Anjem Choudary

Anjem Choudary (2011)

Anjem Choudary (Urdu: انجم چودهرى‎; born 18 January 1967) is a British Islamist and a social and political activist convicted under the Terrorism Act 2000 of inviting support for a proscribed organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and convicted in 2016. He was subsequently subject to sanctions by both the U.S. State Department and the U.N. Security Council freezing his assets. In July 2024, Choudary was sentenced to life imprisonment for directing al-Muhajiroun, a banned terrorist organisation.

Quotes

• [On the men responsible for the September 11 attacks] Those individuals are Muslims, they were carrying out their Islamic responsibility and duty, so in that respect they were magnificent, and the Muslims worldwide hope that they are accepted as martyrs in the eyes of God.
  • Comments to Reuters, as cited in "Group hails 9/11 'Magnificent 19'" CNN (10 September 2003)
  • The "Magnificent 19" refers to the 19 hijackers responsible on the 11 September 2001 attacks.

• [After the 7 July 2005 London bombings] Al-Qaida are not targeting people arbitrarily. There are specific targets [...] The time for talking is over. You can't sit down and negotiate while you are murdering Muslims in Iraq.
  • Cited in "Radical cleric leaves, but his legacy remains" The Guardian (10 August 2005)
  • Article title refers to the cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed who was now banned from admittance to the UK.

• For people who have had adultery committed against them, people who have had their wives taken, a lot will say "I think stoning to death is appropriate". I was like you, I was completely oblivious to Islam and the Islamic civilisation because I was educated in this system.
  But when you look at the rationale and benefits of it, you realise that it is, in fact, superior.
  • Interviewed by Andrew Anthony in "Anjem Choudary: the British extremist who backs the caliphate", The Observer (7 September 2014)

About Choudary

• Our sensationalist and irresponsible media has, in fact, been deeply complicit in the rise and rise of this fanatic, devoting quite disproportionate and counter-productive coverage to his various rantings. Is Choudary an Islamic scholar whose views merit attention or consideration? No. Has he studied under leading Islamic scholars? Nope. Does he have any Islamic qualifications or credentials? None whatsoever. So what gives him the right to pontificate on Islam, British Muslims or "the hellfire"? Or proclaim himself a "sharia judge"? Will he even manage to round up enough misfits to carry the 500 coffins with him? I doubt it – Choudary and co couldn't even persuade enough people to join a "march for sharia" that they had proudly planned to hold in central London in late October, and, at the very last minute, had to humiliatingly withdraw from their own rally. Pathetic, eh?
  The fact is that Choudary is as unrepresentative of British Muslim opinion, as he is of British anti-war opinion.
  • Mehdi Hasan "Please don't listen to Anjem Choudary", The Guardian (4 January 2010)
  • Choudary's plan for an Islam4UK march through Wootton Bassett was abandoned on 10 January 2010. The town was then used for mourning British servicemen killed in War in Afghanistan whose bodies passed through Wootton Bassett after being returned to the UK. Islam4UK denied participants in the march would have carried 500 coffins representing Afghan Muslims killed in the war. Islam4UK (an off-shoot of Al-Muhajiroun) was proscribed by the Home Office under counter-terrorism laws a few days later.

• [On Choudary's membership of the internationally proscribed Islamist group Al Muhajiroun (The Emigrants)] Choudary ... is the group's former leader. He frequently appears on cable news, as one of the few people producers can book who will defend the Islamic State vociferously, until his mike is cut. He has a reputation in the United Kingdom as a loathsome blowhard, but he and his disciples sincerely believe in the Islamic State and, on matters of doctrine, speak in its voice. Choudary and the others feature prominently in the Twitter feeds of Islamic State residents...
• In London, Choudary and his students provided detailed descriptions of how the Islamic State must conduct its foreign policy, now that it is a caliphate. It has already taken up what Islamic law refers to as "offensive jihad," the forcible expansion into countries that are ruled by non-Muslims. "Hitherto, we were just defending ourselves," Choudary said; without a caliphate, offensive jihad is an inapplicable concept. But the waging of war to expand the caliphate is an essential duty of the caliph.
• Choudary took pains to presnt the laws of war under which the Islamic State operates as policies of mercy rather than of brutality. He told me the state has an obligation to terrorize its enemies—a holy order to scare the shit out of them with beheadings and crucifixions and enslavement of women and children, because doing so hastens victory and avoids prolonged conflict.
  • Graeme Wood "What ISIS Really Wants", The Atlantic (March 2015)
  • Islamic State declared itself a caliphate in late June 2014, but the declaration was not recognised by the UN, international governments or Muslim groups.