Islamic extremists who targeted EDL face years in jail

 
old bailey london Pic: Krista Kennedy
Krista Kennedy/wiki
Staff|Agency6 June 2013
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Six Islamic extremists will be sentenced today for planning a murderous attack on an English Defence League rally, amid renewed controversy surrounding the far right group.

The men, who have already been warned that they face "significant custody", only failed in their deadly plan because the gathering in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, last summer finished earlier than expected.

Jewel Uddin, 27, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain, 25, Mohammed Saud, 23, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22, all from Birmingham, are all due to appear at the Old Bailey today.

All of the men except Hasseen travelled to the rally armed with two shotguns, swords, knives, a nail bomb containing 458 pieces of shrapnel, and a partially assembled pipe bomb, ready to cause mass injuries and deaths.

The nail bomb was an 18-inch (46cm) long rocket which was stuffed with shrapnel and was to be powered by explosives taken from at least two large fireworks.

Police and security services had no intelligence about the planned attack on June 30 last year, although Uddin was under surveillance in relation to another terrorist plan.

Ahmed was also on bail for possession of terrorist documents at the time of the plot.

Their sentencing comes amid fresh publicity surrounding the EDL in the wake of the murder of soldier Lee Rigby, and increased tensions between various political and religious factions.

Yesterday graffiti saying "EDL" was found daubed at a Somali community centre in Muswell Hill, north London, which was destroyed by fire. The blaze is now being investigated by counter-terrorism police.

Members of the EDL have been encouraged to attend today's sentencing via the group's Twitter feed and Facebook page.

The six men due to be sentenced planned to attack a march where police estimated there could have been up to 750 EDL marchers, dozens of officers and innocent passers-by.

Their plan failed by chance, because they arrived at 4pm when the rally had dispersed by 2pm.

The planned atrocity was only uncovered because a traffic officer stopped Uddin and Khan on the M1 as they travelled home to Birmingham.

Checks showed their Renault Laguna was uninsured, so the car was impounded.

Two days later staff at the pound near Sheffield looked at the contents of the Renault and found the gang's arsenal.

There were also 10 copies of a hate-filled note addressed to the enemies of Islam, the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron.

It said: "This is a message to the enemies of Allah and his messenger. This is a message to the kafir (non-believer) female devil and self-proclaimed Queen Elizabeth and her accursed jubilee, fooling a nation of blind sheep to your self-proclaimed royalty and majesty."

The document addressed the EDL directly, saying: "To the EDL (English Drunkards League). O enemies of Allah! We have heard and seen you openly insulting the final Messenger of Allah... you should know that for every action there is a reaction.

"Today is a day of retaliation (especially) for your blasphemy of Allah and his Messenger Muhammad. We love death more than you love life. The penalty for blasphemy of Allah and his Messenger Muhammad is death.

"What we did today was a direct retaliation of your insulting of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and also in retaliation of your crusade against Islam/Muslims on a global scale. It is of the greatest honour for us to do what we did."

Hasseen has also pleaded guilty to possessing a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

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