Moeen Ali's fraternising with Islamists and status as a "role model"

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has been on superb career best form this summer and deservedly has received acclaim for his performances. However as someone with a visibly devout Muslim identity succeeding some have also started championing him beyond his on field exploits as a great “role model”.

Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail called him “one of the most significant cricketers of this generation” because of his faith and “his crucial status as a role model for British Asians”. There have been numerous other articles in newspapers or from notable personalities on Twitter echoing that praise along identity lines.

The problem here is sports stars’ off pitch politics could be anything from far-left, to far-right, to David Icke. Often they may not advertise any noticeable political leanings at all, but having seen Ali’s Twitter feed that does not seem to be the case. He has hung around Islamist circles which are not at all good to put it mildly.

One such example of this are at events run by an organisation called “Knowledge 1st UK”, who stage “Light Upon Light” conferences showcasing just an array of the most utterly abhorrent speakers. For instance their most recent event last month advertises Abu Abdissalam, who spews hatred for the West, supports “stoning to death of the adulterer, cutting the hand of the thief, obligation of hijab, and so on”, plus defends convicted terrorist recruiter Ali Al-Tamimi. Along with Said Rageah, who promotes ideas of death for apostasy, blasphemy, and instructs women “not come out of the house unless it’s a necessity”.

Moeen Ali was also speaking at one of their “Light Upon Light” events last winter, where he shared a platform alongside Ismail Menk, a well-known Islamist cleric who he has also publicly embraced as “my friend and brother” and even follows fan pages dedicated to him.

Menk has called gays “filthy” and worse than “the dogs and the pigs”, and also defends hudud punishments such as for adultery saying “the Sharia says such a person should be stoned to death. That is there, there is no doubt, no debate”.

Video: Ismail Menk defends stoning to death those who commit 'zina'

Among Menk’s other views include preaching that music is haram: “there is no scholar on earth who allows you to listen to Beyoncé or Michael Jackson”. He also promotes gender segregation, warns Muslims about greeting and giving gifts at Christmas or Diwali, and also a good friend of various extremists one being Zakir Naik, one of the most extreme preachers and banned in numerous countries across the world.

On the stage moderating this event with Ali and Menk was YouTube Islamist Ali Dawah, whose channel includes a series of “AskTheSheikh” videos with one of the most notorious loony hate preachers in the UK Haitham al-Haddad, videos slamming Muslims for saying “Merry Christmas” accusing them of “shirk”, explanations of how he had to cut ties with people because they listen to music (also regarded haram and shirk), plus public shaming of the hijabi twerking in a viral clip. He also tweets defences of punishment for apostasy which he labels “treason”, brands Maajid Nawaz  “munafiq who gets paid by zionists” and a “clear cut enemy of Islam”, and his feed is full of retweets of open Jabhat al-Nusra and Awlaki fan Majid Freeman plus support for groups like CAGE.

Another of the Islamists at this event Ali was posing for photos with and referred to as his “brother” was Wasim Kempson, a white Salafist convert who is frequently seen alongside some of the very worst extremists in the UK.

Kempson is a patron of the extremist charity HHUGS which has a record of defending terrorists, and Imam of the “West London Islamic Centre” who also routinely host extremists. He posts pictures of himself on social media grinning with banned extremist preacher Zakir Naik, and is also a regularly listed speaker at events (held by groups like CAGE or for causes such as “Bring Aafia [Siddiqui] home”) alongside a who’s who of the worst of Islamists in the UK such as Uthman Lateef, Abdurraheem Green and the Anjem Choudary rally going anti-Ahmadi preacher Sulaiman Gani, or Haitham al-Haddad and proven extremist Shakeel Begg (both fellow patrons of HHUGS) and many more.

Wasim Kempson at a 'Moeen Ali Foundation' event

That event unfortunately wasn’t the only time Ali has been posing for friendly photos with Kempson on social media recently. He also did so at an event in April for the Moeen Ali Foundation, where Kempson was featured on the poster as one the main guests.

The rest of the guests listed on the poster for that Moeen Ali Foundation event get even worse. They included Alomgir Ali and Faraz Farhat, both close associates and colleagues of Haitham al-Haddad. Alomgir Ali thinks secularism is a modern version of pre-Islamic idol worship, homosexuality is a crime, and women who wear perfume are fornicators and adulteresses. Farhat says stuff such as how he wants to “rid society” of the “evil” of music. Also listed was Murtaza Khan, another of the vilest of Islamists in the country who promotes ideas of stoning adulterers, killing homosexuals, and hatred towards non-Muslims.

This was an event with Moeen Ali’s own foundation, carrying his own image and name, and a bunch of truly despicable Islamists were advertised as guests. Ali’s fraternising with Islamists doesn’t stop there though.

Moeen Ali with Abu Eesa Niamatullah of Al Maghrib

He has also done YouTube chats with Abu Eesa Niamatullah from the virulently bigoted anti-Semitic Islamist group Al Maghrib (their founder and president has authored a paper titled  “Why the Jews are cursed” and endorsed stoning as a punishment for adultery among many other things). Niamatullah has a record of advocating Sharia, complaining of advances in gay rights, pushing the death penalty as punishment for blasphemy, plus expressed extremely anti-Semitic, misogynistic views, and regards liberal secular Muslims as a kind of fifth column.

Also briefly featured on that video was another notorious Islamist bigot from Al Maghrib Yasir Qadhi, who likewise has a long track record of expressing vile views on topics of homosexuality and barbaric punishments in an Islamic state. Ali has also shared platforms with him at events too.

Moeen Ali with Abubakr Islam (aka 'Roadside2Islam')

Ali also hangs out and appears to be friends with Islam Channel presenter Abubakr Islam (aka “Roadside2Islam”), who’s Twitter feed is seething with sectarian hate towards Shia who he refers to as “evil”, “crazy people” that “I hate so much” and “make me sick”. Plus of course anti-Semitism, homophobia, heaps of misogynistic lecturing towards “naked” (ie non hijab wearing) women who he says men won’t respect or take seriously, retrograde announcements about “zina”, or how freemixing “kills the heart”, “music is haram” and “will take us to the hell fire fast”.

Ali follows virtually all these people on Twitter and other social media platforms too. All the other Islamic figures he follows, retweets or likes on Twitter just continue on a similar theme.

Ali friendly greeting Islamist Hamza Tzortzis

These include IERA’s Hamza Tzortzis (a Hizb ut-Tahrir linked extremist who has expressed support for apostasy and blasphemy punishments), Bilal Philips (who endorses the killing of apostates, and other hudud punishments, says there is no such thing as rape in marriage), the utterly embarrassing YouTuber Imran ibn Mansur aka “Dawah Man” (who calls homosexuals “filthy” and “diseased”), Islamist lobby group MEND, and of course Moazzam Begg from the terror apologist group CAGE of Jihadi John was “a beautiful young man” infamy.

Additionally Ali follows an account called “Salafi Masjid” (which plugs sectarian messages like: “the Rafidi Shi'ah intend evil for Islam and the Muslims”). Also the account from “Green Lane Masjid”, described as “a hardcore Wahhabi institution [...] known for bringing in hardline Wahhabi clerics in order to preach intolerance and hate”. Plus another Salafi account called “Pearls of Knowledge”, which tweets “the Jews were cursed”, more sectarian hate “the Rafidah Shia & Their Evil Way”, and obnoxious announcements of disbelievers going to hell. So it is perhaps not entirely unreasonable to deduce from all this some possibility that Ali may have Salafist leanings.

Anyway you would struggle to find a more disgusting, downright regressive, nasty collection of people amongst Muslims in the UK (short of actual jihadists of course) than these types who Ali shares platforms and pals around with at Islamist conferences, or done friendly YouTube chats with, or invited along to his own ‘Moeen Ali Foundation’ events, and follows and likes on Twitter.

Maybe this was just a mistake done through ignorance (in which case hopefully Ali realises this and makes a clear effort to denounce and distance himself from these crowds) and Ali has not himself made any public statements as awful as these people, but it does nevertheless raise questions in regards to whether he is this great “role model”.

If a sportsman was hanging amongst far-right PEGIDA circles, spoken at their events, and following numerous of their most egregious personalities on social media. Then whilst acknowledging their sporting ability, you would imagine most would hesitate to laud them in particular as having a “crucial status as a role model”.

The same ought to apply for what is the Islamist religious far-right that Moeen Ali hangs around with. Most British sportsmen of Muslim background do not go to Islamist events and pal around with such people. You do not see Mo Farah do this, or Nasser Hussain himself. Ali has a “crucial status” in the England team as an excellent all-rounder, but he is not the special role model off the pitch various people have made him out to be. On the contrary his fraternising with some of the most repugnant Islamists in the country arguably makes him a uniquely bad one.