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An extremist Muslim cleric was allowed to tour the UK through Britain's largest Islamic group preaching jihad to youngsters, it's been claimed.

The Deobandi movement, which controls almost half of the UK’s 1,600 mosques, is said to have allowed the extremist leader Masood Azhar to teach young Muslims that the Koran encouraged murder and urge them to undergo terror training in Pakistan.

A former associate of Osama bin Laden , Azar has links to al Qaida and runs a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, the Manchester Evening News reports.

He was allowed to tour 42 mosques during his month-long tour in 1993.

At the Darul Uloom boarding school in Holcombe near Bury, Greater Manchester, he taught children in a talk entitled “O my dear Prophet, do murders”, that large parts of the Koran urged “murders for the sake of Allah”.

The Deobandi movement has since distanced themselves from Azhar condemning his activities.

Shortly before his arrival in Britain he provided bin Laden with jihadi fighters to carry out terror attacks in Somalia.

(Image: REUTERS/Pentagon/Handout)

His UK tour is reported to have acted as a recruitment drive and raised large amounts of money for his cause.

Read more:Dozens of ISIS and al-Qaeda jihadis killed as terror groups fight each other in Syria

Among those at his sermons were Omar Saeed Sheikh, who went on to behead American journalist Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan, and Rashid Rauf, who helped organise the 2005 London bombings.

Hosted by the Deobandis, an apparently moderate movement that teaches an orthodox view of Islam, Azhar, then 25, preached in London, Birmingham, Lancashire and Yorkshire during his tour.

Details of the trip were recorded at the time by a British Deobandi scholar and published in a magazine in Pakistan, which has since been uncovered by the BBC and shared with The Times.

The claims bring into question arguments that mainstream Islam in the UK has had little to do with radicalisation and creating extremists.

According to the newspaper, Azhar promoted hatred for Christians, Hindus and Jews and glorified murders “for the sake of Allah”.

(Image: GoogleMaps)

During one seminar in London he told Muslims that “if seeking glory for the name of Allah is fundamentalism and terrorism, then we were fundamentalists and terrorists yesterday, we are fundamentalists and terrorists today and will be... tomorrow”.

Among those who met Azhar - who is now in protective custody in Pakistan - in 1993 was Yusuf Motala, who founded the Holcombe school in 1973.

Asked why Azhar was allowed to teach violence, Mr Motala told The Times they “weren’t able to save themselves from these terrorists”.

The Deobandi movement was founded in India in the 19th century.

A Deobandi spokesman told the newspaper: “We strongly condemn the activities of Masood Azhar and do not agree with his views.”

A two-part documentary, The Deobandis, will air on BBC Radio 4 at 9am on Tuesday and on April 12.

The newspaper contacted the Deobandi school for comment.