FOLLOWERS of hate preacher Anjem Choudary remain active in the UK, hiding behind innocuous names such as the Peaceful Society and the Bureau of Islamic Resources as they continue to plot attacks against Britain, new research has claimed.
Michael Kenney, associate professor of international affairs at Pittsburgh University, has charted the activities of Choudary and his fanatical acolytes for years, and makes his shocking revelations in his new book, The Islamic State in Britain.
In it, he says Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun organisation, featured in Channel 4’s 2016 documentary The Jihadis Next Door, has set up 181 front groups since it was banned in 2006, along with 10 offshoots in the eight years which followed.
Choudary himself was jailed in the same year the documentary was released for inviting support for ISIS.
The radical preacher is known to have influenced many people to undertake terrorist atrocities, including Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who murdered soldier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in 2013.
Another follower, Khuram Butt, who was one of the subjects of The Jihadis Next Door, was one of three men shot dead by police after the London Bridge terror attack in June 2017, which resulted in the deaths of eight people.
Chourdary, 52, was released in October and is currently living in a bail hostel in Camden, north London.
He is banned from using social media and from meeting with his former associates, who have taken to delivering inflammatory sermons at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, while hiding their connections with al-Muhajiroun.
Mr Kenney’s book considers the extreme lengths UK extremists now go to conceal their activities, and the challenges they pose for police and other law enforcement.
In it he explains: “As activists face more pressure from law enforcers, they now frequently engage in da’wah without using banners that publicise their platforms.”
Da’wah is an arabic word meaning preaching or proselytising.
His book also quotes one extremist as saying: “They keep banning us and proscribing us and we pop up again.”
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Speaking after Mr Choudary’s release, Mr Kenney said Choudary’s followers had been “meeting, engaging in low-level preaching and related activities” during his time in prison – but stressed they remain very much a minority among British Muslims.
He told the Independent: “Al-Muhajiroun has never been more marginalised in Britain.
“They publicly identified themselves as Isis supporters and then the world saw what a grotesque monstrosity the Isis caliphate was.
“Most British Muslims can’t stand that and it didn’t do Choudary and his merry band any favour. People don’t hear what they’re preaching, wherever they go they get confronted by Muslims.”
Writing on June 26, 2014, then-Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshireannounced: “We have today laid an Order under section 3(6) of the Terrorism Act 2000 which, with effect from tomorrow, will specify “Need4Khilafah”, “the Shariah Project” and “the Islamic Dawah Association” as aliases of the proscribed organisation known as Al Ghurabaa, The Saved Sect, Al Muhajiroun and Islam4UK.
“This organisation was proscribed in 2006 for glorifying terrorism and we are clear it should not be able to continue these activities by simply operating under alternative names.
“The effect of this Order is that being a member of or supporting any group operating under these names will be a criminal offence as to do so will amount to being a member of or supporting Al Ghurabaa, contrary to sections 11 and 12 of the Terrorism Act.”
However, one counterterrorism source told The Sunday Times: “It’s like playing a game of whack-a-mole.”
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