Muslim convert plotted suicide attack on St Paul’s
A FEMALE Muslim convert boasted to an undercover officer how easy it would be to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral as she plotted a suicide attack, a court has heard.
Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a 36-year-old mother from Hayes in west London, said she wanted to kill as many as people as possible by detonating a bomb at Christmas or Easter.
She carried out a reconnaissance mission, visiting the cathedral to finetune her plan, before telling an undercover police officer there was very little security at the iconic building.
Shaikh, who was born Michelle Ramsden, wrote on a secret messaging app: “This most famous church to King and Queen. All there [sic] weddings been there hundreds of years. I really thought it would not be possible. But it easy.”
Believing she was speaking to fellow jihadists, she said she would borrow her daughter’s non-islamic clothing, to avoid suspicion and would detonate a suicide belt packed with explosives.
During a sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey yesterday, prosecutor Alison Morgan QC described Shaikh as “a violent extremist who pledged her support for Islamic State”. Ms Morgan said:
“She engaged with others, who she believed to be of a similar mindset, to instigate and plan a terrorist attack involving the use of improvised explosives to attack St Paul’s Cathedral and a hotel nearby.”
The court heard that Shaikh travelled to central London on Sept 7 2019, ready to attend morning prayers at St Paul’s the next day in order to scope out security protocol and work out how to carry out her plan, with the ultimate aim of achieving martyrdom.
The court heard she confessed online: “I want do something in hotel and church. Than [sic] run and kill kuffar [non-muslims] everywhere I see them until am shot down. Is this possible. And to get weapons. If I had choice I blow the church to ground. With kuffar in it.”
The court heard how Shaikh had converted to Islam in 2007 after being impressed by the kindness of a local Muslim family. But she quickly became disillusioned with moderate versions of the religion and sought out extremist doctrine online.
On Sept 24 last year, she met an undercover officer in Uxbridge to hand over her bags, believing they could be fashioned into explosives. On Oct 13, the female undercover officer cancelled a second meeting and police forced their way into Shaikh’s flat to arrest her. The sentencing hearing continues.