https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/manchester-arena-attack-inquiry-imam-says-demonised
A former chief imam at an English mosque has complained of being demonised by a public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing carried out by a British-Libyan man in 2017.
In a statement, Mustafa Graf accused another former imam at the Manchester Islamic Centre of “trying to deceive the inquiry” in testimony given last month, in which he alleged Graf had preached support for Islamist militant factions in Libya with links to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group.
Graf, who is understood to be currently in Libya, said those allegations were untrue. He accused Mohammed Saeed El-Saeiti of being hostile to him due to “tribal racism”. Graf is from western Libya while El-Saeiti is from Benghazi in the east.
Graf said El-Saeiti was a supporter of Khalifa Haftar, a military commander based in Benghazi who has been in conflict with the country’s internationally recognised government in Tripoli since 2014, and that he had stoked Libyan political tensions in the mosque.
“In this inquiry, it has come across to me and my family that I have been presented as some demon,” Graf said in the statement, which was published on the inquiry’s website on Thursday.
“My whole family and my children have been very upset by this treatment and smearing of their father, without even an opportunity to respond. So, I am responding to clarify the issues and clear my name.”
‘Trial by media’
The inquiry is currently considering the “background and radicalisation” of Salman Abedi, a British-Libyan man who killed 22 other people and himself when he detonated a rucksack bomb as crowds were leaving an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in May 2017.
The Manchester Islamic Centre, also known as Didsbury Mosque, has come under scrutiny at the inquiry over reports that Abedi – who was 22 at the time of the attack – and other members of his family, including his father Ramadan Abedi, attended it.
The centre has also faced questions over a BBC report in 2018 that alleged Graf had called for armed jihad in a sermon at the mosque following Friday prayers in December 2016, and had been filmed wearing military uniform alongside rebel fighters during the 2011 uprising against longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
In his statement to the inquiry, Graf said he had been “put on trial by the media” over the sermon, “of which one part has been twisted to suit the agenda of others”.
He said the sermon was intended to solicit donations to a Syrian aid charity collecting at the mosque at a time when then-rebel-held eastern Aleppo was under assault by pro-Syrian government forces.
“There was no other intention and everyone else who says otherwise is speculating,” he said.
Graf said he had been subsequently investigated by the police and the mosque and cleared of any wrongdoing. The inquiry has heard that mosque officials warned him at the time of the sermon that his language could be misinterpreted.
“I wish to make it clear; I do not believe in calling for armed Jihad from the UK (or elsewhere, this is a matter for local scholars in areas of conflict),” he said….
