Telegraph
December 21, 2013
And so we return to the case of Anjem Choudary, Britain’s most eminent Hate-Preacher-Who-Also-Lives-On-Benefits. Choudary has hit the news again, just as he intended, this time for marching down Brick Lane threatening shopkeepers with 40 lashes if they don’t stop selling alcohol. At the same time he has gone on record, acclaiming Muslim gangs (who recently attacked drinkers on London’s streets), as “fantastic”.
Now, simple minded souls might wonder whether Choudary was breaking the law here: isn’t it an incitement to violence, when you praise vicious mobs as “fantastic”? Isn’t it criminal, in some way, to menace shopkeepers with “40 lashes”?
Come to think of it, you might wonder why Choudary hasn’t been jailed before, given his record. In 2003 he was investigated for organising terrorist training camps. Around the same time he praised the 9/11 bombers as “magnificent martyrs”. A few months later he predicted attacks on British soil. In 2005 he refused to condemn the 7/7 slaughters in London.
In 2006 he organised a protest outside the Danish Embassy in London where, notoriously, the protestors carried placards saying “Exterminate those who slander Islam”, “Behead those who insult Islam”, and “Be prepared for the real holocaust”. Some might imagine this was clearly an incitement to violence and racial/religious hatred, and worthy of jail time – but no. Choudary received a £500 fine, but it was imposed because he failed to inform police of the planned demo.
At various occasions between 2003 and 2011 he also preached to at least one of the men who went on to kill Woolwich drummer Lee Rigby. Choudary has since refused to condemn this slaughter: he has gone on record as saying Rigby is now “burning in hell”; he has praised one of the killers as a “very nice man”.
And now Choudary’s back in East London doing his provocateur shtick, yet again.
So why isn’t Choudary ever banged up for racism, or incitement to racial and religious hatred? Because, as Assistant Met Commissioner Cressida Dick informed MPs, just after the Rigby murder, “offences under the hatred laws” are “difficult to prosecute” and it seems he never crosses the line.