Still online, rants that inspired evil
÷Killer kept watching preachers on YouTube ÷But web giant says: We won’t take videos down
GOOGLE last night refused to remove vile YouTube rants by the hate preachers who inspired the London Bridge killers.
The Mail yesterday found a series of tirades by Ahmad Musa Jibril and Abu Haleema that were easily accessible on the video sharing site.
They used the Google- owned video platform to spread the warped messages which helped turn 27-year-old Khuram Butt into a fanatic bent on mass slaughter.
In the videos found by the Mail, they told followers to make ‘enemies’ out of all kuffar [non-believers], and instructed Islamists not to grieve for terror victims.
They also branded moderate Muslims as ‘malignant tumours’ in the Islamic community, and denounced the London Mayor Sadiq Khan – a Muslim – as kuffar. According to a friend of Butt, he was obsessed with Jibril, and became radicalised after watching YouTube videos of the preacher.
He was also an associate of Haleema, appearing alongside him in last year’s Channel 4 documentary, the Jihadis Next Door.
The hate preacher’s videos have been watched more than a million times, and won warped comments of approval from viewers, one of whom wrote: ‘Kuffar must [and] will be eliminated’.
But Google has refused to remove them, insisting they did not break its own rules. Last night, politicians and terror experts accused the US technology giant of ‘colluding’ with hate preachers.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour candidate for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford and former shadow home secretary, said: ‘It is sickening that extremist, terrorist material which intends to radicalise people so that they carry out heinous attacks like the one we saw on London Bridge is still easily available on YouTube.
‘Google are aiding and abetting terrorists by leaving this vile stuff online. This platform is being used to feed warped ideologies that support deathly attacks.’
Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, said there was ‘no question at all’ that the material should be removed.
‘[The technology companies] bear clear moral responsibility for the harm that is done. They collude in the Islamist incitement.
‘GCHQ could disrupt these channels of communication. Let the US companies sue the UK Government; there’s no English jury that would find for the Americans.’
Last night, a YouTube spokesman said that it wanted to work with the Government.
‘We take our role in combatting the spread of extremist material very seriously,’ the spokesman said. ‘YouTube has clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence, and we act quickly to remove videos violating these. We also terminate accounts run by terrorist organisations or those that repeatedly violate our policies.’
However, its words will fall flat in light of the grotesque videos by Jibril and Haleema still circulating on YouTube. Jibril, a Palestinian-American cleric, denounced religious tolerance and condemned Muslims who feel sympathy for victims of terror attacks.
In one video, watched more than 41,000 times, Jibril tells his follow- ers: ‘[There are] malignant tumours within this umma [Muslim community] crying for the causes of others. The least worst Muslim dying anywhere in the world is more worthy of mourning and attention than the best kaffir.’
Haleema said in a video posted on the day of the 2016 Brussels attack: ‘Don’t try and be like the kuffar [non-believer]. Do not grieve over them.’
He also taunted non-Muslims in a video posted in January 2016, and watched more than 5,000 times. ‘We’re not going to stop calling for the domination of Islam.’
Heleema and Jibril’s messages
are also spreading on Facebook and Twitter. Yesterday, the Mail also found many links promoting them on the social networks. One Twitter account set up to spread Jibril’s message offers followers a free DVD. He also has a Facebook page with links to his sermons.
Facebook and Twitter accounts under Haleema’s name were also last night active, though it is not clear whether they are genuine. Twitter declined to comment on ‘privacy’ grounds.
Most of Haleema’s YouTube videos were posted before he appeared in the Channel 4 documentary in January 2016. In 2015, he was accused of radicalising a schoolboy who was convicted over a plot to behead police during an Anzac Day parade in Australia.
He was arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism in 2015. He does not appear to have posted to YouTube since June 2016. His whereabouts are unknown.