Fri 5th January 2024
On the 29th of November 2023, the National Secular Society published allegations on its website against one of our guest speakers, Shaykh Junaid Dar who was delivering Quranic Tafsir (Exegesis) study sessions at Hounslow Muslim Centre. It then made a complaint to the Charity Commission.
These study sessions are for the benefit of the local congregation and are a continuation of a series that was ongoing for over one year. The chapter and verses being explained were already scheduled and only coincidently related to current events. The subject of the verses was human and community arrogance, the pitfalls of arrogance amongst the people of the past, disobedience to God and how that can lead to oppression.
The comments made in the NSS article are cherry-picked and wholly taken out of context. It is not for agenda driven organisations like the NSS and the national media to decide or misinterpret verses of the Quran, the Bible, the Torah or any religious scripture, its teachings and their meanings. In our humble opinion, they are not the guardians of public interest, nor experts in what constitutes hate and racism.
The Haaya Foundation and HMC is satisfied that the series on Tafsir was in the best interests of the charity and within its charitable objects and did not intend to or incite any hatred toward any community. As a respected community centre and Mosque, we will be continuing with our educative community programmes and will not shy away from providing a religious understanding of contemporary issues, whilst drawing historic lessons from our scriptures.
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