A “distorted” Channel 4 documentary about Muslim extremism that enraged community leaders and resulted in a fruitless police investigation will now be the subject of an Ofcom inquiry. West Midlands Police made a formal complaint over a Channel 4 Dispatches film that participants and race crime prosecutors claim was edited in a misleading manner.

Undercover Mosque, broadcast in January, featured footage shot at a number of mosques, including one at which a preacher praised the Taleban for killing British soldiers. Channel 4 said that the programme revealed how a message of hatred and segregation was being spread by some Islamic preachers.

After investigating 56 hours of footage, West Midlands Police said that it had been advised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the broadcaster for stirring up racial hatred, but that selective editing had helped to create an impression of Muslim hatred.

Bethan David, the CPS reviewing lawyer, said: “The CPS has demonstrated that it will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible for criminal incitement, but in this case we have been dealing with a heavily edited television programme, apparently taking out of context aspects of speeches, which in their totality could never provide a realistic prospect of any convictions.”

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Abu Usamah, a preacher at the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, said he was shocked when he saw himself depicted. Mr Usamah was shown saying: “If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that is my freedom of speech, isn’t it?”

He later said that he was explaining an opinion featured in some books, and not one that he believed. Mr Usamah said that the mosque had a tradition of teaching a moderate version of Islam. “To try and demonise the efforts of these people by taking their comments out of context was shocking,” he said.

A senior imam filmed calling for the creation of a British Islamic state under Sharia also claimed that his comments were take out of context.

Roger Godsiff, a Birmingham Labour MP, called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to take action against “words that were racist and an incitement to murder”. When that investigation was abandoned, the police went on to examine the editing of the programme, resulting in a complaint to broadcasting watchdogs.

Channel 4 said it believed that Ofcom would exonerate the broadcaster. Kevin Sutcliffe, commissioning editor for Dispatches, said: “We believe the comments made in the film speak for themselves. Several speakers were clearly shown making abhorrent and extreme comments. This was a thorough and detailed one-hour documentary, made over nine months, which allowed these comments to be seen in a fuller context.”

Channel 4 was “fully aware of the sensitivities surrounding the subject matter, particularly its effect on community relations”.

Mr Sutcliffe added, however, that there was a “greater public interest in exposing what was being preached in the name of Islam in some main-stream British mosques”.

The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that it would investigate Britain under Attack, a Dispatches documentary broadcast on Monday that gave a platform to an Islamic activist who called on Muslims to arm themselves against nonbelievers.

War of words

Abu Usamah: “They will fight in the cause of Allah. I encourage all of you to be from among them, to begin to cultivate ourselves for the time that is approaching”

Dr Ijaz Mian: “You have to live like a state-within-a-state until you take over”

Abu Usamah: “Why give up your religion and your long legacy of Islam to please someone who is an enemy to you?”

Abu Usamah on Osama Bin Laden : “He’s better than a million George Bushes, he’s better than a thousand Tony Blairs, because he’s a Muslim”

Source: Channel 4 Dispatches

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