NUNEATON – One hour away by plane there is a Dutch ’mini-caliphate’. In the middle of England, Dutch Muslims numbering double figures are living on a county estate under the leadership of a clan of radical sheiks. It is no earthly paradise: ex-followers are sounding the alarm through De Telegraaf. They have destroyed my life.” MENU The Noeroel Islam mosque in The Hague pours thousands of Euros per year into the coffers of the ’Hijaz’ Islamic community, a country estate not far from Birmingham. Tens of believers from The Netherlands, Surinamese people in particular, are travelling there to settle around the little castle belonging to sheik Faiz Siddiqi and his family members. The Siddiqis are no everyday imams, but are gurus of mystical Pakistani Islam. They are revered as saints, but they are by no means of unblemished record. Injured parties are coming forward with accounts of sexual abuse, manipulation, intimidation with demons and the financial extortion of members.
Behind an electrified fence and ’no entry’ signs, a driveway stretches some 700 metres. At the end, a 1001 Nightslike- mausoleum looms and on the right hand side there is a dilapidated country house, like the set for a horror film. There is a faint smell of incense. A woman wearing the veil is walking back and forth, as a car with Dutch registration plates turns on to the car park. There is a tranquil serenity; there are no prying eyes for miles. The commune of over a hundred members has the place to itself. This is Hijaz, an Islamic sanctum in the hills of the British Midlands. “In Hijaz everybody is warm and hospitable, 30 year old Halima said. Whoever you are. Nobody looks down on you. The more I heard about Hijaz, the more I knew that this was what I wanted.” Sheik Faiz Siddiqi rules over the Islamic enclave like a monarch. He is a busy man. He arranges marriages between Hijaz members and advises on business and life issues. He also runs a Sharia court, where violent husbands are sentenced to anger management courses instead of a custodial sentence, for example. The sheik is also wading into the terrorism debate. One month after the shooting of Charlie Hebdo editorial staff in 2015 he organised a protest march. Not against the murder of eleven members of the editorial staff, but against insulting cartoons. ’Learn manners’, one banner said. Faiz wants to play a leading role in the Muslim community”, according to religious researcher Santi Rozario of the University of Sydney. „He is very articulate and active, modern and traditional at the same time. He is charming and charismatic and has a huge appeal to young people.” At the same time she identified that some women in Hijaz were extremely fervent in their belief in Faiz. Tahera (23), who wore a burqa, left all the big decisions in her life up to him. The sheik advised her and she did everything he told her to.” De Telegraaf spoke to fifteen former members, relatives and other injured persons. All of them are angry, afraid or aggrieved. A charlatan”, Muslim woman Gulshar Akthar calls the sheik. From the outside the Siddiqi brothers’ group looks like a sweet shop. But once you are inside, you notice there is something sinister behind it. Yes, Faiz is charming, but when I was with him in his office wearing the veil, I saw him staring at the uncovered parts of my body. It was uncomfortable and I wondered if that wasn’t inappropriate for a sheik. A lot of stories are going around about his behaviour. His marriage to a student half his age caused quite a stir.” For some time now, there seems to be something seriously wrong in Hijaz. “I’ve still got scars”, says one of two Dutch women who used to live with the Siddiqis during their childhood. They were supposed to receive an Islamic education but they were made to be domestic slaves instead. The family members called me ’the dirt beneath their feet’, I always had to clean, wasn’t fed properly and was beaten with a baseball bat.”
Even more disturbing is the statement by the sisters that they were systemically sexually abused by Abdulwahab Siddiqi, now deceased, the father of the current sheik Faiz. Faiz, too, couldn’t keep his hands to himself. One of the women stated that Siddiqi senior made her keep quiet about the rape by threatening her with jinns, a kind of Islamic demons. If she were to speak out, they would take revenge. The jinn would destroy my parents and my future. I was afraid every day. I was eleven years old, I had nowhere to go.” The police investigation into the rape of the two sisters ended when Siddiqi senior suddenly died in 1994. The allegations were subsequently swept away as ’slander’. Still, followers continue to revere him as a major saint and suggest a supernatural glow emanates from his tomb on the estate grounds. Believers can purchase a burial plot in the consecrated soil for a hefty price tag. „We have to look up to my father’s life, do as he did and follow in his footsteps”, Faiz said during a memorial service in The Hague. Both the faith in Siddiqi senior and the fear of demons remain prevalent in 2017. Fences, cameras and motion sensors are not the only means being deployed to protect the 33 hectare site, according to the believers. There is also a jinn who watches over the site twenty-four-seven. They call him ’Babi Ji’.