The chairman of a Brighton mosque says he has not stepped foot inside for a year because he fears retaliation from supporters of an extremist former trustee.
Asim Takriti has welcomed the Charity Commission’s announcement last week they are investigating the mosque, saying he feels trustees do not feel able to safety confront Abubaker Deghayes’ supporters.
Deghayes was jailed in April this year for encouraging terrorism during a “jihadist” speech at Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre, in Dyke Road.
An interim manager has now been appointed for the mosque and the inquiry will examine the management of the mosque, whether trustees have been properly appointed or removed, and appoint new ones.
Mr Takriti says the commission wants him and his fellow trustees to come to a compromise with Deghayes’ supporters – but he feels this is impossible.
But he is still hopeful the investigation will have a positive outcome, and the community will return there once again.
Mr Takriti said: “Mr Deghayes had been at the mosque for 20 years and he has supporters.
“Obviously I was unpopular. I’ve been away from the mosque for a year now because of Mr Deghayes’ supporters.
“I’ve got death threats which have also been handed to the police. I’ve only been a few times, I’ve not been lately at all.
“His supporters will never give up.
“We as the trustees of the mosque, we’re not powerful in front of these guys, these guys are persistent.
“I’m just a volunteer, these guys are persistent and they think the mosque is their platform.
“They think that because of the status of the mosque as a charity they can do whatever they want.
“I’m still a trustee, but the charity commission says we have to compromise. There’s no compromise with these guys.”
A few weeks after Deghayes gave the speech at the mosque, he paid a locksmith to break into its office and took bank statements.
He was arrested for burglary, but acquitted after the court heard he had been given permission to do so by another director, who was subsequently sacked.
During the trial, Mr Takriti said the next time he tried to access the mosque’s bank account, he found he had been taken off the list of signatories.
He also described an incident in which the sacked director had assaulted him and made a death threat because he was upset at what happened to his fellow Libyan – i.e. Deghayes.
Mr Takriti now says that this kind of incident had become commonplace, and was why nobody challenged Deghayes while he was making the speech – which the Charity Commission specifically criticised them for.
He said: “Once he made the speech, we reported it to the police straight away.
“The charity commission said that we failed to stop him, but we cannot stop somebody like him because it could be violent.
“We have to think of the safety of everyone in the mosque, it’s not appropriate to tackle him straight away. The more appropriate way is to report it and hand it to the police, who took action.
“We don’t know whether he has supporters sitting next to him in the mosque.
“We tried our best.
“Two of the directors were sacked for forging minutes and forging signatures at the bank. I immediately contacted the police. There is missing money from last year.
“They are going to appoint an administrator to find the facts and try to find new trustees, but it needs a solution, somebody with authority to run that mosque.
“Nobody attends this mosque anymore, it’s empty. They damaged the community so much.
“It was such a successful mosque, during covid we ran so many activities and helped the needy and picked up shopping for people.
“There is a serious problem, when you talk about a person who is jihadist. It’s quite shocking to the community, they don’t want to be in the big mess there.
“One of the things that stopped people going to the mosque was when one of the supporters who called himself a director told about 200 people that what I have done was wrong to send a muslim brother to jail.
“To me, one is too many.
“If the community came back and comes together we can make it a successful place, to help the needy, help the charity which works through the mosque or local charities.”
