In yet another shocking failure in a long line of interfaith outreach by Western governments since 9/11, The Daily Telegraph reports today that the American-born Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has been recently promoting a program associated with the notorious Al-Manaar mosque not far from Kensington Palace. The mosque has produced as many as nineteen terrorists — including “Jihadi John” and his Islamic State “Beatles” who tortured and beheaded Western captives in Syria.
The duchess has helped raise more than $250,000 for the Hubb Community Kitchen operated out of the mosque by promoting a cookbook that royal press agents have billed as celebrating “the power of cooking to bring communities together”:
The Duchess of Sussex is supporting a new charity cookbook, 'Together: Our Community Cookbook', which celebrates the power of cooking to bring communities together. #CookTogether pic.twitter.com/XEclxgQjR4
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 17, 2018
But it appears that there’s more to it than that.
According to The Daily Telegraph:
A community kitchen supported by the Duchess of Sussex is housed inside a mosque linked by experts to individuals connected to “terrorist acts” and run by an imam who says girls who listen to music risk becoming strippers.
Meghan visited the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre on Wednesday after championing a cookbook to raise funds for the “Hubb Community Kitchen” project there to help victims of the fire at nearby Grenfell Tower.
In February it emerged the 37-year-old royal had made secret visits to the mosque in Westbourne Grove, which has also hosted Princes William and Harry, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn in recent months.
An investigation by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), the anti-extremism think tank, has linked the mosque, opened by Prince Charles in 2001, to 19 jihadists, including Islamic State executioner Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John.
Research by the HJS suggests the mosque was once attended by three of the four “Beatles”, the Isil terror cell charged with guarding, torturing and killing hostages in Syria and Iraq. As well as Emwazi, Choukri Ellekhlifi, Alexanda Kotey and Aine Davis, all from west London, also have links with Al Manaar.
“Jihadi John” Emwazi was responsible for the beheading of American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, and British aid workers David Haines, Alan Henning, and Peter Kassig.
Emwazi was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Raqqa, Syria, in November 2015.
An ITV News report earlier this week reported that the duchess has made numerous unreported visits to the notorious mosque in recent months:
Meghan back in the kitchen in the heart of the Grenfell community, writes ITV News Royal Editor @chrisshipitv https://t.co/TcePknrCFJ pic.twitter.com/gDVyaLsSSA
— ITV News (@itvnews) November 21, 2018
And Kensington Palace reported that she made an appearance on Wednesday:
The Duchess of Sussex has arrived at the Hubb Community Kitchen in West London to see how the proceeds from Together are helping make a difference. pic.twitter.com/FKyjCF8W90
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 21, 2018
The visit was promoted here in the U.S. by Good Morning America:
Duchess Meghan visits Hubb Community Kitchen 2 months after co-authoring charity cookbook with survivors. https://t.co/XvN5Ma6rE6 pic.twitter.com/GEpYlCHXne
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 21, 2018
An earlier report by David Vance noted that the convicted 7/21 bombers, who attempted to launch a series of bombings across London just two weeks after the 7/7 bombings in 2005 that killed 52 innocent civilians, also attended the mosque. Their bombs malfunctioned when the blasting caps failed to detonate the explosives as they traveled on three different London underground trains and a bus.
The Sun reported last night that Kensington Palace was trying to distance Markle from the mosque, claiming that the community kitchen housed in the mosque is an independent project.
But this does raise questions about how royal officials decided to promote an effort so closely tied to the Al-Mannar mosque when reports going back to 2014 chronicled the role that the mosque played in the radicalization of “Jihadi John” and the ISIS “Beatles.”
In December 2010 I noted the visit of then-U.S. ambassador to the UK Louis B. Susman to the extremist East London mosque, the terrorist incubator that produced the Underwear Bomber and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, among others.
I’ve also reported here at PJ Media on several U.S. mosques that have been repeatedly tied to domestic and international terror cases:
Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., was the former home of notorious al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen, as well as Fort Hood killer Major Nidal Hasan and five terrorist operatives captured in Pakistan, among others.
The Islamic Community Center of Phoenix was the spiritual home of the ISIS-inspired Garland, Texas, terrorists who were killed as they attempted to launch an attack on a “Draw Muhammad” art contest. When the mosque attempted to distance itself from the attack, I reported here exclusively that one of the terrorists had appeared in a mosque fundraising video, and that they had posted bond for the same man in a prior terrorism case. Two other terrorists convicted in separate cases had previously attended the mosque.
Masjid Omar Ibn El Khattab in Columbus, Ohio, very close to the Ohio State University campus, was not only home to the largest known al-Qaeda cell in the U.S. since 9/11, but also produced one cell that sent money to al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and another that saw three young area residents leave for Syria to join ISIS.
What the present case of Meghan Markle’s promotion of the North Kensington Al-Mannar mosque shows yet again is that despite multiple warning signs, when it comes to promoting interfaith outreach, Western officials appear to never learn.
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