Keir travelled to Cardiff on Sunday to meet with members of SWIC, after clarifying comments made during an LBC interview at the Labour Party conference, in which he said Israel had the right to cut Gaza’s power and water off.
Repositioning his stance, the Holborn and St Pancras MP said Israel does have the right to defend itself, but not to cut off power and water, and that it should respond within international law.
After meeting with SWIC members, the Labour leader took to X, formerly Twitter, to say he was “grateful to hear from the Muslim community of the South Wales Islamic Centre”.
The following day, two more posts were added to his initial statement, saying: “I was questioned by members and I was deeply moved to hear their pain and horror at the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
“I made clear it is not and has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines. International law must be followed.”
The 61-year-old added: “That’s why we urgently need more aid and utilities to get into Gaza. We know this is not a new crisis. There has been a failure of international politics for decades. We don’t want to see any further loss of innocent life, Israeli or Palestinian.”
Following the Labour leader’s visit, SWIC apologised to the Muslim community “for the hurt and confusion” brought on by Sir Keir’s appearance The mosque also expressed “dismay” at the claims he made on X.
In a social media post, SWIC said: “We wish to stress Keir Starmer’s social media post and images gravely misrepresented our congregants and the nature of the visit.
“We affirm, unequivocally, the need for a free Palestine. We implore all those with political authority to uphold international law, and the end to the occupation of Palestine.”
Sir Keir’s SWIC visit appears to have blown up in his face, as he and his deputy, Angela Rayner, were forced to meet with Muslim MPs amid a backlash among Labour councillor’s.
Such is the scale of the crisis, a shadow minister told Politico that the party was “haemorrhaging Muslim votes massively, enough to lose seats if there was an election tomorrow”.
SWIC and Labour have been approached for comment.
