Abdur Raheem Green

Early life

Green was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His father was a colonial administrator in the British Empire and his mother is Polish. His father was agnostic and his mother a devout Roman Catholic. Green was raised in the Roman Catholic faith from a young age.

Green attended a Monastic Roman Catholic boarding school, St Martin's Ampleforth at Gilling Castle, and then Ampleforth College. When he was 11, his father took a job in Cairo, and so Abdur Raheem would travel to stay there during his school holidays. He studied history at the University of London, but did not complete his degree because of a growing disillusionment with what he regarded as the Eurocentric teaching of the British educational system.

Conversion to Islam

At a young age, Green began to question his Roman Catholic upbringing. However, at the age of 19, he stated that he would "vigorously defend" the faith, even though he did not actually believe in it. He also practiced Buddhism for nearly three years, though never formally embraced it. In 1987, Green first became interested in Islam, picking up his first copy of the Qur'an. Green embraced Islam in 1988, and has been a Dawah practitioner ever since.

Personal life

Green has thirteen children. Whilst he used to claim two wives, but now just has one. Green was asked in the interview whether British law prohibits bigamy. Green responded: "It does. Yet several Britishers are bigamists. But those who practise bigamy can protect the second marriage under the provisions of 'common law wives'. Under this children out of such marriages are legitimate and wives inherit property."

On the 11 September attacks

Regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, Green has questioned the official story of how the buildings came to collapse. In a talk given at Morden Islamic Centre he stated: "Isn't it strange that the World Trade Centre collapses at a rate and at a speed that it is impossible for a building to free fall. And now we have major scientists confirming that the only possible way the World Trade Centre could have collapsed the way it did was by it being demolished."

Controversies

In 2005, Green was barred from boarding a flight with a stopover in Brisbane because he appeared on the Australian government's "movement alert list". This was for extreme views, "including that Muslims and westerners cannot live peaceably together and that dying while fighting jihad is one of the surest ways to paradise and Allah's good pleasure." Some Australian Muslims argued that the Government had gone too far by stopping a man whose views they claim are now moderate. On a subsequent radio interview in Australia, Green stated that he had long since renounced any extremist views, and added that he consistently condemns terrorist acts.

In October 2011, Green was banned from giving a scheduled lecture at Concordia University in Canada after concerns were raised over statements that he allegedly made about how men may treat their wives.

In July 2012, Green was banned from the Emirates stadium of Arsenal F.C.

In May 2014, the Telegraph reported that the iERA which Green chairs is being investigated by the Charity Commission "amid allegations that its leaders promote anti-Semitism and have called for homosexuals and female adulterers to be stoned to death." The Telegraph reported that Green "has been caught on camera preaching at Hyde Park Corner, calling for a Jewish man to be removed from his sight. 'Why don’t you take the Yahoudi [Jew] over there, far away so his stench doesn’t disturb us?' he can be heard to say."

On 30 November 2014, the Telegraph reported that the iERA was "closely linked to a number of the 'Portsmouth jihadis' - six young men from the Hampshire city who travelled together to fight for Islamic State (ISIL) in Syria." The report called Green an "extremist preacher". It noted that the iERA denied that the Portsmouth group were part of the IERA organisation, but added: "However, Portsmouth Dawah Team members, including Hassan and Jaman, dressed in IERA T-shirts to proseltyse and used IERA banners and literature on their street stall. The group was last year described by Mission Dawah, part of IERA, as 'our team from Portsmouth.'" iERA later wrote an open letter to the editor challenging the report.

In 2015, he was asked to withdraw from speaking at event Against Racism, Against Hatred held at St James' Park, Newcastle.