Sun Corbyn Mosque Smear Busted

Having decided that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is some kind of terrorist sympathiser, Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun have experienced a bout of stuck record syndrome and decided to view any news about him through their own strangely twisted prism. So it was that readers were told “CORBYN PRAISES MOSQUE WHERE HATE CLERIC ABU HAMZA GROOMED MEN TO BECOME TERRORISTS”.

He still doesn't look scary

Then, just to let those same readers know which way they should vote, comes “David Cameron has launched a drive against extremism”. So what’s the story? “Jeremy Corbyn has heaped praise on the notorious mosque where hook-handed hate cleric Abu Hamza groomed legions of young men to become terrorists … The Labour leader described Finsbury Park Mosque – which was shut down in 2004 after becoming a centre of Islamic militancy – as a ‘wonderful place’”.

But hang on a minute, you Sun folks said it was “shut down in 2004”. So how can Corbyn, or indeed anyone else, be “praising” it? Ah well. “Mr Corbyn holds regular surgeries at the mosque, which re-opened in 2005 and has since won awards for community inclusion”. Let’s have that one again: “has won awards for community inclusion”.

That cuts no ice with the Sun: “But it remains controversial as trustee Mohammed Kassem Sawalha was named in US court documents as a former military commander of the Palestinian militant group Hamas – who Mr Corbyn has infamously described as ‘friends’”. Quite apart from taking the “friends” comment out of context - no change there, then - this is a clear lift from Andrew “transcription error” Gilligan.

Gilligan’s obsession is with finding Scary Muslims (tm). His main reason for going after former Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman was because of “extremist links”. His main attack line against schools in the West Midlands was the same. And his obsession with former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was, you guessed it, underpinned by attempts to prove that Livingstone was in bed with more of those Scary Muslims.

So how scary is the rhetoric that Corbyn has been using at the Finsbury Park Mosque, more correctly the North London Central Mosque? “I have been coming to this mosque as a supporter of it ever since it first opened and I think it does an incredible job in our community as a place of inclusion and a place of support and a place where everyone can feel welcome”. As scary as talking about more of that scary inclusion, then.

But remember, obedient Sun readers, “The revelation reignited controversy around Mr Corbyn’s association with terrorists which has called into question his fitness to be a potential Prime Minister … In Cameron’s drive against extremism, action will be taken in schools, colleges, universities, councils, the NHS and even the civil service”.

Yes, reaching out to followers of The Prophet is “extremism”. It’s almost as if the Sun was trying to tar all Muslims with that brush as a means of kicking both them and Labour. And remember, folks, if Dave visits that Mosque, it will be spun rather differently.