A mosque in London with charitable status is facing an investigation after it published sermons encouraging husbands to strike their wives and condoning the execution of gay people.

Videos published on the Hackney Islamic Community Centre’s YouTube channel describe gay sex as ‘one of the most evil of acts’, and urge men to ‘discipline’ their wives if they disobey them – including if they refuse to have sex.

Another lecture from the same preacher sees him praise Saudi Arabia for continuing to execute people who are accused of ‘witchcraft’.

Elsewhere, a community elder at the East London mosque – also known as Masjid Daar Al-Hadeeth – describes it as an ‘unfortunate reality’ that many women now feel empowered to call the police if they are struck by their husbands.

Campaign group the National Secular Society (NSS) has reported the centre to the Charity Commission, warning that the views it is sharing on social media are incompatible with charitable status.

As a registered charity, the Hackney Islamic Community Centre – which describes itself as helping ‘mankind’ in its work to ‘advance the Islamic faith’ – benefits from a considerable number of tax exemptions.

It paid no tax on £191,097 of income it received in the year to March 2025, according to its most recent published accounts. This included almost £155,000 of direct donations.

It re-registered as a charitable incorporated organisation in April this year, a change in status that separated trustees from its debt and allowed it to own property in a manner similar to a limited company, but governed entirely by charity law.

Megan Manson, NSS head of campaigns, described the charity’s renewal as ‘alarming’ because it has hosted ‘lectures which promote violence against women, say women cannot refuse their husbands sex, and condone the death penalty for gay men and those accused of ‘witchcraft’.

‘Hackney Islamic Community Centre is just one of many charities promoting misogyny, homophobia and other harmful ideologies through the charitable purpose of “the advancement of religion”,’ she said.

‘This charitable purpose must be urgently reviewed. It is evidently facilitating the advancement of ideas which, far from benefiting the public, could fuel discrimination, division and abuse.’

Many of the most extreme views are contained in a series of video lectures delivered from the centre by Yasin Munye, an ‘ustaadh’ (teacher) who reads from Manthumatu al-Kaba’ir, a poem that collects what Islam recognises as ‘major sins’.

He defined one of them as: ‘Disobeying the husband, leaving the house without his permission, and disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed, when it comes to calling her for intimacy, when she says ‘no’ without any excuse’.

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