London: A radical Islamic cleric by the name of Muhammad Asim Hussain has been granted permission to operate a kindergarten for children by the education regulator in the United Kingdom, reported Daily Mail. This is despite the fact that Hussain had openly expressed his support for Pakistani Al-Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui and the murderer of former Pakistani Governor Salman Taseer.
As per reports, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) ignored his past record and gave a green signal to the cleric in January to start his nursery. Imam Muhammad Asim Hussain then took to Instagram to welcome the decision.
He wrote, “It all started with an idea around 4 years ago as part of my vision for Al-Hikam and today a huge milestone was reached. It wasn’t meant to be 4 years ago for a number of reasons but the idea never left my mind and last January after the podcast on the role of masjids in the 21st century, I began the process to set up an Islamic ethos based children’s nursery.”
The cleric added, “A lot of time, effort, money and resources has been invested in setting up the childcare setting and after a year of hard work, yesterday Ofsted granted us official registration to open ‘Little Wisdoms Nursery’ in Bradford at Al-Hikam. This is amazing news for our local community!”
The radical Imam informed that his ‘Little Wisdoms’ nursery will operate from Monday to Friday between 7:30 am and 3:30 pm. He emphasised that the nursery will initially enrol 3 to 4-year-olds before admitting 2-year-olds eventually. Hussain is the founder of the Al-Hikam mosque. He was ousted from his role in 2019 over allegations of misconduct. He was reappointed in 2020.
Daily Mail reported that Imam Hussain told his followers to attend an event in 2015 to express solidarity with Al-Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui. He had announced that the event would emphasise the supposed ‘injustice’ committed against the terrorist.
It must be mentioned that Aafia Siddiqui is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for attacking US Army and FBI personnel in Afghanistan. In 2008, she was detained by Afghan authorities. According to the Department of Justice, they had found a number of items in her possession, including handwritten notes that mentioned a mass-casualty attack.
There was a list of various locations such as Plum Island, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge in the US, including in the items. According to DoJ, she was being held in an unsecured manner when she grabbed a rifle from US Army personnel and fired it at the officers interviewing her. An FBI agent and a US Army officer were injured.
In March 2016, Muhammad Asim Hussain lamented the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who killed Pakistani Governor Salman Taseer in 2011 on charges of blasphemy. While calling it a ‘dark day in the history of Pakistan’, the Imam justified his actions by saying that Qadri was ‘martyred in the way of Allah’.
Executive director at the Counter Extremism Project, David Ibsen, had said, “Al-Hikam should not be permitted to educate young British citizens in its nursery when there is a track record of espousing objectionable and oppressive beliefs.”
While reacting to the article by The Daily Mail, Ofsted informed that they will re-examine the permission granted to Imam Muhammad Asim Hussain.