London Connaught Rooms to Host Jihadist Conference

On the 8th of July 2012, the Grand Connaught Rooms in London will host a conference featuring several hate preachers. Their repertoire includes justifying suicide bombings, glorifying jihad, promoting venomous homophobia, spreading crude antisemitism, and encouraging reprehensible bigotry against Shia Muslims.

Stand for Peace has tried to speak to the management of the Grand Connaught Rooms to ensure they know of the consequences of giving Islamists a platform (as per the Prevent review). However, one senior member of management told Stand for Peace: "[it] didn’t bother me at all”.

Urgent action is required to convince the Grand Connaught Rooms to put decency before profit and to pull the plug on the conference. You can call the venue on +44 (0) 2074 057 811 – ask for Oliver Six, the General Manager.

The owner of the venue is the Principal Hayley Group, based in North Yorkshire. The number for Principal Hayley is +44 (0) 1423 853 800 – you can ask for Tony Troy (Chief Executive Officer) or Colin Bailey (Group Operations Director).

The event is organised by the Al-Muntada Trust, a London-based Islamist group. It has an extensive record of hosting and boosting some of the UK’s worst hate preachers over many years.

Here’s a preview of some of the speakers at the upcoming event:

Abd al-Aziz Fawzan al-Fawzan:

Al-Fawzan is a Saudi professor of Islamic law. A popular figure on Saudi television, al-Fawzan has glorified jihad in Iraq, saying:

Jihad is an individual duty applying to the Iraqi people. They need to wage this jihad against this enemy until it leaves their country.

In an interview on Saudi television, Al-Fawzan whipped up anti-Christian hate:

But if this person is an infidel, even if this person is my mother or father, God forbid, or my son or daughter; I must hate him, his heresy, and his defiance of Allah and His prophet. I must hate his abominable deeds. Moreover, this hatred must be positive hatred.

Al-Fawzan has condemned homosexuality, calling it "an abomination”. He has ‘blamed’ homosexuality on "Western values”:

Some people want to Westernize our society in any possible way, but they know that if they advocate fornication, forbidden sexual relations, and homosexuality, the people would stone them. So what do they do? They come up with these deviant fatwas, which lay the ground for these crimes and abominations. (...)