Eurasia Press & News
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary broke cover today for the first time since being blamed for radicalising the Sir David Amess murder suspect.
Wearing a traditional Muslim white robe, the 54-year-old radical smiled as he walked to his local shops to buy some bread.
Former friends of murder suspect Ali Harbi Ali say that he went from being a quiet, intelligent teenager to a radical after being brainwashed through Choudary’s YouTube videos.
But Choudary denied being 25-year-old Ali’s inspiration and revealed he had considered making even more YouTube videos – but Sir David’s murder in Southend on Friday had made him think twice.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Choudary said: ‘The restrictions were lifted earlier this year. I have not made any videos although I was thinking about doing some.
‘In light of what has happened I don’t think it would be a good idea. I have not published any videos but do send out press releases. I have not looked or watched any of those videos in years and do not have them. I would not know where to find them . They are probably somewhere but I have not looked.’
Speaking from his council flat in Ilford, east London, he went on: ‘Those videos are no longer available and I have not made any new ones. There are others online that he could have watched.
‘The videos being talked about were from 2014. That is seven years ago when he was most likely still at school’
YouTube removed 40 hours of the preacher’s hate videos when he was jailed in 2016 for supporting ISIS. Yet despite this, a quick Google research revealed that they are still easily available online.
Since being released from prison in 2018 the cleric has been living at the family home in East London.
He said he was disappointed his name was being linked with the alleged killer but said he was not concerned for his own safety.
‘I have done nothing, so there is no need to worry’ he said.
He said his sermons and videos did not incite violence but instead were concerned with ‘jurisprudential’ matters on Islam and Shari’ah law.
‘Today’s newspapers discuss various lectures and talks of mine found online delivered many years ago which they claim are dangerous ‘poison’ ‘rants’ and ‘bile’ and yet no examples of anything inciting violence has been found.
Since his release from prison Choudary has been monitored by police.
He struggled to find work as his employment had to be approved by police and the Home Office as part of the stringent release conditions after serving half his sentence. He is now working from home as a bookkeeper for a local charity.
Choudary has been slammed for suggesting suggesting Sir David may have been killed for being ‘pro-Israel’.
The extremist said the 69-year-old father of five – who was ambushed at his Friday meeting with the public and stabbed 17 times in a frenzied attack – could also have been killed for being a member of the Tory, which has been in power for over a decade, during which time Britain has conducted military operations in Muslim countries.
Choudary said: ‘I am not sure about this particular MP’s views. The rumours are that he is pro-Israel, and he is part of the Conservative Party and they have been in power a long time, especially during the campaigns in Muslim countries such as Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.’
When asked how Mr Amess’s ‘pro-Israel’ stance would make him a target, Choudary replied: ‘Many people do [believe] that it is a terrorist state, and who would possibly be a friend of Israel after you see the carnage that they carried out against Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to do with the appropriation of properties?’
But Choudary, a trained lawyer, was quick to point out that he does not condone the killing of anyone, let alone an MP, in Britain.
He said: ‘No one in their right and rational mind would support such a state [Israel].
‘Obviously that does not give someone justification for someone to kill someone. I believe there is a covenant of security in this country, where the lives and wealth of people with whom we Muslims live are protected in return for our lives and wealth.’
Sir David was not known for taking a hardline pro-Israeli stance, but he had been an honorary secretary of the Conservative Friends of Israel since 1998 and was often described as supportive of Britain’s Jewish community.
Yesterday Choudary denied accounts he radicalised Ali Harbi Ali, 25, branding them ‘spurious, non-verifiable chats’ and said it was ‘questionable’ how he could have radicalised Ali as he was unable to upload videos to YouTube between 2015 and July 2021 after being charged with supporting ISIS.
He said: ‘Even before any official statement by the police, they have apparently already decided that he was radicalised by me based on some spurious, non-verifiable chats with old school friends of Ali Harbi Ali years ago and mysterious YouTube clips of me.
‘In recent years, I have personally been unable to access the internet or deliver any lectures, let alone produce content on YouTube, from July 2015 when I was charged with supporting ISIS and July 2021 when my internet access and public speaking restrictions were finally lifted after release from prison in October 2018.
‘Although I have delivered many talks and lectures over the years, there is currently no significant material to be found anywhere online due to its removal by social media companies at the behest of the UK authorities and others.
‘It is therefore questionable as to how Ali Harbi Ali could have been ‘radicalised’ by YouTube clips of me.’
On Sunday, Choudary was condemned for suggesting Sir David may have been killed for being ‘pro-Israel’.
The extremist said the 69-year-old father of five – who was ambushed at his Friday meeting with the public and stabbed 17 times in a frenzied attack – could also have been killed for being a member of the Tory Party, which has been in power for over a decade, during which time Britain has conducted military operations in Muslim countries.
It is understood that investigators have found nothing to suggest that Ali was a fan of Choudary or associated with his banned terror group Al-Muhajiroun.
But detectives are still poring over his phone and computer records to see whether there are any links.
Choudary made the callous comments a day after the MP for Southend West was killed, leaving the nation reeling in shock and grief.
Speaking from his council home in Ilford, East London, the 54-year-old said: ‘I am not sure about this particular MP’s views. The rumours are that he is pro-Israel, and he is part of the Conservative Party and they have been in power a long time, especially during the campaigns in Muslim countries such as Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.’
When asked how Mr Amess’s ‘pro-Israel’ stance would make him a target, Choudary replied: ‘Many people do [believe] that it is a terrorist state, and who would possibly be a friend of Israel after you see the carnage that they carried out against Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to do with the appropriation of properties?’
But Choudary, a trained lawyer, was quick to point out that he does not condone the killing of anyone, let alone an MP, in Britain.
He said: ‘No one in their right and rational mind would support such a state [Israel].
‘Obviously that does not give someone justification for someone to kill someone. I believe there is a covenant of security in this country, where the lives and wealth of people with whom we Muslims live are protected in return for our lives and wealth.’
Sir David, 69, was not known for taking a hardline pro-Israeli stance, but he had been an honorary secretary of the Conservative Friends of Israel since 1998 and was often described as supportive of Britain’s Jewish community.
Imams and Muslim leaders in Southend said he was extremely friendly to them, and once told officials at the town’s Southend Mosque he even wanted to hold surgeries in their premises after Covid-19 restrictions eased.
Sir David was also friendly towards Arab countries and was chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Qatar, and had recently returned from an official visit to the Gulf country.
Professor Anthony Glees, an expert on extremism, said: ‘Not only is it outrageous and repugnant, but the whole motive of the attack is a matter for the police – not Mr Choudary.
‘He adds insult to injury by giving this view.
‘Like all brainwashed radicalisers, he will do everything he can to carry on making his poisonous comments. This is an attempt to radicalise others.’
Choudary, the former leader of the banned Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun, was jailed for five-and-half years in 2016 for inviting support for the Islamic State.
He served less than half that term, and was out in 2018. He lived under licence restrictions until July this year.
The hate-filled circle around Anjem Choudary has been a breeding ground for the Islamic extremism which has plagued Britain in the last two decades.
Former law-student Choudary, who previously called for adulterers to be stoned to death and branded UK troops ‘cowards’, has always hidden behind free speech rules whenever challenged by the authorities.
The group he helped to set up have been linked to a series of terrorist attacks, as brainwashed young men became inspired by his twisted vision of jihad.
The best known of his disciples was Muslim convert Michael Adebolajo, who, along with Michael Adebowale, attacked Fusilier Lee Rigby with a meat cleaver in Woolwich in 2013 in a murder which shocked the country.
Adebolajo was a supporter of Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun group and was pictured standing behind the hate preacher in 2007.
After the incident, Choudary said Adebolajo was ‘a practising Muslim and a family man’ who he was ‘proud of’.
But he denied encouraging the killer to carry out the attack, insisting he was ‘channeling the energy of the youth through demonstrations and processions’.
Choudary’s own conversion to fundamentalist Islam is thought to have happened around the time he left university.
The son of a Pakistani market trader from Welling, south east London, Choudary studied law at Southampton University after dropping out of a medical course.
Fellow students recalled him drinking cider, enjoying casual sex, smoking cannabis and even taking LSD, despite insisting he was a Muslim.
The only sign of activism came in his upset over Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims believed to be blasphemous.
But after moving back to London when his studies ended, Choudary met Islamist firebrand Omar Bakri Muhammad at a mosque in Woolwich and quickly fell under his spell.
Bakri, a Syrian who came to Britain in the 1980s, had set up a sharia court in the UK and Choudary became his ‘naqib’ or assistant.
Bakri, who celebrated the 9/11 attacks as a ‘Towering Day in History’, formed the group al-Muhajiroun, meaning ‘the foreigners’, in the 1990s and Choudary was soon a key lieutenant.
The government repeatedly tried to ban the organisation, leading them to adopt a number of different names, including Al Ghurabaa, Islam4UK, Muslims Against Crusades, Need4Khilafah and the Shariah Project. There are still however referred to by their original name.
In a rhetorical trick later copied by Choudary, Bakri insisted a ‘covenant of security’ existed which meant Muslims should not attack the UK if authorities did not restrict their freedom to practice their religion.
But, in 2004, a group of followers was arrested in Crawley, West Sussex, and accused of planning a massive bomb attack in central London.
In the wake of the 7/7 bombings in London, whose perpetrators Bakri hailed as ‘the fantastic four’, Bakri left for Lebanon and the British government quickly moved to prevent him coming back.
In his absence, Choudary became his heir apparent and set about organising a number of stunts seemingly designed to cause maximum offence to the British public and gain media attention.
A 40-strong group burned a giant poppy and screamed insults during a two minute silence near the Royal Albert Hall on Armistice Day in November 2010.
Members of the group were seen holding placards reading ‘British soldiers burn in hell’ and ‘Afghanistan: The graveyard of empires’.
They re-recreated a picture of Buckingham Palace as a mosque and threatened to protest as the bodies of servicemen were repatriated from Afghanistan to Wootton Bassett, where local people had taken to lining the street as a mark of respect.
Choudary was also recorded telling his followers to claim benefits, which he dubbed the ‘jihad seeker’s allowance’.
But amid Choudary obvious attempts to inflame public opinion, followers of Muhajiroun were caught plotting far more sinister acts.
In December 2012, three young converts began a vigilante group called ‘Muslim Patrol’ and roamed east London at night threatening, intimidating and even assaulting members of the public who they perceived to be behaving in an un-Islamic manner.
Three Muhajiroun followers also firebombed the home of the publisher of a controversial novel about the Prophet Mohammed in September 2008.
Four Muhajiroun supporters from London and Cardiff, led by Mohammed Chowdhury, began planning a Christmas car bomb attack on the London Stock Exchange in 2010.
The Syrian civil war, which provided a vacuum into which ISIS moved in, further stoked up radicalism among the group.
Mohammed Reza Haque, thought of as Choudary’s bodyguard, disappeared from Britain in 2014.
A photograph taken in Syria showed him in a balaclava and camouflage clothing, brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle and he has since been suspected as being a tall figure in ISIS’s horrific execution films.
Siddhartha Dhar, who once ran Choudary’s media operation, was also seen posing in a military style coat and boots, brandishing an assault rifle and holding his new born baby in Syria, labelling the picture ‘Generation Khilafah’.
In December 2014, two other close associates were discovered in the back of a lorry at Dover as they tried to leave the country.
Simon Keeler and Anthony Small – a former British boxing champion – were later cleared of attempting to travel to Syria by a jury after they gave a variety of reasons for their need to leave the country without their passports.
After Choudary’s high-profile calls for law and an Islamic Britain, it has been the rise of ISIS which has led to his undoing.
In October 2014, Choudary said in an interview that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was ‘the Caliph of all Muslims and the Prince of the Believers.’
He was arrested two weeks later along with eight members of his inner circle and now faces jail for inviting support for the terror group.
