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“When a woman leaves her home without her husband’s consent, then all the angels of the skies and the entire universe curse her for this act until she returns home,” the book read.

Another stated, “Being in seclusion with a strange woman, and the reckless intermingling between men and women, is most certainly haram, forbidden in the religion of God.” The third one read, “The woman was the strongest factor in destroying noble characteristics.”

Apparently, women can’t go out easily. To come out of their houses, Muslim women have to cover their faces with black veils. 

In his book, Ed called it “the culture of caliphism”, explaining, “The Tablighi Jamaat separates itself from secular society, and preaches from door to door, to create a Muslim society from which a caliphate is expected eventually to emerge.”

Sharia Court within a mosque in a Didsbury

During a trip to Didsbury, Ed also visited the town’s mosque, which was a church before it was purchased in 1967 by Syrian Arabs.

Ed noticed banners and Palestinian flags outside the mosque and, on the inside, he found posters urging support for terrorist organisations. He also discovered a sign for the ‘Sharia Department’ in the mosque to hear disputes regarding divorces, marriages, and other dispute that can be resolved under sharia.

Ed also came across the books written by Khurshid Ahmad, an ideologue of the Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist groups in Pakistan who has advocated for the creation of an Islamic state. In these books, Ahmad has referred to members of al-Qaeda as ‘brethren’ and refused to acknowledge their role in the 9/11 attacks. 

He also became aware of the shocking fact that Islamic terrorist Salman Abedi, who detonated a suicide bomb killing 22 at an Ariana Grande concert in the city, was a member of this mosque. Abedi and his family regularly attended the mosque and his father sometimes led the call to prayer. 

Muslims in Britain want a ‘Sharia’ state

Upon his visit to Edinburgh’s Central Mosque, Ed found it was guarded by security wearing high-vis jackets. Husain spotted a poster for a “Politics and Media Masterclass”, which created awareness among the Muslim community about who regulates the media, how to challenge it and how legislation is made.

The study was sponsored by MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development), a controversial group that aims to encourage British Muslim communities to be more involved in British media and politics. In his book, the author stated that he later travelled to Glasgow to visit several mosques, including the Central Mosque in the city. During his visit, Ed was told not to take photographs inside the mosque by a cleric.

Later, he visited Dawate-Islami madrasa, a mosque in another part of the city, where young girls were required to wear all black burkas as uniform to cover their “private parts”.  

In Birmingham, Ed met with two Muslims who had recently moved to the country from Saudi Arabia. They insisted that they cannot change their religion to suit Britain, with one, Ahmed, saying, “I have no government. We are waiting for our government of the sharia to return again, headed by a caliph.”