Scotland Yard invited mosque chairman who praised Hamas founder to dinner

This may go some way to explaining why hateful anti-Semitic banners like the ones paraded yesterday are not seized immediately and their bearers taken into custody for questioning (at least) 

A prominent mosque chairman who praised the founder of Hamas was invited to a buffet dinner at Scotland Yard hosted by the Met Commissioner, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Mohammed Kozbar attended an evening event alongside senior Met officers in July – five months after his past praise for Hamas’s founder as “the master of the martyrs of the resistance” was cited in an official counter-extremism review.

The event was organised by the London Muslim Communities Forum (LMCF), a Met “strategic advisory body”.

Scotland Yard said: “We can confirm that Mr Mohammed Kozbar is a member of the London Muslim Communities Forum.” In October, The Telegraph revealed that Mr Kozbar was a member of the Crown Prosecution Service’s London hate crime scrutiny panel, which was disbanded in November after the new director for public prosecutions concluded it had lost “public confidence”.

It was addressed by Attiq Malik, a hard-Left activist who led the LMCF until November, when the Met cut its ties from the hard-left lawyer after The Sunday Telegraph revealed that he had been filmed chanting “from the river to the sea” and railing against “global censorship by the Zionists”.

The disclosures will raise questions about the Met’s links to activists following sustained criticism of the force’s approach to policing protests in London since the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas. In February an official review of Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme, raised concerns that the London branch of the National Association of Muslim Police had praised Mr Kozbar despite evidence that he had “previously supported the founder … of Hamas.”

Mohammed Kozbar, left, and Attiq Malik, right, at the buffet dinner at Scotland Yard

The Met cut its ties with Mr Malik having concluded that some “past language and views” were “contrary with our values”.  This weekend, the force said it was reviewing its engagement with advisory groups to ensure “they are committed to building a better London that promotes mutual respect and inclusivity”.

A Met spokesman said: “The Met works with a range of faith and community advisor groups.  This vital work helps us improve our response to the crime and antisocial behaviour issues faced by all communities across London. . . It would be inappropriate and illegal for us to conduct intelligence checks on the background of everyone invited to attend. There will be occasions where attendees hold views that, as an organisation, we disagree with . . . “