In February this year, the East London Mosque Trust wrote to Sam Westrop, director of self-styled “Jewish-Muslim interfaith organisation” Stand for Peace, to refute a number of highly inaccurate statements he has made (and continued to make) about our institution.

We are now releasing the contents of that letter, having failed to receive any reply or notification that errors have been rectified.

Despite attempting to position Stand for Peace as a credible research organisation, Westrop has included many demonstrably false accusations within his statements: for example, that we have hosted several speakers who have never appeared at our premises; or that our chief imam signed the so-called ‘Istanbul Declaration’ (he didn’t, as you can see here).

As we said in a statement we released in November 2013, those making such accusations often self-reference their accusations from within a small band of the same Counter-Jihadist websites, seeking to spread pernicious falsehoods – even when we have provably denied such claims.

You can download a copy of our letter to Sam Westrop and Stand for Peace here.

[ENDS]

NOTES:

• Westrop is a Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, whose benefactor is described as the “sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate”, and which has been linked to some of the world's most extreme anti-Muslim activists.
• Westrop has written about the close link between Stand for Peace and Student Rights, which London Student has shown is closely linked to the Henry Jackson Society, which has been described as “increasingly intolerant”, and whose associate director is Douglas Murray. Student Rights lists on its advisory board Ghaffar Hussain of the Quilliam Foundation, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, and Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society, amongst others.
• In our letter to Stand for Peace, we stated Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari was originally included on the speakers application, however this was not the case and his name was presented to us after another speaker dropped out.
• Read the Mosque's FAQ available online here.