The new imam of a Birmingham mosque implied that 9/11 was a case of a “bully” getting a “bloody nose” and appeared to cast doubt on the idea of hundreds of Israelis being killed on Oct 7.
Abdul Haqq Baker, the chief executive officer of Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre, also compared the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust and suggested that Hamas had treated Israeli hostages well.
Mr Baker is a former chairman of Brixton mosque in London who was last month announced as the head of Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, an organisation which has charitable status.
In a YouTube video recorded in 2021 to mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he recalled that on the day of the attacks he had bumped into a friend who had compared it to a bully getting a bloody nose – a metaphor which he used in a sermon a few days later.
Mr Baker said: “As I came out of the station I saw one of my old school friends. He knew I was Muslim, he wasn’t Muslim. And he looked at me and said ‘how you doing’… I said ‘it’s shocking isn’t it?’ He goes ‘yeah, the bully got a bloody nose’.
“Now that stuck with me so much so that when I gave the khutbah [sermon] on Friday… I mentioned that at the beginning of my khutbah, and I referred to my friend. I said ‘as one of my non-Muslim colleagues said, the bully has got a bloody nose’.”
Mr Baker has also made a number of controversial statements in the wake of the Oct 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent military action in Gaza.
‘Atrocious parallel’
In a video recorded on Oct 28, one day after Israel launched its full-scale invasion of Gaza, he compared the situation in the territory to the Holocaust.
“We know about the atrocious – and I say this word – atrocious Holocaust that took place, World War Two, Nazi Germany,” he said. “We’re witnessing another parallel now in the 21st Century.”
In the video, he also appeared to cast doubt on whether hundreds of Israeli civilians had been killed on Oct 7.
Comparing the casualty figures to a claim – which was never verified – that 40 babies had been decapitated by Hamas, he said: “Beheading 40 babies – no evidence. Hundreds of Israelis killed. Only three or four funerals have been seen since.
“How many funerals have we seen of the Palestinians?… How many funerals have we seen of the Palestinians in comparison to the funerals of the Israelis? Are you going to say ‘oh that they’re really private, so there are private ceremonies taking place’. What we know about the Zionists… when we look at the Zionist propaganda, they are very quick to market, to publicise, to advertise.”
The current estimate is that about 1,200 Israeli and foreign citizens lost their lives during the attack. In a later video recorded in January, Mr Baker said he did not “deny” that there had been “serious casualties” on Oct 7.
In the Oct 28 video, Mr Baker also appeared to suggest that Hamas had treated Israeli hostages well. “Many of us heard the elderly Jewish woman who was brought out of captivity when she was released.
“Others heard of those when occupied territories were overrun, ‘that they were polite to us, they were good to us’, they said ‘we are Muslims’… we hear that a lot, that statement when people say ‘we are Muslims’ and immediately there should be a code of conduct, an ethics, when someone hears ‘we’re Muslim’.”
Green Lane mosque is no stranger to controversy. In November 2023, The Telegraph reported that its head imam, Zakaullah Saleem, told a congregation to pray for Allah to “destroy all those oppressing our brothers and sisters in Gaza”.
On another occasion in August 2023, a video of Mr Saleem went viral on social media in which he discussed the process of stoning a woman for adultery. At the time, Green Lane said the clip was “highly misleading” and lacked “context” and that the imam “did not suggest that these practices have a place in UK society”.
The Telegraph understands that the Charity Commission does not currently have any compliance case open into Green Lane.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We will assess the new information provided to determine if there is a role for the Commission.”
Mr Baker and Green Lane mosque were contacted for comment.
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