An extremist preacher could face prosecution after driving a van emblazoned with radical Islamist logos through a busy London high street, The Sunday Times reports.
The “Al Qaeda van” stunt was staged by Anjem Choudary and his followers in a north London high street last Saturday. Footage was uploaded to Youtube by the username ‘Need4Khilafah’.
The van was covered with posters in English and Arabic, including the logo of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a radical militant group fighting in the Syrian civil war.
In the Youtube footage, Choudary appears while supporters chant in praise of ISIS. The Times reports that one of the supporters uses a loudspeaker to shout from within the van: “Islam is the solution for Great Britain, Islam is the solution for the world.”
Speaking to the Times, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Raffaello Pantucci, said: “The use of this logo and the call for an Islamic state in London seems very reminiscent of ISIS in Syria.”
“On paper, this group, Need4Khilafah, looks like al-Muhajiroun and its many offshoots. It’s the same group of people involved in the same type of activities.”
ISIS have become notorious in Syria for imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the territories they control. They have also split the rebellion against Bashar al Assad by attacking fellow rebel groups for not being sufficiently devout in their Islamic practices.
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