specially for Nidge and wannabe
One of the UK's most notorious radical clerics has been convicted of inviting others to support the so-called Islamic State, it can now be reported.
Police said Anjem Choudary, 49, had stayed "just within the law" for years, but was arrested in 2014 after pledging allegiance to the militant group.
Many people tried for serious terror offences were influenced by his lectures and speeches, police said.
Choudary was convicted alongside confidant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman.
Counter-terrorism chiefs have spent almost 20 years trying to bring Choudary, a father of five, to trial, blaming him, and the proscribed organisations which he helped to run, for radicalising young men and women.
Both men were charged with one offence of inviting support for IS - which is contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 - between 29 June 2014 and 6 March 2015.
The verdict on the two defendants was delivered on 28 July, but can only be reported now following the conclusion of a separate trial at the Old Bailey of another group of men for a similar offence.
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The trial heard how the men decided in the summer of 2014 that the group then known as Isis [Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham/the Levant] had formed a "Khilafah", or Islamic state, that demanded the obedience and support of Muslims.
'Turning point'
They then invited others to support IS through speeches and announced their own oath of allegiance to its leader.
The oath of allegiance was a "turning point" which meant they could be put on trial, the Met Police said.
Choudary was once the spokesman for al-Muhajiroun, an organisation that can be linked to dozens of terrorism suspects.
Its leader Omar Bakri Muhammad fled the UK after the London suicide bombings on 7 July 2005, and over the years since, Choudary has become one of the most influential radical Islamists in Europe and a string of his followers have either left the UK to fight in Syria or tried to do so.
The court heard that in one speech in March 2013 Choudary made it clear that he wanted the Muslim faith to "dominate the whole world".
"Next time when your child is at school and the teacher says 'What do you want when you grow up? What is your ambition?', they should say 'To dominate the whole world by Islam, including Britain - that is my ambition'," he said.
Denounce execution
When IS announced a "Khilafah" - an Islamic state - in June 2014, the court heard that Choudary held a meeting with his closest aides at a curry house in east London.
Before accepting the "Khilafah" was legitimate, the jury heard he consulted his "spiritual guide" Omar Bakri Mohammed, who is currently in jail in Lebanon.
On 7 July 2014, the men's names appeared alongside Rahman's on the oath, which stated the al-Muhajiroun had "affirmed" the legitimacy of the "proclaimed Islamic Caliphate State".
During his trial Choudary also refused to denounce the execution of journalist James Foley by Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed Jihadi John, in Syria in 2014.
"If you took an objective view there are circumstances where someone could be punished," he told the jury.
Supporters of Choudary included:
Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the murderers of soldier Lee Rigby
Suspected IS executioner Siddhartha Dhar
Omar Sharif, a British suicide bomber who attacked Tel Aviv in 2003
Brusthom Ziamani, jailed 12 years later for planning to kill in the streets of London
The trial also heard that Rahman - previously convicted of soliciting to murder - went on Facebook to tell his followers that migration to IS territory was a "duty".
"Let's be clear, the Muslims in the Khilafah need help," he wrote, after communicating with a British fighter who urged him to find recruits.
"The one who is capable to go over and help the Muslims, must go and help."
thats if they can be bothered to read all the way through
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