The ringleader of the London Bridge attack joined a demonstration led by notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary in support of Fusilier Lee Rigby’s killer, it has emerged.
The Daily Mail reports that Khuram Butt “verbally assaulted” a moderate Muslim who attended the demonstration outside the Palace of Westminster to oppose Choudary’s support of the attack, in which two jihadists used a car and knives to attack the off-duty soldier near the Royal Artillery barracks in Woolwich, London.
Head of the Manchester-based Ramadan Foundation Mohammed Shafiq, who has spoken out about terrorism since 2001, said he was called a ‘murtad’ — traitor in Arabic — by the London Bridge attacker, who accused him of being a “government stooge”.
“The police turned up and Anjem, Khuram Butt and two other men were escorted away. I am not surprised that Khuram Butt carried out the terrorist attack and there are serious questions for the authorities,” Shafiq recalled.
Choudary, who was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2106 after making speeches urging Muslims to support Islamic State, said he was “proud of” one of the men who murdered Fusilier Rigby.
The radical preacher described Michael Adebolajo as a “nice man”, asserting that the Islamist preacher was “a practising Muslim and family man”.
Mr. Shafiq said he was “not surprised” Butt went on to carry out the attack last weekend, and argued the authorities have “serious questions” to answer.
As details about the Pakistan-born jihadist emerged, questions were asked of why security services did nothing to stop the 27 year old, who was a known Islamist.
Butt appeared last year in a Channel 4 documentary entitled ‘The Jihadis Next Door’, in which he is shown participating in a prayer session with a group of radicals at Regent’s Park near London’s biggest mosque helping to display an Islamic State flag. The group, led by Mohammed Shamsuddin, mock the police when questioned.
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