Finsbury Park Mosque to Protest HSBC Over Account Closure

Members of the Finsbury Park Mosque will hold a protest outside a HSBC branch after the bank decided to close its accounts.

The demonstration will be carried out on 8 August at HSBC's Seven Sisters Road branch, according to the Hackney Gazette.

The protest comes after HSBC wrote to the north London Mosque, which previously had ties to Islamic fundamentalist Abu Hamza, saying it would close its accounts; HSBC said the mosque, and other Muslim groups and individuals, fall outside the bank's "risk appetite".

HSBC maintains its decision to close the accounts were "absolutely not based on race or religion".

"Discrimination against customers on grounds of race or religion is immoral, unacceptable and illegal, and HSBC has comprehensive rules and policies in place to ensure race or religion are never factors in banking decisions," it said in a statement to IBTimes UK.

In an interview with the BBC, one of the trustees of the Finsbury Park Mosque, Khalid Oumar, said HSBC informed him on 22 July that its bank account would be closed on 22 September.

The letter was short on explanation or detail, stating, "the provision of banking services... now falls outside of our risk appetite". Oumar has questioned what exactly that risk appetite is.

"The letters that have been sent and the letters that we received do not give any reason why the accounts were closed in the first place," Oumar told the BBC.

"That has led us to believe that the only reason this has happened is because of an Islamophobic campaign targeting Muslim charities in the UK."