His haunting performances of the Adhan have been broadcast on Channel 4, ITV and the BBC. He performed it in a packed hall at Eton with the Windsor and Eton choral society in 2014.
In stark contrast to his dignified performances are his views on Israel, which a leading Muslim campaigner against antisemitism has said “undermines everything he stands for”.
Last year he posted on social media the Hamas slogan “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”, which has been interpreted as effectively calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
In a video interview, filmed when he attended a London anti-Israel protest during the Gaza conflict in May 2021, he was asked whether he extended his usual expression of “love and unity” “even to the Zionists who are very much against the Palestinian cause”.
Mr Rasool replied: “Whether you’re a Zionist or a white supremacist or a black-hearted individual, your own mother won’t be proud of you”, although he believed there was still hope because Zionists “weren’t born with such hate for another race”.
He said Zionists had made the Holy Land no longer holy because as Zionists, “you will pillage, you will cut, you will sever.
“OK, two sides, I hear you about Hamas and rockets. They threw a rocket or two. Let’s just pull out 50 tanks and blow 50 houses and kill 30 to 40 children.
“I don’t see you as a Zionist but as a pathetic human being who has lost love for humanity.”
Israel launched airstrikes in May 2021 after several hundred rockets had been fired at Israeli targets in the preceding weeks.
In 2017 and 2018, Mr Rasool performed at the annual PalExpo festival organised by Friends of Al-Aqsa, whose founder and leader, Ismail Patel, has visited the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
Mr Patel is also a staunch supporter of academic David Miller, who was fired by Bristol University after claiming that Jewish students were acting as agents of Israel.
Mr Rasool told the JC there was no contradiction between his political views and his belief in inter-faith dialogue and tolerance.
He said: “Any activities I engage in is (sic) intended towards the aim of peace and harmony for all. In any case, regardless of views expressed by many in the past, we now all look forward to the future with hope and trust in a lasting peace.
“Moreover, the Adhan that I recite (and have done in mosques, churches and synagogues) is calling to the worship of the One Almighty who we believe is, after all, the same God of the three Abrahamic faiths.”
He added: “I’ve always been a bridge builder. I am a friend, trust me.” He said the ceremony when he sang the call to prayer at the Marble Arch synagogue was a “beautiful moment” and “the way to promote peace”.
Mr Rasool added: “I’m an artist and I have to appear to make money. I don’t see Friends of Al-Aqsa as a dangerous organisation. They won’t take up arms, violence — I won’t go near organisations that do that.”
Haras Rafiq, managing director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and a trustee of Muslims Against Antisemitism, said: “Having known of Hassen Rasool for a while, it is very disappointing that while professing to be a bridge between communities who campaigns for peace, he has expressed such views, and even posted a notorious slogan used by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that calls for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.
“It undermines everything that I believed that he stood for.”
