Hassan Butt - Criticisms

Criticisms

The writer Adrian Morgan has argued that "Hassan Butt is a fantasist, it seems. He certainly has had links with radical Islamists, but his desire to gain attention, to bask in limelight, is not the behavior of someone who is as involved in terror networks as he has previously boasted."

One of the leading figures in the anti-war movement, the British Muslim activist Anas Altikriti, has strongly criticized Butt, arguing that, "Now that he has changed sides, rather than see the error in the methodology and ideology to which he once subscribed and which he peddled for years, he has adopted the posture of extremist once again - and is hurling abuse once more, albeit from the opposite side." Altikriti concludes that "The call to change the face of Islam, attacking Islamic doctrine through the copy-and-paste methodology that falsely makes the Qur'an seem like a book of evil, is unjust and disingenuous."

There has also been criticism from the Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, who has argued that Butt is wrong to argue that "we do not need to revisit some of our own murderous actions overseas and examine whether they have contributed to the spread of violent extremism."

The Muslim activist Faisal Haque has asked why Butt has not been arrested and suggested that Butt "may have been working for the security service". Butt has denied these charges saying he would inform the police if he would be aware of an impending terror attack, but that he was not an informer.

In May 2008, Channel 4 News in the UK reported that Greater Manchester Police had released transcripts from their interviews with Hassan Butt. In the extracts he said he had fabricated many of his previous claims, that he had never met Osama bin Laden and that he had stabbed himself in the arm rather than being attacked by extremists as he had previously claimed.