Nimrod”, Jesus who “[spoke] the truth against the Romans” and Moses who “[spoke] the truth in front of a tyrant ruler, the people of Pharaoh”. By these transparent means, Mr Begg signalled to the audience his unqualified approval of, and praise for, the Belmarsh Muslim prisoners and their deeds, i.e. their crimes. It is no coincidence that Abdullah Azzam and Sayyid Qutb laid the ideological and doctrinal excuses for the very crimes for which some of the Belmarsh Muslim prisoners have been convicted, i.e., terrorist attacks against civilians. It is in this violent sense that his peroration or exhortation to the audience in this speech is to be understood: “…the greatest form of Jihad is to speak the truth in front of a tyrant, oppressive ruler.” 333. In my view, the Claimant’s BELMARSH PRISON SPEECH (2012) was particularly sinister. What the Claimant was, in truth, seeking to do was to signal sub silentio, his unalloyed admiration and praise for the Belmarsh Muslim prisoners for what they had done, i.e. for being virtuous and brave enough to fight. The Claimant was not only expressing his sympathy and solidarity with the Belmarsh Muslim prisoners’ for their plight, but also approval of their crimes. Internet 334. As the Claimant well knew, his speech was filmed, for subsequent publication on the internet, where it has (to date) been watched 1335 times on YouTube and where it remains available to view to an even greater audience at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMFyU4WcwDI. (8) INVITATIONS ISSUED TO ‘EXTREMIST’ SPEAKERS BY LIC 335. The BBC pleaded that invitations were issued to a series of extremist speakers to speak at the LIC between 2010 and 2014, including Bilal Phillips, Abdullah Hakim Quick, Murtaza Kahn, Sheikh Haitham Al-Haddad, and Uthman Lateef (some of whom had been banned in other countries). The Claimant submitted that he was not part of the LIC Management Committee between December 2009 and August 2011 when most of these speakers were invited (when he was employed by Redbridge Islamic Centre). Conclusion 336. (9) 337. For these reasons, ultimately, Mr Caldecott QC did not pursue this point and I therefore ignore it. PRESS STATEMENTS ISSUED BY LIC The BBC relied upon a number of press statements which appeared on the LIC website for which it was said that the Claimant had been responsible in his capacity as Chief Imam. In the event, only one was significantly pursued by the BBC (see below). 79