The mosque in Cardiff that two young men attended before they left for Syria and appeared in an extremist recruitment video has denied having anything to do with their radicalisation – and instead claimed they could have been inspired by images in the mainstream media.
Reacting in detail for the first time, the Al-Manar centre in the Welsh capital denied that visiting preachers may have prompted the men to leave for Syria and join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) terror group.
In a statement released to the Guardian and ITN, the Al-Manar centre said it did not control those who attended for prayers and officials would have sought to dissuade the men from leaving for Syria if they had known they were going.
The centre's denial came as more than 100 Islamic prayer leaders from various denominations of Islam signed a letter calling on British Muslims not to travel to Iraq or Syria to fight. » | Steven Morris | Friday, July 04, 2014
