Zealots who called Jihadi John ‘kind’
CAGE found itself at the centre of a bitter public row earlier this year when its representatives described the man behind the Islamic State beheadings, Jihadi John, as a ‘beautiful, kind man.’
At an extraordinary press conference hours after the identity of Jihadi John was revealed, CAGE spokesman Asim Qureshi said the man involved, Mohammed Emwazi, ‘ wouldn’t hurt a fly’ and that the British security services were at least partly responsible for radicalising him.
His comments put CAGE – a group which claims to ‘campaign for communities affected by the war on terror’ – at the centre of a furore.
Boris Johnson called CAGE ‘apologists for terror’ and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond suggested the organisation and others like it bore a ‘huge burden of responsibility’ for the actions of terrorists such as Emwazi.
CAGE was left facing difficult questions – not just over its support for Emwazi, but also over support for a whole range of individuals linked to terror. Among the damaging revela-
‘Organisation with a warped view’
tions was the emergence of a video of Qureshi which showed him calling on Muslims to support jihad at an extremist rally.
Qureshi later said he was talking about ‘ the right to selfdefence’. He added: ‘Everyone who was at that demonstration would know that Asim Qureshi and CAGE are people who do not advocate terrorism in any way.’
He admitted the protest was organised by Islamist group Hizb Ut Tahrir but he said the organisation – which campaigns for the creation of an Islamic state – was ‘not extremist’.
However, the growing questions put pressure on the organisation’s charity backers – the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Roddick Foundation, set up in memory of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.
CAGE had received £270,000 between 2007 and 2014 from the Rowntree Trust. The Roddick Foundation gave CAGE £120,000 between 2009 and 2012. Lord Carli le, a former independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, said: ‘CAGE is an organisation with a warped view. No sensible person should be funding it.’
Minister Theresa Villiers, also wrote to the head of the Charity Commission to demand action.
The Commission acted to choke off funds and days after the press conference the two charities publicly declared they would no longer fund CAGE.
CAGE took the commission to court, which has been forced to reverse its public position. However, it is unclear whether any charities are still supporting the CAGE, which is understood to be struggling financially.
Some of CAGE’s leading figures have been accused of sympathising with terrorists and it has helped convicted extremists such as Mohammed Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, who were sentenced to more than 12 years each last December for travelling to Syria to join the Al Qaeda-linked group Al Nusra, and who pleaded guilty.
Last night CAGE – which is not a proscribed organisation and denies links to terrorism or support for violent extremism – said: ‘CAGE officers did not say Jihadi John is a beautiful man – they said he was a beautiful man, just as his university lecturer described him as once a “lovely, lovely boy”.
‘CAGE rejected his actions and called for him to be brought to justice. Nonetheless, CAGE has accepted mistakes were made during that episode.’
Cage leader Moazzam Begg said of his specific support for the conicted terrorists found to be fighting with Al Nusra: ‘There is no evidence to show that these men were with Al Nusra.’