Hate preacher Choudary radicalised boy aged five
Child shouted ‘shame’ at women with legs on show
A BOY of five radicalised by Anjem Choudary shouted ‘shame’ whenever he saw a woman in a dress who was not entirely covered up, it was revealed yesterday.
A court ruling detailed how the child fell under the hate preacher’s spell at meetings of the banned extremist group Al-Muhajiroun (ALM).
He and three siblings were taken to the meetings in school hours by their mother, where they were photographed by police holding hands with convicted terrorists.
The boy’s 13-year-old brother expressed ‘terrible views’ about the Paris attacks, telling a teacher that IS was ‘simply implementing Islamic law’, the judgment revealed.
The children are the nephews and niece of Siddhartha Dhar, from Walthamstow, northeast London, who fled to Syria to replace Jihadi John as IS executioner. Their mother tried to take them to Syria, but they were stopped close to the Turkish border.
The details were revealed in a family court ruling on the children’s care. Last night there were questions for police and educational authorities as it emerged the mother was a ‘prime mover’ in a female wing of ALM.
She is the sister-in-law of Dhar, who skipped bail after he was arrested on suspicion of terror offences at the same time as Choudary in 2014.
Last August, on return to the UK from Turkey, she was jailed for three years for child abduction. Her sons – five, 12 and 13 – and daughter, nine, were taken into care in September after their father was found to have turned a ‘blind eye’.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a ‘prominent lieutenant’ of Choudary’s wife Rubana Akhtar, who is under investigation for running a circle of women supporting IS.
A High Court judge criticised education authorities yesterday saying ‘little or no effective supervision or oversight’ from them meant the boys aged 12 and five had never gone to school. Instead, their mother ‘nurtured’ their ‘isolation and radicalisation’ at home.
The eldest two children were sent to an unlicensed Islamic school in east London, run by Choudary follower Mohammed Mizanur Rahman – who was convicted alongside him.
Mr Justice Newton’s ruling that the children must stay in care reveals they were so indoctrinated they believed the Paris massacre was justified.
After going into care the boy of five yelled a word meaning ‘shame’ whenever he saw a woman in a dress, school staff reported. In November, his 13year-old brother told a teacher ‘IS are simply implementing Islamic law and the teachings of the Koran justify their actions … officials are scared of the rise of Islam and this is why they are making IS look bad’.
The boy begged to see his cousins in Syria with Dhar, who posted a photo on social media, clutching his newborn son and an assault rifle.
Asked about Syria, the nineyear-old girl said ‘that’s where I’m dreaming to live cos it’s all the Muslims’ and ‘England has been harsh to Muslims’. The case has raised questions for authorities about how Choudary was able to radicalise children whom police regularly photographed at ALM meetings over a number of years.
Mr Justice Newton said the mother was ‘intimately connected’ to hate preachers, adding: ‘Her views about the Paris murders are chilling. There is the clearest, strong evidence … [the children] have been exposed to such thoughts and have adopted them.’
She denied exposing the children to radical views. ÷Twitter has removed Choudary’s account used to radicalised hundreds. YouTube has not taken down all his videos despite saying it has ‘policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence’.