extremist Islamic position, namely supporting (armed) jihad and was liable to promote
and/or encourage violence in the name of Islam.
Claimant’s submissions
286.
Mr Bennett on behalf of the Claimant denied these allusions. He submitted Sayedd
Qutb was executed in 1966, long before the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism. He
submitted Sayedd Qutb was only referred to by the Claimant because he had been
executed on the order of General Nasser for wanting Egypt ruled according to Islamic
law. Abdullah Azzam participated in the armed struggle against the occupation of
Afghanistan by Soviet Russia. This struggle was supported by a number of western
governments, including the United States. He was assassinated in 1989. The earliest
date for the foundation of Al Qaeda is August 1998. It was founded in order to
oppose the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Claimant did not refer to Abdullah
Azzam because of how other people interpreted what he did prior to his death, which
occurred before the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism arose.
287.
Mr Bennett submitted that “legacy” being referred to by the Claimant is a much
broader historical legacy and included the other figures mentioned, such as Noah,
Moses and Jesus. The reasons for the Claimant’s support for CAGE was made clear in
his speech: “Who do we see speaking and bringing to attention the issues of rendition,
the issues of kidnapping, the issues of torture, the issue of arrests? Very few
organisations like Cage Prisoners...”.
Analysis
288.
The Claimant purports to expound his theory of an inherited “legacy” by seeking to
draw an unbroken ‘prophetic’ line or lineage from the earliest prophets and
messengers of Allah to modern day idealogues. The historical linkage he sets out is
broadly in the following seven steps: (i) beginning with Noah, Moses, Abraham, Jesus
and the Prophet Muhammad; (ii) then through the first Caliph Abu Bakr (573-634 CE)
and the Companions (Sahabah) of the Prophet Muhammed; (iii) then through the
canonical Sunni Imams Abu Hanifa (702-772 CE), Muhammad Idris ash-Shafi’
(767820 CE), Malik (711-795 CE) and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855 CE); (iv) then
through the Ayyubid dynastic leaders, Nuruddin Zangi (1118-1174 CE) and
Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (1137-1193 CE) who fought against the 12 th Century Crusader
invaders such as Richard I during the golden Komnenos period of the Byzantine
Empire; (v) then through the 14th Century classical Damascene jurist, ibn Taymiyya
(1263-1328); (vi) then through the 18th Century religious reformer Muhammad ibn
Abdul Wahab (1703–1792) (see above); and then, (vii) turning to the 20 th Century, the
Claimant lists four names who are amongst the most notorious political Islamists and
violent extremists of recent times: Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Maulana Maududi
and Abdullah Azzam. The Claimant refers to (iv), (v), (vi) and (vii) as “other great
leaders” and uses the repeated phrase or mantra “the likes of…. Sayyid Qutb… [et
al]”.
289.
Further, in the course of describing CAGE Prisoners and then their “good deeds” in
positive terms, the Claimant echoes this phrase then he goes on to praise the “legacy
of good deeds” of e.g. Sayedd Qutb and Abdullah Azzam, both infamous for
espousing extremist views and as founding fathers of modern-day jihadism (see
further below).
65
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents