More antisemitic terrorists convicted

 
Three Birmingham men, Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, have been found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of being "central figures" in a large scale terrorist plot.

CST welcomes the guilty verdict in this trial, but the terrorists' suggestion of a gun attack against a synagogue, is yet another disturbing example of would-be antisemitic terrorism here in Britain. This is the third recent case in which terrorists have contemplated British Jews amongst other UK targets, the others being an al-Qaeda plot of 2011 and the Stock Exchange plot of 2010.  Worse still, it follows last year's Khans case in which a married couple solely targeted the Jewish community of North Manchester.

(For details of the East African al-Qaeda plot of 2011, see here; and for details of the Stock Exchange plot of 2010, see here. For the Khans, see here and here.)

In Britain, terrorism threatens all of society. We are all at equal risk when using public places, such as transport hubs or famous buildings - but these cases demonstrate that British Jews face an additional level of threat, due to the sheer number of terrorists who regard Jews as amongst the priority targets for their actions. Last year's dreadful attack against a Jewish school in Toulouse shows where this hatred can lead.

CST will continue to work with all of our Jewish community, Government, the Police and the rest of society, including other minority groups, to lessen the threat of terrorism against us all.

The three Birmingham men were found guilty of 12 counts of preparing acts of terrorism (between December 2010 and their arrest in September 2011).

The jury heard that Naseer and Khalid had received training from al-Qaeda contacts in Pakistan - and had recorded martyrdom videos there before returning to the UK. They recruited others and collected thousands of pounds whilst posing as charity workers.

Naseer helped send four other Birmingham men to Pakistan for training. All four had already pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism: Ishaaq Hussain, 21, Shahid Khan, 21, Naweed Ali, 25, and Khobaib Hussain, 22.

Two other Birmingham men who were part of Naseer and Khalid's plans, Rahin Ahmed, 27, and Mujahid Hussain, 21, have also already pleaded guilty.

In October 2012, CST Blog noted of the three men convicted today:

Conversations between them and others were secretly recorded by the police.

In one Naseer, who is known as Chubbs, talks about other methods of killing people he was taught about while allegedly undergoing terror training in Pakistan.

...He added: “Even if we can’t make a bomb, get guns yeah from the black geezers, Africans and charge in some like synagogue or charge in different places.”

Summaries of other recent antisemitic terrorist cases:

A married couple from Oldham, Mohammed and Shasta Khan, self-radicalised over the Internet and started constructing home made explosives, following Al Qaeda instructions, "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom". They made at least 11 hostile reconnaissance trips to Jewish neighbourhoods in North Manchester, stopping once outside a Jewish building, the husband saying "we must kill them all". The plot was only uncovered by chance after Police were called to a domestic incident involving the husband and his father-in-law.

Mohammed Khan pleaded guilty. In July 2012, Shasta Khan was found guilty after a trial.

In July 2012, it was publicly revealed that an Al Qaeda leader in East Africa had been shot dead in June 2011 at a roadblock in Somalia. Plans were found in his car relating to possible UK terror attacks, including against London Jews, perhaps during the Chanukah festival. The attackers planned a "heavy blow", with "maximum casualties", in Golders Green and Stamford Hill, areas they said had "tens of thousands of Jews crammed into a small area".

In February 2012, nine British Jihadists were convicted of plotting a bombing campaign against a range of targets, including the Stock Exchange. One list of potential targets included the names and addresses of two British rabbis and their synagogues.

For further details of antisemitic terrorism from 1968 to 2010, see CST's report, "Terrorist Incidents Against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad 1968-2010". The full pdf is here and the summary is here.