Favourite figure especially of the tabloid press, British Islamist Anjem Choudary loves to provoke. There is hardly a controversial topic he has left out – be it implementing shari’a in Britain with also non-Muslim women having to wear the burka, glorifying terrorism, calling for assassinating the Pope or just pointing to the evilness of Christmas.
Choudary is a trained lawyer but currently out of job. He is a prominent spokesman for radical Islam in Britain after leading two groups, Al-Muhajiroun and Al-Ghurabaa, which have both been banned for glorifying terrorism. Co-leader was his teacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, an Islamist militant. Bakri is now in Lebanon and not allowed to return to the UK, where he had been active for 20 years.
Bakri played a vital role in Choudary’s career as an Islamist. In fact, before becoming one of Britain’s fiercest Islamists, Choudary indulged in an excessive student life, according to news agencies. Former friends at Southampton University confirm he was known a strong drinker and womanizer, who enjoyed casual sex. This widely normal behaviour would cost him 40 lashes in public or death by stoning, respectively, if his dream of implementing shari’a in the UK came true.
Choudary met Bakri, a then firebrand preacher in Woolwich, London, after qualifying as a lawyer, and quickly adopted a new Islamist identity. He also frequently met with Islamist Abu Hamza al Masri, who is currently in prison due to sedition. In an infamous interview of 2003 Choudary elaborates on his view that there are no civilians in Israel, and in 2008 he praised the Mumbai attacks. Currently out of job and a benefits recipient, Choudary allegedly plans to set up a new Islamist group in the UK. Meanwhile, he shares his radical views on every aspect of British life with and without being asked.
