He praised Ahsan Ahmedi, the regional president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which has a mosque in Langley Green, who has spoken out against Isis.

Source: crawleynews.co.uk

A member of Crawley’s Muslim community has called on community leaders including Arif Syed to publicly condemn Isis.

Ammer Yasir wants a strong message of condemnation to be put out locally against the jihadists who have taken control of large areas of Iraq and Syria, while beheading Western hostages.

The 27-year-old, from Langley Green, said: “If you see what the leaders are saying they aren’t saying anything against Isis. There’s no condemnation.

“It’s like they are favouring them but they don’t want to say it.

“My personal belief is that the majority of Muslims in Crawley, and at the Broadfield mosque, are Sunni and Isis is a Sunni extremist group and some members of the community look at them as like themselves.

“Their beliefs are similar but Isis is ruthless and kills indiscriminately.”

Two weeks ago Arif Syed, chairman of Crawley Mosque, in Broadfield, said that the UK should not have got involved in carrying out air strikes on Isis and would not give his views on the group.

But Mr Yasir, who describes himself as a moderate Muslim who doesn’t follow any particular branch of the religion, thinks that the UK had to get involved in the war.

He added: “If this is something the leaders are saying to the papers, what do you think they are saying in private?

“They should be condemning Isis, disowning them and disassociating themselves from them.”

Given Crawley’s recent links to terrorism, such as the suicide bombing carried out in Syria earlier this year by Langley Green dad Abdul Waheed Majeed, Mr Yasir believes it is vital that the town’s Muslim leaders to do all they can to ensure no one else is radicalised.

He praised Ahsan Ahmedi, the regional president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which has a mosque in Langley Green, who has spoken out against Isis.

Mr Yasir said: “I give credit to Ahsan Ahmedi for condemning the barbarity of Isis and disassociating it from Islam. At least he’s condemning them.”

Mr Yasir also called on all members of Crawley’s Muslim community to stand up and speak out against Isis.

He added: “If they are British citizens and living here and getting help and earning a living here, they should be a part of this coalition against Isis.”

Mr Syed had not returned calls asking for a comment before we went to press.