Mosque preacher said men should hit their wives to discipline them

A mosque has been reported to the Charity Commission after it published sermons encouraging husbands to hit their wives for refusing to obey them, and condoning the execution of gay people. 

The Hackney Islamic Community Centre, a London-based religious charity, has been referred to the regulator by the National Secular Society (NSS) over three sermons the society said could fuel misogyny, homophobia and “witchcraft abuse”. 

The videos were all published on the charity’s YouTube account in 2023, when it was known as Masjid Imam an-Nawawi, and removed after the report to the Charity Commission. 

In one sermon seen by The Times, Yasin Munye said it was a “major sin” for women not to obey their husbands and that husbands should “discipline them physically” by “lightly hitting them to show them who is in charge”. 

He included as an example, “disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed, when it comes to calling her for intimacy, she says no without any excuse”. Leaving the house without the husband’s permission was also a form of disobedience, he said.

He added: “If a person has multiple wives, then he doesn’t have to stay with her; he can abandon her and stay with the other wife until she becomes obedient again.”

In the same video, Munye told worshippers that sex between two men was “one of the most evil acts” and “a crime”, adding that the punishment in sharia was death.

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Munye said scholars “differ on how the execution occurs”, that some said “he is executed through the sword, like in every other normal execution” and others said “they are thrown off a tall building, and then rocks are thrown after that on top of them”.

In a separate sermon, Munye said that “sihr” — the Arabic word for magic or witchcraft — was real and that “the punishment for a witch under a Muslim government is execution”. He also said “may Allah bless” the fact that, in Saudi Arabia, those deemed witches were killed.

In a separate video, Abu Sa’ad Muhammad said that a woman must be kind to her husband even if he “mistreats” her. He said the “unfortunate reality of this country” meant that wives had been turned against husbands, and that wives “know if you slap them once, they will call the police for you”.

Because of its charitable status, the mosque paid no tax on the £191,097 it received in the year to March 2025.

Megan Manson, head of campaigns at the NSS, said: “It is alarming that this charity has been permitted to re-register, despite hosting 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’.

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“But 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’.

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

The Charity Commission confirmed that it had received the NSS complaint and would consider it before making a decision on whether to open a statutory inquiry.

A spokesman said: “The commission has clear expectations that all charities, regardless of their purpose, must operate for the public benefit and provide a safe and trusted environment for all.

“Concerns have been raised with us about alleged sermons and social media content linked to Hackney Islamic Community Centre and we have opened a regulatory compliance case to further assess these. This will determine any next steps.”

Hackney Islamic Community Centre was approached for comment.