police officer’s son is waging jihad in the Islamic State

Majdi Shajira

Insane Britannia: shoes are no good to send to his jihadi brother but underwear or socks would have been OK. But the main point of interest in this story is not with Majdi Shajira at all, but with his brother Amer. Presumably the household in which he was raised, since his father was a police officer, was “moderate.” How did he come to misunderstand his peaceful, moderate religion?

“But he was spared jail after the judge said if he sent underwear or socks he would have probably not been prosecuted.” “ISIS: Police officer’s son sent trainers to terrorist brother fighting in Syria,” by Chris Osuh, Mirror, May 8, 2015:

A police officer’s son sent trainers to his terrorist brother fighting for ISIS in Syria – to help him train for combat a court heard.

Majdi Shajira, 23, was living at home with his mum and stepdad when he conspired to send his sibling Amer the pumps.

But Manchester Crown Court was told the gift never arrived and Majid [sic] was arrested by counter terrorism officers.

He pleaded guilty to ‘entering into or becoming concerned in a terrorist funding arrangement, as a result of which property would be made available’.

But he was spared jail after the judge said if he sent underwear or socks he would have probably not been prosecuted.

Sentencing him to a a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision and 200 hours unpaid work, Judge David Stockdale QC said it was a very serious offence, but told the defendant: “In my judgement your primary motivation was not at its heart sinister – but was born out of a naive wish to help your brother and to maintain a link with him which evidently your mother had lost.”

Steve Allen/Manchester Evening News Majdi Shajira, of Liverpool, tried to send shoes to brother fighting with ISIS in Syria, due for sentence on May 8 at Crown Square.

The court heard Majdi, of St Peter’s Square, Liverpool, went looking for shoes for jihad and even sent his terrorist brother a series of links with pictures of trainers after searching in Sports Direct and Manchester-based outdoor outfitters Blacks.

He later sent him messages asking: “Have you picked your trainers, if not I’m just going to buy you any pair tomorrow. Inshallah you will like them.”

The trainers were to be sent by a pal called ‘Shammy’ who was travelling to Syria on an aid convoy, ‘Help for Syria’, at Christmas 2013.

But the rendezvous never occurred, and Majdi – whose mother is a serving police officer with Manchester Police was arrested on April 1 last year.

Police seized his phone and recovered incriminating messages which showed he was planning on travelling to Syria himself on a ‘World Aid’ convoy.

They revealed that in messages sent between November 25 and February 19 Amer – who left the country to fight in Syria in July 2013 – talked about weapons and fitness training, revealed his movements in the war zone, and encouaged his brother to visit him in Syria.

In one conversation, Majdi said his mother had been “begging him not to and telling him she didn’t want to lose another son.”

Annabel Darlow, prosecuting, said: “It was apparent that (Majdi) was well aware that his brother was a participant in violent armed conflict in Syria, the defendant repeatedly expressed the wish to travel to Syria in order to join his brother and that assertion was encouraged to the very fullest extent by Amer Shajira who presented a picture of life in Syria which seemed to be very far from reality.”

Hosein Zahir, defending, said the two brothers were very close, and though Majdi was the younger, he was ‘protective over his brother and his mother, described as ‘a police officer who has suffered suffered from considerable ill health’.

He said ‘wholly condemned’ his brother’s choice to fight for ISIS, had ‘no sympathy for the organisation and wouldn’t dream of joining them’.

“The difficulty he is confronted with is that he and his mother and others in this position are encouraged to maintain some link to those out there and to subtly encourage them to come back”, Mr Zahir said.

The lawyer said Majdi was a Westernised Muslim with a ‘rudimentary’ knowledge of the conflict at a time when ISIS had not got their ‘barborous’ repuation – and claimed that he didn’t want to risk breaking contact with his brother by directly encouraging to come back.

He said: “In order to avoid that breach in contact the defendant continued to maintain communication with his brother and in that context he agreed to send the trainers.

“It was Amer who asked for the trainers – there was no intention on his part to support terrorism.”