Didsbury mosque distances itself from Manchester bomber

On Tuesday they couldn’t praise Papa Abedi enough (lovely man, lovely voice, and the boy was so quiet and respectful and devout). But now the information about the family jihad cell and the network is coming out…
From the Guardian and the Independent

A mosque attended by Salman Abedi and members of his family has called for anyone with information about the bombing to contact the police and attempted to distance itself from the attacker.

In a strongly worded statement, Didsbury mosque and Manchester Islamic Centre called the bombing an act of cowardice and insisted it had worked peacefully at the heart of the community for half a century.

The Manchester mosque where bomber Salman Abedi used to pray has accused the media of “manufacturing stories” after it was reported the attacker worked at the centre. Representatives for Manchester Islamic Centre expressed concern that a “small section” of the media were making “unfounded points without any verification.”

Spokesperson Fawzi Haffar denied Abedi had ever worked at the centre and condemned the “horrific atrocity” as having “no place in our religion.” He said: “Some media reports have reported that the bomber worked at the Manchester Islamic Centre. This is not true. I assure everyone, listeners, viewers in the UK, around the UK, this bomber has never worked in this centre. . .”

But the mosque and centre refused to answer questions about Abedi’s links with them. The Guardian has learned that his father worked at the mosque before leaving for Tripoli and one of the imams, Mohammed Saeed, has described how Abedi attended regularly and had once looked at him “with hate” when he gave a sermon criticising Isis and Ansar al-Sharia in Libya.