Interfaith campaigner calls on imams to tackle extremism as he warns of new terror threat

Fiyaz Mughal says some in the Muslim community have ‘lost trust in the state’ after Government’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas – Paul Smyth/Alamy Stock Photo

A leading interfaith campaigner has called on moderate imams to do more to tackle extremism as he warns that Britain is heading towards a new wave of homegrown terrorist attacks.

Fiyaz Mughal, an outspoken critic of radical Islamism, said that one of the “biggest failures” of recent months has been the failure of imams to quell community tensions. He warned that a section of the British Muslim community has “lost trust in the state” as a result of the Government’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

“It’s a matter of time before we start to get terrorist attacks happening here,” Mr Mughal told The Telegraph.

“We are in that window of a serious set of attacks coming in the next 18 months. It is definitely coming. You have people who are hot and angry and entrenched in what they are seeing.” He added that “one of the biggest failures has been imams not speaking publicly”.

Mr Mughal explained: “There has been no significant movement of imams to quell community tensions. There has been no imam who has said, ‘we need to calm things down, we need to work with the state authorities’.”

First anti-Muslim hatred tsar

Earlier this year, Mr Mughal was appointed by Michael Gove to spearhead a Government crackdown on extremism as the first anti-Muslim hatred tsar. But he quit the role after his name was leaked and he was subject to a “torrent” of abuse.

He also said it would take a decade to repair the relations between British Jews and Muslims as a result of the Israel-Hamas war. Mr Mughal went on to criticise Muslim peers, saying they have not done enough to help with inter-communal tensions.

“If you are taking public money, you take the King’s shilling, speak. You have a duty to speak,” said Mr Mughal.

“Every time you clock into the Lords, you should be speaking about engagement.

“I think some of them are just scared. Some of them think that this will affect their political careers. Some of them literally just want to have an easy life. You have to be bold. If you are in a position of power, you cannot be passive,” added Mr Mughal.

A report published earlier this month found that only one in four British Muslims believes that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on Oct 7.

The poll, which was  commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-extremism think tank, also found that almost half (46 per cent) of British Muslims said they sympathise with Hamas. The survey, which is the largest of its kind to be carried out since the Israel-Hamas conflict began, asked a range of questions to British Muslims as well as to the general public.

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