British preacher Anjem Choudary, who was behind the radicalisation of hundreds of terrorists across the globe, was on Tuesday jailed for life at a court in London.
Despite his toxic influence, he was able to evade justice for running a terrorist group until now by operating on the cusp of the law, holding meetings in private and circumnavigating the UK's terror laws, which have recently been tightened to tackle extremism.
It has taken a global operation, involving undercover officers in the US infiltrating his meetings, for Choudary to be jailed for being the caretaker of Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), a banned terrorism network.
On Tuesday, Choudary, 57, of Ilford, east London, became the first person in the UK to be sentenced for directing an organisation concerned with the commission of acts of terrorism and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years.
University dropout who turned to extremism
The son of a market trader of Pakistani descent, Choudary was born in Britain.
He dropped out of medical school at the University of Southampton after failing his exams and later pursued a career in law, becoming chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers at one stage.
In the 1990s, he met the Syrian-born Omar Bakri Mohammed, the founder of ALM, at a mosque in Woolwich, south-east London, and would later become his right-hand man.
He married Rubana Akhtar, a member of ALM who would later became the group's head of women. The couple have four children.
When Bakri Mohammed was jailed in Lebanon in 2014 for terrorism offences, his former pupil Choudary stepped in to fill the void.
Liam Duffy, strategic adviser at the Counter Extremism Project think tank, told The National Choudary had caused considerable harm and his fingerprints can be seen in terrorist groups across the world.
"For a long time, Anjem Choudary was seen as something of a novelty and a loudmouth but he has devoted his life to the cause of activism, causing real and unquantifiable damage in the process,” he said.
"In addition to those who went on to be involved in terror plots from his orbit, examination of the locales worst affected by ISIS recruitment, the fingerprints of Choudary's Al-Muhajiroun and the Sharia4 copycat organisations around Europe are visible.
“Perhaps opportunities were missed, legally speaking, but the bigger issue was that civil societies across western Europe were not – and are still not – adequately prepared to fend off Islamist extremist activism in all its various guises. Choudary exploited this weakness more effectively than most."
Research by the Henry Jackson Society found a quarter of all those convicted of extreme Islamist terrorism and terror-related offences in the UK since 1999 had direct links with ALM or its aliases, through public membership, activism or regular attendance at lectures and protests.
It found one in 10 offenders had a proven personal relationship with Choudary.
Despite ALM being outlawed in 2010, it has continued to re-emerge under new aliases and over the years has also been known as Islam4UK, Muslims Against Crusades, Need4Khilafah and the Shariah Project.
It was only when undercover officers in the US infiltrated ALM's US arm at the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS) and attended his online lectures, from 2021 to July 2023, at which Choudary told his audience he viewed being called an extremist a “medallion”, that they finally acquired the evidence to hold him to account.
The investigation has involved the Metropolitan Police, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police counter-terrorism command, said his team and Britain's MI5 security service had been monitoring Choudary since his licensing conditions for a previous conviction for supporting ISIS expired in 2021.
“ALM’s tentacles have spread across the world and have had a massive impact on public safety and security,” he said.
“There are individuals who have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising impact upon them.”
Prolific radicaliser
Mr Duffy told The National the moment Choudary's bail conditions had elapsed, he immediately went back to "proselytising, convening lectures to followers from all over the world".
NYPD deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner described Choudary as a “shameless, prolific radicaliser”.
“It is usually the foot soldiers, the individuals, who are brought into the network who go on to commit the attacks who are brought to justice,” she said.
“And it’s rarely the leader, which is what makes this a particularly important moment.”
Before his arrest, Choudary recruited Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, to act as a personal assistant to help him host online lectures and edit extremist online blogs and publications.
He was on Tuesday sentenced to five years in jail in London for being a member of a proscribed terrorist organisation.
The pair were both arrested last July when Hussein flew to London to visit Choudary.
Plots and extremists inspired by Anjem Choudary - in pictures
Evidence gathered by the international investigation team showed how, over the past decade, ALM had encouraged and assisted various people in joining and fighting for ISIS, and Choudary was seeking to influence and radicalise a new generation of extremists and encourage them to support terrorist causes around the world.
Choudary was able to operate in plain sight for years, thwarting the police.
Despite Scotland Yard previously attempting to build criminal cases against him, prosecutors felt there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
The turning point was when Choudary swore an oath of allegiance to ISIS, allowing officers to demonstrate he was supporting a terrorist organisation.
Previous research by Hope Not Hate showed he has influenced and inspired more than 100 people in Britain who have carried out or attempted to carry out terrorist attacks at home and abroad.
It found that in the six months after the formation of ISIS, Choudary was its biggest cheerleader in the English-speaking world and the network he helped create became the largest recruiter for the terror group in Europe.
Dutch intelligence agency AIVD assessed him to be a key influence in the spread of ISIS in the Netherlands, and in Belgium he helped set up Sharia4Belgium, which Europol claims helped recruit for ISIS.
He has been linked to a string of terrorist attacks and plots in Britain and around the world.
In 2013, soldier Lee Rigby was murdered by two of ALM’s supporters Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, and London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt, who was one of three terrorists who killed eight people and injured almost 50 more, had been pictured with Choudary.
In 2019, known Choudary associate Usman Khan murdered two people and wounded three in a knife attack on London Bridge.
A Counter-Extremism Programme report revealed British authorities had noted Choudary’s influence in a failed 2004 fertiliser bomb plot, a failed 2012 plot to blow up a Territorial Army base with a toy car laden with explosives, while six of the nine terrorists convicted of a 2010 London Stock Exchange plot said they had been personally taught by Choudary.
British police have identified at least 600 members of ALM who have been linked to terrorism and Choudary has reportedly been linked to about 300 people who have travelled to Syria to become foreign fighters for ISIS.
Mr Duffy said his reach has been significantly hampered since the 2000s and early 2010s when much of the damage was done.
Normalising violence
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Mark Wall told Choudary he was “front and centre in running a terrorist organisation” which “encouraged young men into radical activity”.
“These are offences which cause the risk of significant loss of life," he said.
“Organisations such as yours normalise violence in the pursuit of an ideological cause. Their existence give individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts that otherwise they might not do.
“They drive a wedge between people who would and could live together in peaceful co-existence.”
