Anjem Choudary - Islam4UK

Islam4UK

In November 2008 Choudary organised a meeting of the newly-formed Islam4UK, which, according to its website, was "established by sincere Muslims as a platform to propagate the supreme Islamic ideology within the United Kingdom as a divine alternative to man-made law", and to "convince the British public about the superiority of Islam thereby changing public opinion in favour of Islam in order to transfer the authority and power to the Muslims in order to implement the Sharee’ah (here in Britain)". According to Ed Husain, co-founder of the counter-terrorism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, Islam4UK is a "splinter group of al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir, the originators of extremism in Britain." The meeting, advertised as a conference to "rise to defend the honour of the Muslims", was held at the Brady Arts and Community Centre in Tower Hamlets. Choudary then announced that Bakri would be speaking, via a video-conference link, although technical problems meant that his address was instead given over a telephone line. When asked by a Muslim woman how the comments of one of the event's speakers could be justified, with regards to Islam being a religion of peace, Choudary stated, "Islam is not a religion of peace...It is a religion of submission. We need to submit to the will of Allah.".

The rich resources of Afghanistan, its position on the cusp between the Indian sub-continent, Southern Russian, Asia and China and its populations call for the Shari'ah are the real reasons why the military has sought to establish a permanent role there, no matter what the cost to the lives and wealth of the indigenous people or indeed their own. Pivotal in this is the desire to prevent Muslims from running their own affairs and establishing an Islamic State if they so wish but rather to maintain a puppet in the area (Mr Karzia) to maintain and protect Western interests.

“ ” Anjem Choudary (3 January 2010), open letter published on Islam4UK website and reprinted in The Telegraph

With the announcement by Islam4UK that it planned to hold a protest march through Wootton Bassett (famous for honouring dead British soldiers returning from the war in Afghanistan), Choudary said "You may see one or two coffins being returned to the UK every other day, but when you think about the people of Afghanistan its a huge number in comparison I intend to write a letter to the parents of British soldiers telling them the reality of what they died for." Choudary's open letter was published on 3 January 2010. In it, he explained his reasons for proposing the march, endorsed his religious beliefs, and claimed that UK politicians had been lying about the war. Choudary stated that the proposed march was to "engage the British publics minds on the real reasons why their soldiers are returning home in body bags and the real cost of the war." In an interview with Sky News, he stated that the location of the proposed march was chosen to effect a level of media attention which "it would not have gained anywhere else". The proposed march has been condemned by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said that to offend the families of dead or wounded troops would be "completely inappropriate", the Minhaj-ul-Quran International UK centre in Forest Gate, and the Muslim Council of Britain, which stated that it "condemns the call by the fringe extremist group Islam4UK for their proposed march in Wootton Bassett." The planned march was cancelled by the group, on 10 January 2010.

From 14 January 2010 the organisation was proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, making membership illegal, and punishable by imprisonment. Choudary condemned the order. In an interview on BBC Radio he said "we are now being targeted as an extremist or terrorist organisation and even banned for merely expressing that. I feel this is a failure of the concept of democracy and freedom."