The government has launched an investigation into a taxpayer-funded theatre for staging a mock trial that examines UK “crimes” in Afghanistan and features a Muslim campaigner who has praised the Hezbollah terrorist group - on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Among those “giving evidence” at the ‘People’s Tribunal on Crimes of Aggression: Afghanistan Sessions’ at Camden People’s Theatre in London on Saturday will be Asim Qureshi, the research director of controversial Muslim advocacy group Cage. He told a 2006 Hizb ut Tahrir rally outside the US embassy: “When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel we know what the solution is and where the victory lies”.
Mr Qureshi also notoriously praised Isis beheader Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” and “extremely kind”.
Also taking part in the mock trial will be Cage outreach director Moazzam Begg. He has questioned whether Osama bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, saying: “In my mind it’s not been established because he didn’t have due process.”
Cage was described by Boris Johnson as being “apologists for terror” and was branded “an organisation with a warped view” by Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation.
The three-day event, which one MP branded a “grotesque lapse of judgement,” aims to “artistically shift the focus onto the crimes of the UK state”.
Speaking on LBC on Friday morning, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “The invasion of Afghanistan was a crime of aggression, according to one theatre production? This is the first I have heard of it and I will look into it. The idea it is a crime of aggression to get rid of a despicable regime is absurd.”
A senior Department of Culture, Media and Sport source told the JC: “The Secretary of State is concerned and has asked officials within the department to urgently look into this.”
In a recent blog for Muslim news site 5Pillars, Mr Begg wrote that UK troops died in Afghanistan “in vain and for nothing” and would be remembered as the “bad guys”.
The theatre, which receives both Arts Council and UK government funding, was condemned by Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP and a senior fellow at the Policy Exchange, the think tank which flagged the theatre’s controversial project.
He said: “This event, held 20 years after the murder by Islamist extremists of nearly 3,000 people – including 67 UK citizens – shows a grotesque lapse of judgment on the part of this London theatre.
“It worries me deeply that official Arts Council and UK Government funding could be going towards something that seems designed to offend the British and American public and – at the most sensitive of moments – invert the reality of 9/11, which was a heinous terrorist attack on innocent civilians.”
Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani, also a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, said: “It’s absurd that taxpayers’ money has been allocated to events or individuals who have stated that the Islamic State’s violent Jihadi John is a ‘beautiful young man’. As we commemorate the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and the loss of nearly 3,000 lives, all focus should be on the innocent people killed and what we can learn to challenge and prevent extremism.”
Camden People’s Theatre receives annual funding from the Arts Council as well as emergency funding during the Covid crisis. Taxpayers’ money has part-funded the controversial event.
Cage and Camden People’s Theatre have been contacted for comment.
