TIMES ONLINE: Anjem Choudary sits in a North London café, sips on a vanilla latte and then launches into a tirade about the decadence of the West.
With machinegun delivery, he expounds on numerous themes: British Muslims are suffering persecution because the Government rules by division; Sharia will solve all Britain’s ills; Western governments are carrying out terror attacks in the Middle East so they can be blamed on extremists.
His propaganda is peppered with colourful analogies. Moderate Muslims, for example, have lost their values and are like “vegetarians who eat beefburgers”. Holding court, with three young supporters hanging on his every word, it appears like business as usual for Mr Choudary. Except for one matter: we met on Thursday morning, when the Home Office ban on Islam4UK, Mr Choudary’s controversial group, had just come into effect. He and his supporters, dressed in traditional Islamic fashion, are defiant nonetheless.
Mr Choudary, a former solicitor whose plans to stage an anti-war protest in Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire caused widespread furore, told The Times: “Unless the Government can prove that you are ostensibly exactly the same organisation, doing the same things at the same time, it’s very difficult to clamp down.
“I’m not going to stop propagating Islam. I can still talk with journalists ... we can still go out publicly and talk about Islam. I could write a leaflet now ... and I could invite people to Islam.” The question he was unable to answer, however, was whether many people would actually be interested. >>> Fiona Hamilton, London Correspondent | Saturday, January 16, 2010
