London: Nearly a half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a harline Islamic sect whose spiritual preacher despises Western values and calls on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah, according to an investigation by a leading daily. The Deobandi sect, which gave birth to the Taliban in Afghanistan, now controls more than 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques and one of its spiritual leaders Riyadh ul Haq preaches contempt for Hindus, Christians and Jews, The Times reported, citing a British police report.

Seventeen of Britain's 26 Islamic seminaries are run by the Deobandis and they produce 80 per cent of home-trained Muslim clerics, it claimed. Many had their studies funded by local education authority grants. The sect, which has significant representation on the Muslim Council of Britain, is at its strongest in the towns and cities of the Midlands and northern England.

Almost 60 out of the 75 mosques in five towns, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston, Oldham and Burnley, are Deobandi-run, the daily said, quoting the figures obtained from the Lancashire Council of Mosques. However, not all Muslims in the United Kingdom who worship at the Deobandi mosques subscribe to the isolationist message preached by Haq that they should only "shed blood" overseas. The preachings reveal a deep-rooted hatred of Western society, admiration for the Taliban and a passionate zeal for martyrdom "in the way of Allah".