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Rochdale Muslim leader 'was bludgeoned in Isis-inspired murder' Rochdale Muslim leader 'was bludgeoned in Isis-inspired murder'
(about 4 hours later)
A Muslim community leader was bludgeoned to death in an Islamic State-inspired murder in a children’s playground in Greater Manchester, a court has heard. A former imam was bludgeoned to death in a children’s playground by two Islamic State supporters who believed he practised “black magic”, a court has heard.
Jalal Uddin, 71, was killed with a heavy weapon by two alleged Islamist extremists who harboured a “hatred and intolerance” of his form of Islam, jurors were told. Jalal Uddin, 71, was murdered by two alleged Islamist extremists who harboured a “hatred and intolerance” of his form of Islam, jurors were told.
Uddin practised a form of Islamic healing called ruqya, the court heard, deemed by Isis to be “black magic” and its followers worthy of severe punishment or death. The respected community leader was targeted as he made his way home from a mosque in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, after months of being surveilled by his alleged killers, the jury heard.
The “respected and well-liked” community leader, known to his followers as the “Qari Saab” for his deep understanding of the Qur’an, was killed as he made his way home from the Jalalia mosque in Rochdale on 18 February, jurors heard. The accused – Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, 21, and Mohammed Abdul Kadir, 24 – were Isis supporters who developed a hatred of Uddin after discovering he practiced a form of Islamic healing called ruqya, jurors were told.
His alleged killers – Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, 21, and Mohammed Abdul Kadir, 24 – were supporters of Isis and murdered Uddin after surveilling him for months, the court heard. Opening the trial at Manchester crown court, the prosecutor, Paul Greaney QC, told jurors that Syeedy and Kadir “stalked Jalal Uddin around the streets of Rochdale” before Kadir launched a savage attack on the older man in a playground. Kadir unleashed “repeated forceful blows” to Uddin’s head and mouth with a weapon believed to be a hammer, the court heard, leaving him with severe skull fractures.
Opening the trial at Manchester crown court, the prosecutor, Paul Greaney QC, told jurors that Syeedy and Kadir “stalked Jalal Uddin around the streets of Rochdale” before Kadir launched a savage attack on the older man in a playground.
Kadir unleashed “repeated forceful blows” to Uddin’s head and mouth, the court heard, leaving him with fractures so severe that his skull was forced into his brain.
“These injuries were plainly not the result of a robbery gone wrong,” Greaney said. “On the contrary, they were obviously the result of an attack that was planned – why else did the killer have a hammer with him in a children’s park? – motivated by hatred and by a desire to humiliate Jalal Uddin and undoubtedly intended to kill or, at the very least, cause really serious harm.”“These injuries were plainly not the result of a robbery gone wrong,” Greaney said. “On the contrary, they were obviously the result of an attack that was planned – why else did the killer have a hammer with him in a children’s park? – motivated by hatred and by a desire to humiliate Jalal Uddin and undoubtedly intended to kill or, at the very least, cause really serious harm.”
Greaney told the jury that the pair discovered that Uddin practised ruqya in the summer of 2015 and “mounted surveillance on him” before the fatal attack. Greaney said the severe blows to Uddin’s mouth were particularly significant. He said: “This was ... an attack driven by hate and the blow to the mouth was quite possibly the most symbolic of all: ‘You will not say anything of which we disapprove.’”
Bearded Syeedy, wearing a grey suit and black shirt with his hair tied into a ponytail, sat beside a court officer in the glass-enclosed dock as the prosecution opened its case. Kadir was not in the dock after fleeing abroad three days after the killing, the court heard. His whereabouts were unknown. The plot to murder Uddin began earlier this year, the court heard, after his alleged killers spent months conducting surveillance on the former imam while deciding how to “paralyse” his strain of Islam.
Uddin, from Bangladesh, was found by two girls, severely injured. One of the girls recognised him because he taught her the Qur’an, the court heard. Described as “quiet, dignified and well respected,” Uddin wore an amulet – known as a taweez – that some believe to protect the wearer against evil. However, Isis forbids the practice, considering it to be “black magic”, the court heard.
Jurors were told that Syeedy accepts that Kadir murdered Uddin and that he was with his accomplice before and after the killing. Six months before the killing, Uddin’s books and notes on taweez were stolen from the Jalalia mosque in Rochdale, jurors were told. At the same time, one of Syeedy’s friends sent a text message to the defendant saying he had gone on a “taweez raid” at the mosque. When told his friend had found Uddin’s “stash”, Syeedy replied: “Burn it.”
However, Greaney told the court that Syeedy will claim he had no idea Kadir was going to attack Uddin before it happened and that he played no part in the murder. He will also claim that he does not support Isis or violent extremism of any type, the court heard. Jurors were told there was “clear and cogent” evidence that Syeedy and Kadir supported Isis, including reams of jihadi propaganda recovered from Syeedy’s iPhone. Jurors were shown photographs of the 21-year-old, who was born and raised in Rochdale, holding an Isis-style flag outside the Jalalia mosque where his victim prayed. In another, he wore a stab-proof vest outside the mosque. Other photographs showed Syeedy and two others holding a jihadi flag over a road sign in Rochdale that had been altered to read: “War Zone.”
Greaney told jurors that Syeedy’s denials were not true. He said Syeedy drove his accomplice to the gates of the park “knowing full well that Kadir intended to attack Jalal Uddin so as to kill him or at least cause him really serious harm and that he therefore intentionally assisted and encouraged that attack”. On Syeedy’s laptop, detectives found a poster saying “don’t wear taweez” and the message: “Whoever wears an amulet has committed shirk,” the jury heard. Shirk is a sin of practising idolatory, the jury was told.
Greaney told the court there was “clear and cogent” evidence that Syeedy and Kadir were supporters of Isis and jihad. Jurors were shown a series of photographs of Syeedy and his friends making “the Isis salute”, raising a single finger to the sky, and carrying a jihadi flag bearing a Kalashnikov rifle or sword. One photograph showed Syeedy and another man holding a jihadi flag outside the Jalalia mosque, where Uddin prayed. Another picture showed Syeedy wearing a stabproof vest outside the mosque. As their hatred of Uddin grew, Syeedy and his associates plotted to have the Bangladeshi-born community leader deported by immigration services. However, that plan was abandoned after a photograph emerged of Uddin with the Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, outside the Jalalia mosque in December last year.
On Syeedy’s laptop, detectives found a poster saying “Don’t wear Taweez” – an amulet worn around the neck by Uddin and other practitioners of ruqya – and the message: “Whoever wears an amulet has committed shirk,” the jury heard. Shirk is a sin of practising idolatry, the jury was told. Their hostility towards Uddin escalated that month when Kadir and others discussed killing him. In a Facebook message, Kadir wrote: “Exposing their Kufir [meaning disbeliever] isn’t sufficient as there are tooo many of them soo we may do what ever to paralyse them in sha Allah starting from the ring leader we know” – a reference, the crown says, to Uddin.
A photograph found on Syeedy’s iPhone showed a man holding up a flag emblazoned “Rochdale 2 Syria”, referring to an aid convoy in which the defendant was involved in 2013, the court heard. Kadir added: “Soo please do made dua [prayers] that this happens and we do it in a systematic way so that we do not get caught.”
Jurors were told that, a day after receiving a picture of Uddin, Syeedy created a photograph on his iPhone showing a child brandishing a knife in front of an Isis flag. Syeedy sat alone in the dock as the court heard that his co-accused was on the run – possibly in Syria – after catching a flight to Istanbul, via Copenhagen, three days after the killing on 18 February.
His Facebook account included a quotation from Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior recruiter for al-Qaida until his death in a drone strike in 2011, the court heard. Jurors were told Syeedy accepted Kadir murdered Uddin and that he was with his accomplice before and after the killing. However, he will deny that he knew anything about the murder beforehand or that he supports Isis.
Syeedy was born and raised in Rochdale, the court heard, and was living with his family at the time of the killing. The trial continues.
“Can there be any doubt that, contrary to the claims we expect the defendant to make in this trial, he had been a supporter of Isis and jihad for a number of years prior to the murder of Jalal Uddin? In other words, he had been radicalised,” Greaney said.