Anjem Choudary still influences jihad from behind bars

Anjem Choudary, 50, is serving only five and a half years in prison for his vocal support of ISIS and has been a media darling of the Islamic jihadi community for years, visible to the public since 2002.

Here's a little background:

Choudary, a lawyer, has called the 911 hijackers "magnificent martyrs" and this same religious Muslim declined to condemn terror attacks on British soil while predicting that the U.K. will become a Muslim country within 30 years. 

Choudary wasn't always a religious Muslim. In fact, he used to go by the name "Andy" when was a ladies man law student at Southampton University. Before growing his Mohammad-style beard, he had a string of white girlfriends and could drink beer like a sailor on Cinderella Liberty. 

Originally, he studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's medical school in central London but switched to law saying he was "disillusioned" with medicine. His father was a market trader from Welling, South East London. 

Andy was very much into the student crowd, drinking, indulging in casual sex, smoking pot and he even tried LSD. 

One school acquaintance said, "He would say he was a Muslim and was proud of his Pakistani heritage, but he didn't seem to attend any of the mosques in Southampton, and I only knew of him having white girlfriends. He certainly shared a bed with them."

Apparently, Andy Choudary showed signs of activism over his being upset with Salman Rushdie's bood, The Satanic Verses, which was said to be blasphemous and led to protests and a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death for the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. 

After university, Choudary studied for the legal practice exams at Guildford School of Law, in Surrey between 1990 and 1991. 
Before working on his own at law, he briefly taught English as a foreign language at a college off Oxford Street where he slept with a different girl almost every night. 

It was when he qualified as a lawyer that he quickly moved into ever more radical Islam as he met Omar Bakri Muhammad at a mosque in Woolwich, South East London, and quickly fell under his spell. 

He later went on to say, "If British means adopting British values, then I don't think we can adopt British values. I'm a Muslim living in Britain. I have a British passport, but that's a travel document to me. I had become much more religiously active," he explained.

Now Choudary has been linked to one of the suspected jihadis behind Saturday's van and knife attack in London. In fact, he has been an inspiration for several of the terror attacks that have been perpetrated in England in recent months.

"If you look at jihad as a skill, Choudary is very good at it," Ryan Mauro, a Shillman Fellow for Clarion Project said. "He is as likable as you can be and still be a jihadist."

While names of the three terrorists in this latest ISIS-claimed attack haven't been released, a number of media outlets reported that one of the scumcrumpets was featured in last year's British TV documentary, Jihadis Next Door." In the film, the suspect is seen praying near an ISIS flag with Mohammed Shamsuddin, a Choudary associate.

Mauro added, "Anyone who is seen praying with one of Choudary's close associates should be assumed to be a radical, because his circle isn't large."

Khalid Masood, a jihadist who killed four people in March in London, showed an interest in Choudary's teachings and his group, al Muhajiroun, The Times of London reported.

Before his arrest, Choudary had appeared in debates, on TV, and even on Sean Hannity's show.

The problem is, even though he's serving time in prison, he's still influencing terrorism. What can be done other than to totally isolate him and challenge is radical teachings?



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