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Sitting before his many followers, a preacher dressed in white urges the men to hit their wives if they refuse to be ‘called to bed for intimacy’.
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they → publish → intimacy
Clasping his hands, he beseeches husbands never to tolerate disobedience, and to ‘discipline them physically... lightly hitting them to show them who is in charge’.
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who → clasp → charge
Referring to scriptures, and making clear what he believes are grounds for domestic violence, Munye cites ‘disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed’.
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it → refer → bed
Were an Anglican vicar to deliver such a sermon, one might expect police to drag him from the pulpit in handcuffs.
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police → deliver → handcuffs
Certainly, officers have been only too quick to beat a path to the door of members of the public who’ve tweeted their opinions online, one example being the two detectives who paid a visit to grandmother Helen Jones last year – simply for criticising Labour politicians on Facebook.
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who → beat → Facebook
But when Saudi Arabia-trained Munye’s diatribe surfaced in a video last week, and his mosque was reported to the Charity Commission, there was a conspicuous absence of public discussion, much less howls of protest.
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mosque → train → protest
For its part, the Met said it was ‘assessing’ a complaint against the Hackney mosque.
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it → say → mosque
Yasin Munye, when explaining what he believes are grounds for domestic violence, cites 'disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed'
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it → explain → bed
Yet, The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the Munye case is by no means isolated.
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case → discover → means
Similarly ugly and misogynistic advice is dispensed up and down the country to Muslim husbands, often via video lectures.
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advice → dispense → lectures
Concerns have been raised about the creeping spectre of sharia law in modern Britain.
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Concerns → raise → Britain
Last month, a video emerged of men and women queuing separately in an Asian supermarket in Romford, Essex, and last October The Mail on Sunday revealed that a London mosque had organised a ‘family friendly’ charity run from which women were banned.
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women → emerge → which
Rakib Ehsan, an expert in social integration and author of Beyond Grievance: What The Left Gets Wrong About Ethnic Minorities, said: ‘Britain’s model of multiculturalism has let down women in these segregated communities.
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model → get → communities
With light-touch policing, the state has turned a blind eye to ethnically insular areas of our cities that have regressive attitudes.
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that → turn → attitudes
So because the state has not engaged with these communities, imams there feel emboldened to preach violent misogyny and other practices that run counter to British laws and customs.’
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that → engage → laws
In August, Prime Minister Andy Burnham vowed to make tackling violence against women and girls ‘a driving mission’, adding: ‘We must be laser focused on stamping out these vile crimes.’
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We → vow → crimes
But after his protestations, the Munye video was uncovered by the National Secular Society (NSS), which said that ‘a religious manosphere’ is now taking hold in Britain.
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manosphere → uncover → Britain
Domestic abuse charity Jeena International, meanwhile, said that Munye’s preachings reinforce the view in some Asian communities ‘that rape cannot take place inside of marriages’.
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rape → say → marriages
The charity’s founder Rani Bilkhu said: ‘These preachers are using religion for coercive control of women... and are giving the go-ahead for sexual violence and domestic abuse.’
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preachers → say → violence
Asked if this sort of preaching is preventing Muslim women from reporting rape and domestic violence to the police, Ms Bilkhu added: ‘It is a factor, alongside other issues like Muslim women being reluctant to come forward anyway, as well as there being language barriers.
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women → ask → issues
Sometimes, being woke stops society from tackling these issues in case a white man or woman might be called racist.
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man → stop → case
This newspaper’s investigation paints a depressing picture of Britain in 2026, as scores more imams proudly display their archaic prejudices in sermons posted online.
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imams → paint → sermons
One denounced women who ‘leave the house’ wearing perfume as ‘fornicators’, while in another video, Abu Sa’ad Muhammad, who preaches at the same mosque as Munye, said the ‘unfortunate reality of this country’ meant that wives had been turned against husbands, and that wives ‘know if you slap them once, they will call the police’.
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they → denounce → police
Meanwhile, Mahamed AbdurRazaq, from the An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre in Birmingham, advises ‘admonishing’ wives in the first instance for refusing sex.
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AbdurRazaq → advise → sex
If this fails, he adds, ‘then he’s allowed to hit her, a hitting that does not bruise and that does not break bones’.
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that → fail → bones
Mahamed AbdurRazaq said: 'If a wife continues to refuse to have intercourse... her husband [can] hit her'
Abu Sa'ad Muhammad said: 'The unfortunate reality of this country [is] that they turned the wife against husband... if you slap them once, they call the police'
Hitting your wife, even lightly, can amount to common assault and be prosecuted as domestic abuse.
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Hitting → say → abuse
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 defines the offence as physical abuse and violent or threatening behaviour.
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Act → define → abuse
A single incident could qualify.
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incident → qualify → ?
Police might also have grounds to pursue Munye under the Serious Crime Act 2007 for ‘intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence’.
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Police → have → offence
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said the sermons could ‘encourage domestic violence and marital rape’.
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sermons → say → violence
She added: ‘Charity regulators cannot ignore this, and neither should authorities concerned with protecting women from abuse.
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authorities → add → abuse
This religious manosphere has no place in the charity sector.
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manosphere → have → sector
Authorities must have the courage to hold religious charities to account.’
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Authorities → have → account
Some of the most misogynistic sermons the MoS uncovered have taken place in the Green Lane Masjid in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham, located in Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s Ladywood constituency.
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MoS → uncover → constituency
In a speech from December, imam Aqeel Mahmood delivered a 47-minute lecture on the Islamic laws of marriage, explaining the ‘duties of husbands and wives’.
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Mahmood → deliver → husbands
During this speech the cleric insisted that the husband has a right to ‘discipline his wife in case of rebellion’.
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husband → insist → rebellion
In the video posted online he said: ‘It is not permissible for the wife to leave the house without the husband’s permission’, and added: ‘Physical discipline is a last resort on the condition that it doesn’t cause pain, injury, fear and humiliation.’
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it → post → pain
The NSS, which obtained the video, has complained to the Charity Commission about Mahmood’s speech, and it is believed that the regulator gave the mosque ‘advice and guidance’.
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regulator → obtain → advice
At the same mosque, a year earlier, another preacher called Abu Rayan told worshippers that a wife should make herself sexually available to her husband at all times.
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herself → call → times
One of the mosque’s former imams, Abu Usamah at-Thahabi, was embroiled in controversy in 2023 when he said ‘homosexuality is not permissible’, leading to the Government cancelling a £2 million grant.
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Government → embroil → grant
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
