Probe into cleric's city 'race-hate' rant

Jul 10 2006

CITY council bosses were investigating today how an extremist Muslim cleric was allowed to preach hate from the floor of a public meeting

Omar Brooks was filmed at Birmingham Council-owned Small Heath Youth and Community Centre praising the "bravery" of a London bomber's suicide compared to non-Muslims - who he characterised with vomiting and urinating in the street.

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, branded the council's part in the episode "absolutely disgraceful".

He said that lending out the rooms to Brooks facilitated the potential "brainwashing" of moderate local Muslim youth, and that the council had a serious duty to prevent groups which preached racial or religious hatred from disseminating their message on its property.

A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council said it was concerned to hear about the allegations.

"The city council would certainly not want to lend its community centres to any group that would seek to incite racial hatred. We will be looking into the circumstance around this specific booking."

The rally was organised by Islamic Research Forum on July 2 and a video of the speech was posted on the website of Al-Ghurabaa.

A spokesman for the Islamic Research Forum defended the conference, saying it was about addressing "legitimate grievances" which had led to the July 7 bombings.

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