Banned hate preacher Choudary uses IS app to spread poison online
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary is secretly posting vile messages to his followers on an encrypted s martphone app f avoured by Islamic State terrorists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The extremist imam, who called the 9/ 11 hijackers ‘ magnificent martyrs’ and radicalised the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, is sending messages on the Telegram app after he was banned by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for violating hate-speech rules.
Choudary told his Telegram followers last week that Britain is a ‘ police state’ and preached that Muslims are having their freedoms taken away ‘under the guise of counter-terrorism’.
He also told of his love of Sharia law, writing: ‘I am not an advocate for liberty, freedom and democracy and believe that the Shari’ah and Islam are a perfect and better way of life.’
The father-of-five, who is on a United Nations terrorist list, was jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2016 for inviting support for IS, but was released in 2018 after serving less than half the sentence.
He was freed on licence under strict conditions, which included observing a night-time curfew at his home in Ilford, East London, and not using social media or the internet.
But these restrictions expired last month and Choudary started preaching online again. The 54-year-old set up a new Twitter account, which immediately attracted hundreds of followers, but it was suspended after uproar from anti-extremism activists.
Within days, he was tweeting again from a different account, which was taken down last Friday. At the same time, he started posting his vitriol on Telegram, which uses an online encryption that makes it almost impossible for MI5 or the police to monitor.
The Russian- owned messaging service has been criticised as a safe haven for criminals and hackers.
The app is so secure that it is impossible to know how many users are following Choudary’s posts. But in one message he called himself a ‘martyr to the cause’ and said he was the victim of a ‘police state’.
He wrote: ‘Having experienced decades of Islamic activism in Britain since the early 1990s until my incarceration in 2016, I can personally testify that fundamental values, liberties and rights which liberal democracies, such as the UK, have lauded and prided itself on have today been shredded by successive governments and are today in tatters.’
For years, Choudary was the leader of the banned Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) group, which has been linked to some of the most infamous Islamic terrorists in Britain.
He helped to radicalise ALM members Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the killers of Fusilier Rigby in South-East London in 2013. Another follower was Khuram Butt, ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack that killed eight victims in 2017.
Dozens of Choudary’s followers joined IS in Syria, including Siddhartha Dhar, al so known as Jihadi Sid, who was seen in a video executing a victim.
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Russian brothers-in-exile Pavel and Nikolai Durov. They keep the headquarters of Telegram a secret. In October 2015, IS issued a notice to its followers to use Telegram as it felt it had the best encryption at the time. A spokesman for Telegram was unavailable for comment.
‘UK’s liberties and values are today in tatters’