Sitting before his many followers, a preacher dressed in white urges the men to hit their wives if they refuse to be ‘called to bed for intimacy’.

Clasping his hands, he beseeches husbands never to tolerate disobedience, and to ‘discipline them physically... lightly hitting them to show them who is in charge’.

A scene from a film or television drama, some medieval fantasy set in a distant, untamed land perhaps?

Depressingly, we are in modern Britain and the cleric’s words are only too real. His name is Yasin Munye from The Hackney Islamic Community Centre, a religious charity in east London.

Referring to scriptures, and making clear what he believes are grounds for domestic violence, Munye cites ‘disobeying the husband when it comes to calling her to bed’.

Were an Anglican vicar to deliver such a sermon, one might expect police to drag him from the pulpit in handcuffs.

Certainly, officers have been only too quick to beat a path to the door of members of the public who’ve tweeted their opinions online, one example being the two detectives who paid a visit to grandmother Helen Jones last year – simply for criticising Labour politicians on Facebook.

But when Saudi Arabia-trained Munye’s diatribe surfaced in a video last week, and his mosque was reported to the Charity Commission, there was a conspicuous absence of public discussion, much less howls of protest. For its part, the Met said it was ‘assessing’ a complaint against the Hackney mosque.

Yet, The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the Munye case is by no means isolated. Similarly ugly and misogynistic advice is dispensed up and down the country to Muslim husbands, often via video lectures.

Concerns have been raised about the creeping spectre of sharia law in modern Britain. Last month, a video emerged of men and women queuing separately in an Asian supermarket in Romford, Essex, and last October The Mail on Sunday revealed that a London mosque had organised a ‘family friendly’ charity run from which women were banned.

Rakib Ehsan, an expert in social integration and author of Beyond Grievance: What The Left Gets Wrong About Ethnic Minorities, said: ‘Britain’s model of multiculturalism has let down women in these segregated communities. With light-touch policing, the state has turned a blind eye to ethnically insular areas of our cities that have regressive attitudes. So because the state has not engaged with these communities, imams there feel emboldened to preach violent misogyny and other practices that run counter to British laws and customs.’

In August, Prime Minister Andy Burnham vowed to make tackling violence against women and girls ‘a driving mission’, adding: ‘We must be laser focused on stamping out these vile crimes.’

But after his protestations, the Munye video was uncovered by the National Secular Society (NSS), which said that ‘a religious manosphere’ is now taking hold in Britain. Domestic abuse charity Jeena International, meanwhile, said that Munye’s preachings reinforce the view in some Asian communities ‘that rape cannot take place inside of marriages’. The charity’s founder Rani Bilkhu said: ‘These preachers are using religion for coercive control of women... and are giving the go-ahead for sexual violence and domestic abuse.’

Asked if this sort of preaching is preventing Muslim women from reporting rape and domestic violence to the police, Ms Bilkhu added: ‘It is a factor, alongside other issues like Muslim women being reluctant to come forward anyway, as well as there being language barriers. Sometimes, being woke stops society from tackling these issues in case a white man or woman might be called racist. This is not a woke issue, this is a safeguarding issue.’

This newspaper’s investigation paints a depressing picture of Britain in 2026, as scores more imams proudly display their archaic prejudices in sermons posted online. One denounced women who ‘leave the house’ wearing perfume as ‘fornicators’, while in another video, Abu Sa’ad Muhammad, who preaches at the same mosque as Munye, 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’.

Meanwhile, Mahamed AbdurRazaq, from the An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre in Birmingham, advises ‘admonishing’ wives in the first instance for refusing sex. If this fails, he adds, ‘then he’s allowed to hit her, a hitting that does not bruise and that does not break bones’.

Hitting your wife, even lightly, can amount to common assault and be prosecuted as domestic abuse.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 defines the offence as physical abuse and violent or threatening behaviour. A single incident could qualify. Police might also have grounds to pursue Munye under the Serious Crime Act 2007 for ‘intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence’.

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said the sermons could ‘encourage domestic violence and marital rape’. She added: ‘Charity regulators cannot ignore this, and neither should authorities concerned with protecting women from abuse. This religious manosphere has no place in the charity sector. Authorities must have the courage to hold religious charities to account.’

Some of the most misogynistic sermons the MoS uncovered have taken place in the Green Lane Masjid in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham, located in Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s Ladywood constituency.

In a speech from December, imam Aqeel Mahmood delivered a 47-minute lecture on the Islamic laws of marriage, explaining the ‘duties of husbands and wives’.

During this speech the cleric insisted that the husband has a right to ‘discipline his wife in case of rebellion’. In the video posted online he said: ‘It is not permissible for the wife to leave the house without the husband’s permission’, and added: ‘Physical discipline is a last resort on the condition that it doesn’t cause pain, injury, fear and humiliation.’

The NSS, which obtained the video, has complained to the Charity Commission about Mahmood’s speech, and it is believed that the regulator gave the mosque ‘advice and guidance’.

At the same mosque, a year earlier, another preacher called Abu Rayan told worshippers that a wife should make herself sexually available to her husband at all times. One of the mosque’s former imams, Abu Usamah at-Thahabi, was embroiled in controversy in 2023 when he said ‘homosexuality is not permissible’, leading to the Government cancelling a £2million grant. Despite this, Green Lane was one of the mosques West Midlands Police consulted before banning fans of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv from a Europa League match at Aston Villa in Birmingham last November. The controversial decision, which was criticised for being based more on cultural politics rather than sound evidence, eventually led to the resignation of the force’s chief, Craig Guildford.

Last night the Home Secretary would not be drawn on the actions of specific mosques but a spokesman said: ‘The Government condemns all acts of psychological, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, as well as acts of coercive control, including where they occur in a religious setting or context.’

Meanwhile, in London, at the Darussalam Mosque in Southall, imam Abdur Rahman Hassan told his congregation that it was sinful for a woman to wear perfume outside her home. He said: ‘Any woman who leaves the house and she places perfume on herself, she is a fornicator.’

Although domestic violence rates among Muslims are roughly in line with the national average, many do not report abuse for fear of family disownment and community isolation.

Ironically, a specialist domestic violence unit at Green Lane Mosque said in 2024 that there was a ‘hidden pandemic’ of violence that official figures did not reflect.

Journalist and commentator Khadija Khan, who grew up in a Muslim household in which her father beat her mother for disobeying him, said it is ‘a stain on Britain’s conscience’.

She added: ‘Successive governments have been recklessly supine in challenging blatant misogyny and violence against women and girls being taught in these mosques.

‘Many fear being called “racist” and “Islamophobic”, and there are those MPs who willingly throw minority women under the bus by appeasing religious and cultural fanatics in a shameless bid to secure the “Muslim vote”.’

Last night, Birmingham MP Jess Phillips, the former Labour Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, told the MoS: ‘I am utterly appalled and disgusted that people think they can preach and influence populations to do this.’

Ms Phillips, who faces criticism for her handling of a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, added: ‘These preachers should not be allowed to speak to anyone in my constituency or in my city.’

Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘These speeches by extremist imams are disgusting and misogynist. They directly incite domestic violence, assaults on women and rape.’

He called on the police to investigate these imams, and the Charity Commission to ‘act urgently’.

Former Tory Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘This is simply unacceptable. In Britain, these are barbaric practices that these so-called imams are talking about - breaking the law, domestic violence, abusing women.

'There should be no tolerance of any of that. Quite frankly mosques like this should not be allowed to be open.’

Last night, the commission told the MoS that it will probe our evidence on imam Hassan telling women not to wear perfume at the Darussalam Mosque. The regulator said it warned the Hackney Islamic Community Centre in 2024 about extremist speakers, and opened another probe last month after the NSS sent them the videos of Munye and Muhammad.

The Commission had already issued ‘formal guidance’ to the An-Noor Masjid not to invite extremist speakers. A spokesman said: ‘Anyone who advocates violence against women has absolutely no place in charity. When concerns are raised with us, we assess each case carefully and take strong regulatory action where necessary.’

All the mosques featured have been contacted by the Mail.

A spokesman for Green Lane said: ‘Green Lane Masjid unequivocally rejects violence, domestic abuse, coercion and all other forms of violence and abuse.’