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Manchester jihadi’s imam filmed fighting with jihadis in Libya; claimed he was there to help family

May 27, 2017 9:48 am By Robert Spencer

According to a hadith, Muhammad said, “War is deceit.” (Bukhari 4.52.268). And the British authorities are so very, very eager to be deceived.

“Manchester killer’s imam ‘was filmed fighting with militants in Libya despite claiming he was there to help his parents and brothers flee the violence,'” by Chris Greenwood, Sam Greenhill and Ian Drury, Daily Mail, May 27, 2017:

The chief imam of the mosque where Manchester bomber Salman Abedi worshipped fought with militants in Libya, it was reported last night.

Mustafa Graf, 46, appeared alongside elders at Didsbury Mosque at a press conference on Wednesday, condemning the atrocity which killed 22 people and distancing themselves from Abedi.

Mr Graf admits being in Libya during the 2011 revolution and that he was captured by forces from the Gaddafi regime.

French AFP news agency, a British fighter named Mostafa Abdallah Graf describes preparations for battle against Gaddafi’s forces at Beni Walid, near Tripoli.

Interviewed in front of militants loading large bombs and other munitions, he is wearing a desert combat uniform and sunglasses.

In Arabic, he says: ‘These munitions are from various cities in Libya. They are for tanks, heavy artillery and missiles. Thank God everything is ready – we’re just waiting for orders to attack.’

Father-of-four Mr Graf, who fled Libya in 1991 and was an outspoken critic of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, was twice captured by the dictator’s forces after travelling to Libya in February 2011. He said he went to help his elderly father, who is suffering from cancer, his mother and his brothers.

But days before setting off, he praised revolutionaries’ bravery and his delight that Gaddafi’s regime could come to an end.

There is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups operating as part of the revolution. Moderate rebel groups during the 2011 revolution were supported and armed by the West.

Mr Graf, from Chorlton, did not respond to requests for comment about his time in Libya.

On Thursday night’s BBC Question Time programme, an audience member said he was given an ‘anti-West’ leaflet at Didsbury Mosque, which said ‘modesty, shame and honour have no place in Western civilisation’.

But another audience member who said she had attended the mosque for decades, said the handout was ‘not official’ and argued that the mosque had a ‘multi-cultural community’….

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Filed Under: Featured, Libya, Muslim clerics, United Kingdom Tagged With: Mostafa Abdallah Graf


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Comments

  1. Caroline says

    May 27, 2017 at 10:03 am

    I watched that Question Time programme. The headscarf-wearing woman also claimed Saudi Arabia were not funding mosques.

    • Tom says

      May 27, 2017 at 2:23 pm

      “Assimilation is a crime against humanity…There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it…The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the cupolas our helmets, and the faithful our soldiers. — Tyyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, 2008”

      Turkey and Saudi Arabia are both exporting jihad to the west. Of course Saudi is funding mosques and providing radical Imam’s and literature. Takyya is always used on the gullable westerners.

  2. Tom says

    May 27, 2017 at 11:02 am

    “Lies, lies and damned blatant lies.”
    Seems the Imam’s aren’t that “holy” men after all.

    War is most definately composed of surprise achieved by deceit and muslims appear to have perfected the technique very well over the last 1400 years.

    Add a society of naive and trusting westerners who have not had to defend their homeland for 72 years and who have lapsed into a politically correct left wing system which believes that love is the answer to all ills, and the west is an easy enemy to first deceive and then defeat.

    Turning western naivete against those willing to stand up and fight for their freedom is so easy in such a society and the Muslim Brotherhood are expert at getting their political pawns and the sheepish public to do so.

    • Kay says

      May 27, 2017 at 11:16 am

      “a society of naive and trusting westerners” is right.
      I read the article 3 times, trying to understand it.
      So, what’s going to happen to the imam now?

      • Annak says

        May 27, 2017 at 11:30 am

        Not much, his lies will help him. Actually, this must be a rare occurrence, an Imam putting his money where his mouth is actually going to fight himself. Granted he didn’t blow himself up, but usually clerics just ‘ encourage ‘ their devout flock to go and do the dirty work.

      • Tom says

        May 27, 2017 at 1:27 pm

        They tell us daily what they intend to do but we do not listen or take thigs seriously. So nothing will happen.

    • Freija says

      May 28, 2017 at 6:48 am

      It’s not so much that they are very good at deceiving people, there are a lot of muslims that are very open about them wanting to conquer the West by hijra and jihad and force islam and sharia upon us, especially when they think that they outnumber other parties. It’s the utter stupidity of leftwing fascists that simply cannot believe this to be true. Their doctrine of cultural marxism teaches them that islam is a minority that has to be protected from the evil white man. Never mind the fact that islam represents one third of the world’s population, thereby making it a majority, and has a history of 1400 years of terror and slaughtering the infidel. It’s cultural marxism that represents humanities greatest threat and if it is not wiped of the earth it will throw humanity back into the middle ages.

  3. Walter Sieruk says

    May 27, 2017 at 11:23 am

    As for that heinous jihad suicide/homicide bombing in Manchester, England it was both murderous and demonic. !t now should be made known that this the outcome of the Islamic doctrine from the Qu‘’ran [the Koran] of a sexual paradise with many virgins, houris , in it for the male Muslim /jihadist who dies fighting in the jihad for the cause of Islam is found in the “holy book” of Islam, the Koran, in Sura 44:54. 55: 56. 78:31. Also there is the Koranic instruction of Sura 9:111 which teaches “The believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, they kill and are killed.” Getting back to the origin doctrine of Islam from the Koran of a sex –filled paradise with many houris for the use only by the male jihadist who dies fight for the advancement of Islam. All this started when the founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad manufactured Islam he put , had stolen, some of sex doctrine of Zoroastrian mythology and a yet smaller bit of Hindu mythological sex teachings along with as well as mixture pagan Arabian folklore and myth plus a heavy dose of Judaism and Christianity . Also some of it apostate “Christianity” For the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, couldn’t discern the difference between genuine Bible based Christianity and bogus “Christianity.” Those words and teaching Muhammad gathered from many sources, including the virgins /sex place mythology. , and taught as “Divine Truth” were written down on many things then later compiled and then went into the composition of the Koran. So the hoax of the Koran is actually a mixture and fusion Judaism Christianity and mythology of other religions and now the Muslim clerics with the Koranic brainwashing of young Muslims who are thoroughly mind programmed into believing this Islamic/Koranic virgins myth. This deception of false doctrine /myth into the thoughts of some people was predicted in the Bible along with the false teachers who engage in the indoctrination of such a myth /doctrine into the minds and hearts other people . For it is written “For the time will come when they will not stand wholesome teaching, but will follow their own fancy and gather a crown of teachers to tickle their ears. They will stop their ears to the truth and turn to mythology.” Second Timothy 4:3,4. [N.E.B.]

    • Nan Barr says

      May 27, 2017 at 9:24 pm

      The founder of Al Qaeda died today…. Bilderbacker, Trilateralist and Presidental advisor: One DEMOCRAT Ziggy Brzezinski .

      Worked in the US Govt. since the days of Lyndon Johnson and was a huge advocate of the Viet Nam war. He also helped arrange for the Chinese commie ( on the sly of course) to help that demon POL POT to thin his “herd” of excess people.

      Here is a web page with many of his quotes from books and

      interviews:http://www.takeoverworld.info/brzezinski_note.html

      He advocated the use of Muslims against the enemies of the WEST and for regime change.
      He had placed Al Qaeda in Bosnia and in Kosovo ( KLA) and several of the 9/11 hijackers did, in fact serve in Bosnia .
      The deaths and injuries to so many people because of this snake headed devil must be in the millions by now. A ” mini Hitler” would be a good way to describe him.

      • gravenimage says

        May 27, 2017 at 11:43 pm

        I’m sorry–this is silly. I am hardly an uncritical fan of Zbigniew Brzezinski, but the idea that he founded Al Qaeda–a profoundly *Muslim* Jihad terror group–is just absurd.

        Jihad terror predates Zbigniew Brzezinski–Jihad terror predates the birth of the United States. Jihad terror dates back to the earliest days of Islam and the time of the “Prophet”–almost 1400 years now.

        • Baucent says

          May 28, 2017 at 3:35 am

          Well said graven.

  4. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    May 27, 2017 at 11:57 am

    I heard on the TV that Salman’s mosque had notified the cops, saying that he was radicalized and could be a danger. Whenever I hear this after a jihad mass murder operation my assumption is that the mosque is lying, and that the government is complicit in the lie. Why would a mosque turn in a member of the flock for showing signs of obeying the Holy Ko-Ran? Why?

  5. Allah says

    May 27, 2017 at 12:45 pm

    As is frequent on jihadwatch now, the very title of the article is disputed in the text.
    The article states;

    There is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups operating as part of the revolution. Moderate rebel groups during the 2011 revolution were supported and armed by the West.

    This desperation does not help the cause to fight against Islamism. It discredits this website and the opposition.

    • Tom says

      May 27, 2017 at 1:11 pm

      Dispute this:

      “Assimilation is a crime against humanity…There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it…The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the cupolas our helmets, and the faithful our soldiers. — Tyyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, 2008”

      • Allah says

        May 27, 2017 at 3:01 pm

        Why would I? What relevance is your comment to the point I made?
        Jesus.

        • Tom says

          May 28, 2017 at 10:28 am

          My apology I obviously misread your comment.

    • Jack Diamond says

      May 29, 2017 at 2:16 pm

      The imam was deceptive about his fighting in Libya, why? The imam is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, an organization headed by Youssef Qaradawi. The mosque is listed by a group called Muslims in Britain as a “Salafi-Ikhwan” mosque.

      https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/manchester-bombers-mosque-connected-to-muslim-brotherhood

      Whether an Ikhwan affiliated militant group in Libya would be considered jihadi or a “moderate rebel group” is a matter of opinion. Informed opinion or ignorant opinion. Ignorant, as in all those engaging with the Brotherhood during the Arab Spring, as if they were the Great Infidel Hope. As if they were moderate. Ignorant, as in the Daily Mail. Unfortunately, receiving Western aid and arms has been no guarantee that militants are not also jihadis. Did the militants the imam fought with seek to establish sharia’h or did they seek to establish a secular state? A Jeffersonian democracy?

      It is also undeniable that a member in good standing with this mosque is the father of the Manchester bomber, who has been identified as fighting with the (now disbanded) Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, one of whose commanders fought alongside bin Laden. Abedi is described as belonging to the “most extreme sect of Salafism” {former Libyan security official Abdel-Basit Haroun to the AP} as do clearly his sons (who have self-identified with the Islamic State). And yet they felt at home in this mosque, with this imam.

      In other words, the headline may be more accurate than when the Daily Mail adds, “there is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups.”

  6. Mike says

    May 27, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    Look, I’m against being vicious to people in all but the most extreme circumstances.

    But with this crowd, a little non-vicious collective punishment may be justified.

    Let’s take a page from the Israelis, who have found a somewhat workable compromise: attack buildings instead of people for collective punishment purposes. What they do is that they destroy the family home. Well, let’s improve on it a bit, shall we?

    Every time a terrorist is found to be a member of a mosque, and there’s any clue that there are people there who could have seen it coming and didn’t actively approach the authorities to turn him in as a suspect… BULLDOZE THE MOSQUE and turn the land into a memorial park to victims of terrorism. Make it an UNINSURABLE risk to the owner of the building. The losses could easily be in the MILLIONS.

    Let me tell you, the radical mosques are going to become few and far between. The leftists will say that it’ll just drive them further underground. Sure, they’ll have meetings in houses. Guess what? BULLDOZE THOSE TOO!

    • Tom says

      May 27, 2017 at 1:15 pm

      The answer lies in controlling the messages in the mosques. Give the police and security services approval to monitor the mosques and the radicals will be forced outside. Then treat them as subversives and imprison them.

      • Michael Copeland says

        May 27, 2017 at 3:40 pm

        Islam’s rules FORBID the presence of non-muslims in the mosque’s services.

        • Ian H says

          May 27, 2017 at 9:17 pm

          Then install CCTV cameras. As to Islam’s rules, weighed against the blood of the innocent they mean nothing.

        • Anne Smith says

          May 28, 2017 at 8:33 am

          Non Muslims forbidden to be in mosques for the services – what a surprise.
          They would, wouldn’t they. Makes it all the easier to preach subversion.

  7. rich says

    May 27, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Poorly worded. “Fighting with” sounds like he was against the jihadis. Should be “Fighting alongside”.

  8. Not moron says

    May 27, 2017 at 5:27 pm

    United Kingdom of morons

  9. Kessler says

    May 27, 2017 at 5:27 pm

    Hang on – is this not the same guy from this article?
    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/uk-muslim-leaders-in-manchester-site-of-jihad-massacre-claim-rise-in-islamophobia
    Somehow in that article his name is Fawzi Haffar
    Can someone clarify? I want to tie these stories together to show how islamic supremacists use the victimhood tactic to shift focus away from the inconvenient core issue.

    • Kessler says

      May 27, 2017 at 5:35 pm

      nevermind, read it properly now – the Jihadi was standing next to mr. Haffar

  10. jewdog says

    May 27, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    The family that’ll preys together, slays together.

  11. Baucent says

    May 27, 2017 at 8:58 pm

    Something very smelly going on here. The Imam condemning violence yet encouraged it in Libya. The father denouncing “extremists” while he himself was a member of an Islamic military group in Libya. Everywhere lies and double talk from this family and the Didsbury mosque.
    My be time to deport the Libyan community in Manchester back to Libya where they belong.

    • Charli Main says

      May 28, 2017 at 6:28 am

      How do you know a Muslim is lying??

      HIS LIPS ARE MOVING !!!!

  12. gravenimage says

    May 27, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    Manchester jihadi’s imam filmed fighting with jihadis in Libya; claimed he was there to help family
    ……………………

    Even a few good people here were fooled by the idea that this Mosque was “moderate” and opposed Jihad.

    • James says

      May 28, 2017 at 7:42 am

      I’d like to see a murderer try the “moderation” plea:

      – “Your Honour, I’m a moderate murderer, someone who abhors murders by horrible people like serial killers. Most of us in the murderer community, people like me, kill only one person. It would be very unfair to blame us moderate murderers, who are the overwhelming majority of the murderer community, for the revolting atrocities committed by a tiny, negligible minority. The murdererphobia rampant in society is deplorable, and horribly unfair. After all, we are a minority too.”

  13. Ric says

    May 29, 2017 at 9:20 am

    The British authorities prefer to keep their heads buried snugly and deeply within their favorite orifice. It is easier to track down so-called Islamophobes than to uncover the Islamist vipers’ nests spread throughout the U.K.

    It has been reported MI5 dropped the ball when they didn’t have it in their possession in the first place.

    ‘

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