Woolwich trial: The culture of hate that drove Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale to murder

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/woolwich-trial-murder-lee-rigby-hate-crime

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The Woolwich murderers failed. Hope has won out over hate and the race war they hoped to ignite has been stillborn.

Minutes ago Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale were found guilty of murdering a British soldier on the streets of London; but not guilty of attempted murder of a police officer. Lee Rigby, 25, was run over and then hacked to death in what the defendants claimed was revenge for the murder of Muslims by British and US forces around the world. There was no excuse for this outrageous and despicable murder.

Rigby's killing is just the latest in a long list of terrorist acts that have taken place in this country over recent years. At about the same time as the Woolwich murder, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi called Pavlo Lapshyn killed an 82-year-old Muslim grandfather in Birmingham, stabbing him in the back, then stamping on his head. Lapshyn went on to plant bombs outside three mosques in the Black Country, including one packed with nails in Tipton. He told police he wanted to create a "race war" against Muslims. Dave Thompson, deputy chief constable of West Midlands police, questioned whether media coverage would have been greater if the people targeted had belonged to another religion.

In July 2005, 56 people were killed when four Islamist extremists detonated bombs on the London transport system. Like the Woolwich murderers, they too claimed to be striking back at British foreign policy. Meanwhile, in 1999, the neo-Nazi David Copeland set off three bombs in London, killing three (including a pregnant woman) and injuring 200 others. Copeland had been a member of the British National party (BNP) and told police that he wanted to create a violent racist backlash that would eventually lead to a BNP government. While these men all appeared to act alone, they were all driven by similar ideologies of hate.

Adebolajo was the mastermind of the Woolwich murder. He was born into a Christian household in east London but converted to Islam while studying at the University of Greenwich. He was radicalised by al-Muhajiroun, a hardline Islamist extremist group led by Omar Bakri Mohammad and Anjem Choudary, a group we, Hope Not Hate, recently exposed in our report Gateway to Terror. While Adebolajo went on to follow even more extreme preachers, and idolised the Yemeni-American extremist Anwar al-Awlaki and al-Qaida, it was with al-Muhajiroun that Adebolajo first became involved in Islamist extremism.

Al-Muhajiroun wants to create an Islamic state under strict sharia (Islamic) law. It would abolish democracy and all laws would be governed by a strict interpretation of the Qu'ran. Women would become subservient to men, homosexuality would be punishable by death and there would be no place for other religions.

Adebolajo is the latest in a long list of al-Muhajiroun supporters who have gone on to be involved in terrorism. Hope Not Hate has found at least 70 Britons who have committed terrorist acts or been convicted of terrorist-related offences that have been linked to al-Muhajiroun. Hundreds more have gone to fight for al-Qaida-linked groups abroad.

While Choudary might not have been directly involved in these terror plots, he helped shape the mindset of many of those behind them. He indoctrinated them and through his networks linked them up to terror groups and supporters across the world.

Constantly feted by the media – from BBC Newsnight to the Daily Star – yet often treated as a "clown", Choudary and his followers pose a real threat. As well as acting as a gateway to terrorism, the actions of these extremists lead to the stigmatisation of the entire Muslim community and the shameful idea of collective responsibility. Therefore, the primary victims of al-Muhajiroun's extremism are actually Muslims.

The murder of Lee Rigby unleashed a wave of hatred and violent attacks on British Muslims and their places of worship, much of it inspired by the English Defence League (EDL), a violent anti-Muslim street gang that was set up following an al-Muhajiroun demonstration in Luton in 2009. The biggest spikes of support for the EDL came after a Choudary-led group, Muslims Against Crusades, burned poppies on Armistice Day in 2010, and then this summer again after Rigby's savage murder. Likewise, Choudary's groups and other UK-based Islamist extremists are increasingly using images of EDL activities to "demonise" British society.

The EDL and al-Muhajiroun present themselves as polar opposites, but in fact they have many things in common. Both divide and polarise communities, spread hatred and fear – and both claim that being British and Muslim is incompatible.

We at Hope Not Hate do not believe this to be the case. We believe most people – Muslim and non-Muslim alike – simply want to live in peace. We believe that most Muslims are quite happy to consider themselves as British, just as we believe that most non-Muslim British people are happy to accept that Muslims can be British.

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