11 July 2015

Mosque linked to children's suicide bombing DVD: Former chairman owned company that distributed chilling singalong film that glorified terror

The former chairman of the biggest mosque in Leeds owned a company linked to a DVD that glorified suicide bombings targeting Israelis.

The singalong video showed a young girl vowing to follow the same path in life as her mother, shown blowing herself up at an army checkpoint.

A bookshop owned by Firas al-Rawi, the ex-chairman of Leeds Grand Mosque, was identified as the 'sole UK distributor' on the DVD's cover.

The Syrian, who has since moved to Kuwait from Britain, is understood to have been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred after the video emerged in late 2007, The Times reported.

Al-Rawi, 40, ran Abrar bookshop in Leeds in 2007 and was the sole owner of import company Abrar International.

The Arabic DVD, which has English subtitles, was purchased by a child at a mosque in Bradford in 2007. Their grandfather passed it on to his local MP, Tory Philip Davies. [Daily Mail] Read more