The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a London mosque where leaflets which called for the killing of a sect of Muslims were distributed.

The investigation has been launched following allegations in the public domain that the mosque was distributing literature from its premises promoting hatred towards the Ahmadi community. The BBC had reported in April that “piles of the flyers, which say Ahmadis should face death if they refuse to convert to mainstream Islam, were displayed in Stockwell Green mosque”.

The mosque, which is registered with the Charity Commission as Aalami Majlise Tahaffuze Khatme Nubuwwat but is also known as Stockwell Mosque, was visited by the regulator in May, and again in July 2016.

The Commission said that these visits “identified serious regulatory concerns regarding how the charity is being managed including indications of poor governance, risks to charity property due to poor financial management and the trustees carrying out activities outside of the charity’s stated objects”.

It said that these concerns are so serious that it is opened the statutory inquiry at the beginning of September, and is exercising its legal powers to direct the trustees to provide information and documents regarding the charity and its administration.  

The charity’s objects include to further training and education in the Islamic faith.

The BBC reported that the leaflet was authored by an ex-head of Khatme Nabuwwat, a group which lists the mosque as its "overseas office". It said a mosque trustee had said he had never seen the leaflets before and suggested they were fakes or left there maliciously.

Khatme Nabuwwat believes Ahmadis are apostates, commonly defined as people who have abandoned their religion.