LONDON (AFP) — Nearly half of all mosques in Britain are run by a hard-line Sunni sect, whose leading preacher in Britain calls on Muslims to "shed blood" in the name of religion, The Times reported on Friday.
Citing a copy of a police report it had seen, the daily said that more than 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques were run by the Deobandi sect.
The newspaper said that 17 of Britain's 26 Islamic seminaries were run by Deobandi Muslims, and added that the sect produces 80 percent of Britain's home-trained Islamic clerics.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard could not immediately confirm the details of The Times's article, when contacted by AFP.
According to the daily, the movement's most prominent preacher in Britain, Riyadh ul-Haq, has argued that Muslim friendship with either Jews or Christians makes "a mockery of Allah's religion."
He also calls for Muslims to stay away from the "evil influence" of non-Muslims, saying in one sermond: "We are in a very dangerous position here. We live amongst the kuffar (non-Muslims), we work with them, we associate with them, we mix with them and we begin to pick up their habits."
Ul-Haq declined to comment when contacted by The Times.
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