Islamist who urged fanatics to murder Prince George gets three life sentences
A MUSLIM religious teacher was handed three life sentences yesterday after calling for terrorists to murder Prince George.
Husnain Rashid, 32, posted details of George’s south-west London primary school and urged followers to poison ice cream and attack football stadiums.
Using an online forum called Lone Mujahid, he urged followers to ‘fight and spill the blood of the apes in your land’.
His lawyers argued he was a ‘rather sad little man’ and an ‘armchair warrior’ who lived a double life on the web.
But a judge ruled he is a dangerous individual who must serve at least 25 years in jail before he can apply for release. Sentencing him, Judge Andrew Lees said he made ‘no distinction’ between terrorist attacks on adults and children.
He said the jihadi provided an ‘unstoppable flow of incitement and encouragement’ to likeminded terrorists.
‘You are in my judgment a dangerous offender,’ he added. ‘You sent an image to the Lone Mujahid group of Prince George with the exterior of St Thomas’s school.
‘You sent a message that said “even the royal family will not be left alone... School starts early”. You sent the full address and post code of the school.’
Woolwich Crown Court, in southeast London, was told Rashid posted an ‘immense body’ of terror material online over more than a year. The former teacher at a Lancashire mosque ran a web channel that provided an ‘E-tool kit’ for ‘lone wolves’ to carry out attacks.
He offered assistance to other terrorists in ‘almost every conceivable form’ including attacks with poison, vehicles, weapons, bombs, chemicals and knives.
Rashid tried to inspire attacks across the world from train stations in Australia, Rome and Liverpool to Halloween parades in New York. He exchanged messages with Islamic State fighter Omar Ali Hussain, a former High Wycombe supermarket security guard who ran off to Syria and was ridiculed for complaining about the living conditions.
Investigators believe Rashid was setting up an operation to ‘mirror’ the IS propaganda unit in Raqqa as the terror group lost control of its base. He compiled an online magazine including an article encouraging attacks by weapons, vehicles or bombs during the World Cup in Russia.
The magazine offered ‘tips for the mujahideen [fighters] in the enemy lands’, urging attackers to ‘keep killing until you are killed’. It was hosted on the encrypted messaging app Telegram which has been widely criticised for helping terrorists and criminals communicate in secret.
Prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC said: ‘The underlying message intended by the defendant was clear – to encourage lone wolf jihadists on British soil.’ Rashid, of Nelson in Lancashire, remained emotionless throughout the hearing. Experts found he had a ‘very poor’ understanding of Islam and was an ‘introverted loner’.
Naeem Mian QC branded his client ‘pathetic’, adding: ‘His life was going nowhere, and all of a sudden this gives his life some meaning. He is rather a sad little man – an armchair warrior.’ Last month Rashid admitted preparing acts of terrorism and encouraging terrorism three days into his trial.