London: In a shocking statement, a British Muslim cleric has said that having sex slaves is "permissible in Islam".
An undercover reporter recorded Ali Hammuda, an imam at a Cardiff mosque, as telling children as young as 13 that the “day of judgment is close”.
Hammuda, who was born in Palestine but brought up in the UK, explained a series of Hadiths (sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed) at the Al-Manar mosque: “One of the interpretations as to what this means is that towards the end of time there will be many wars like what we are seeing today, and because of these wars women will be taken as captives, as slaves, yeah, women will be taken as slaves.”
“And then, er, her master has relations with her because this is permissible in Islam, it’s permissible to have relations with a woman who is your slave or your wife,” said the English Islamic Programmes officer at the mosque.
Notably, Hammuda is accused of radicalising three British citizens who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State in 2014.
The recordings were made by undercover reporter Rizwan Syed for Hardcash Productions while probing into Islamist militants in the UK in October 2014.
