Leeds Grand Mosque linked to children's suicide bombing DVD
Former chairman of Leeds Grand Mosque was the sole distributor of a DVD glorifying suicide bombings
PHOTO: DAILYMAIL
A controversial DVD that glorifies suicide bombings has been found linked to a company owned by the former chairman of Leeds Grand Mosque.
Firas al-Rawi, 40, the former chairman of the Leeds Grand Mosque was the sole distributor of the DVD’s cover, according to the Daily Mail.
The singalong DVD which shows a little girl promising to follow in the footsteps of her mother and vowing to blow herself up at an army checkpoint glorifies suicide bombings.
Filmed in Arabic, the DVD has English subtitles and was purchased by a child at a mosque in Bradford in 2007. The child’s grandfather passed the DVD on to his local MP, Tory Philip Davies, and a copy was handed to the Police’s North East Counter Terrorism Unit which led to al-Rawi's arrest.
Al-Rawi was released on bail a couple of months later after the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was not sufficient proof of transgression to charge him.
Read:Terror in Kuwait: Mosque attacker identified as young Saudi man
The DVD also plays appealing songs set to horrifying images of crying women and children and explosions and infernos.
Further, it shows the mother making bombs out of sticks of dynamite as her daughter looks on and later, in another scene, blowing herself up after being challenged by some soldiers. The DVD also shows the daughter discovering a stick of dynamite in her mother’s wardrobe and exclaiming that she will prove her love for her mother by following in her steps.
While local Muslims have complained that Leeds Grand Mosque has been overtaken by extremists and moderate Muslims have been sidelined, Leeds Grand mosque denies that it was run by extremists saying that it is run 'legitimately and according to best practice'.
The article originally appeared on Daily Mail.
Firas al-Rawi, 40, the former chairman of the Leeds Grand Mosque was the sole distributor of the DVD’s cover, according to the Daily Mail.
The singalong DVD which shows a little girl promising to follow in the footsteps of her mother and vowing to blow herself up at an army checkpoint glorifies suicide bombings.
Filmed in Arabic, the DVD has English subtitles and was purchased by a child at a mosque in Bradford in 2007. The child’s grandfather passed the DVD on to his local MP, Tory Philip Davies, and a copy was handed to the Police’s North East Counter Terrorism Unit which led to al-Rawi's arrest.
Al-Rawi was released on bail a couple of months later after the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was not sufficient proof of transgression to charge him.
Read:Terror in Kuwait: Mosque attacker identified as young Saudi man
The DVD also plays appealing songs set to horrifying images of crying women and children and explosions and infernos.
Further, it shows the mother making bombs out of sticks of dynamite as her daughter looks on and later, in another scene, blowing herself up after being challenged by some soldiers. The DVD also shows the daughter discovering a stick of dynamite in her mother’s wardrobe and exclaiming that she will prove her love for her mother by following in her steps.
While local Muslims have complained that Leeds Grand Mosque has been overtaken by extremists and moderate Muslims have been sidelined, Leeds Grand mosque denies that it was run by extremists saying that it is run 'legitimately and according to best practice'.
The article originally appeared on Daily Mail.