Barnabas Fund warned Home Secretary about radical cleric Hassan Haseeb in 2016 – so why was he invited to speak at UK anti-terror conference this summer?
from Barnabas Fund:
A prominent leader of the pro-blasphemy law demonstrations in Pakistan, who called for the immediate execution of Aasia Bibi was a key speaker at an anti-terrorism conference in Manchester, in July. The radical cleric spoke alongside police chiefs and a family member of a victim of the IS-claimed terror attack on Manchester Arena last year, which claimed 22 lives.
Even more disturbingly, the Sunday Times report also revealed that the police officer in charge of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit accepted an award from this Pakistani cleric, Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman. This was despite Barnabas Fund raising concerns with the government about a previous visit by this man to the UK.
In 2016 large scale demonstrations swept across Pakistan following the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, who had murdered Salman Taseer, a liberal Muslim who was governor of Punjab province. Qadri, who was Mr Taseer’s police bodyguard, gunned him down because governor Taseer had spoken up in support of Aasia Bibi.
Aasia Bibi was sentenced to death for “blasphemy” in 2010. She was accused of insulting Muhammad during an argument with fellow women field-labourers, which started when they refused to drink water that she had fetched because she was a Christian.
The pro-blasphemy law demonstrations which swept across Pakistan following Qadri’s execution demanded the immediate execution of Aasia Bibi, before her Supreme Court appeal hearing and called for Qadri to be declared an Islamic martyr and national hero. Two prominent leaders who spoke at those demonstrations were Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman and his father Muhmaad Naqib ur Rehman.
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