Today HOPE not hate launches a report into the Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary and his al-Muhajiroun network. Sixty pages long, the report, Gateway to Terror, is the most detailed investigation into this Islamist extremist organisation, its structures and its terrorist connections. It reveals Choudary is not simply a media buffoon or clown who must be ignored, but sits at the nexus of a terrorist network with links to the conflict in Syria, the al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Gateway to Terror also reveals:
- that at least 70 people who have been convicted of terrorism or terror-related offences, or who have actually participated in suicide attacks, have been linked to the group
- the name of the man who narrated the recent al-Shabaab video and his links to al-Muhajiroun
- the growing connections between Choudary and the northern Iraqi Ansar al-Islam group, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and name its British leader
- Choudary’s growing network of contacts across Europe and reveals that 200-300 supporters from these groups have gone to fight in Syria
- how French intelligence considered shooting Abu Hamza and blaming it on the nazi terror group Combat 18
This report nails the misguided view that we should tolerate Choudary’s outlandish antics. Behind his media-grabbing and provocative stunts lies a group that is a gateway to terrorism, at home and abroad. By ignoring their threat we let down the vast majority of Muslims who want nothing to do with Choudary and yet are stigmatised by his actions.
Read extracts from the report and buy a copy
Why we are taking on Choudary and the al-Muhajiroun network
More fundamentally, HOPE not hate abhors al-Muhajiroun’s politics of hate. It has a worldview that we do not share. It wants to impose a system that is totally at odds with one that respects human rights, diversity and equality.
Tomorrow, I will be announcing a new initiative to take on the extremists. Called British and Muslim, this new project will fight back positively against the likes of al-Muhajiroun and the English Defence League, who both believe the concept of being British and Muslim is incompatible. We say it is not and we believe that the vast majority of Britons – Muslim and non-Muslim alike – agree with us.
It’s time to take on the extremists and say a ‘Plague on both their Houses’.
In the meantime, please do buy a copy of the report:
https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/al-muhajiroun/
Nick Lowles
