by Tony Diver and Camilla Turner, Telegraph
West Midlands force faces backlash as details of ‘community engagement’ over Aston Villa fixture emerge
West Midlands Police consulted mosques that had hosted anti-Semitic preachers before banning Israeli fans from an Aston Villa football match, The Telegraph can reveal.
Officers spoke to three Birmingham mosques that had hosted anti-Jewish preachers before making the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Europa League fixture on Nov 6.
The force is under increasing pressure to explain why it banned the fans from Villa Park, which it said was to avoid violent behaviour by the Israeli club’s supporters.
Sir Keir Starmer has condemned the decision as “wrong” and suggested it amounted to anti-Semitism. Craig Guilford, the force’s chief constable, has been accused of “fabricating evidence” of hooliganism to satisfy a ban “demanded by Islamists”.
In a letter published by MPs on Tuesday, Mr Guilford said his officers “undertook extensive community engagement prior to the fixture” including with “Muslim community leaders and mosque representatives”.
The Telegraph can now reveal that three of the eight Muslim organisations that the force consulted as part of its “community engagement” drive had hosted preachers who promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or called for the death of Jews.