Militant Jihadi John standing next to Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. Photo / AP
A video has surfaced of the Muslim activist who described ISIS executioner Jihaji John as 'a beautiful man' supporting Jihad at an anti-US rally in London.
Asim Qureshi, leader of campaign group CAGE, was filmed urging protesters to 'support the jihad of our brothers and sisters' in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya.
Earlier today Qureshi, who helped to name ISIS militant Jihadi John as west London student Mohammed Emwazi, caused outrage by saying the murderer was 'beautiful' adding that he 'wouldn't hurt a fly'.
Speaking while close to tears at a press conference, he blamed MI5 for radicalising Emwazi, saying the security services harassed him and alienated him.
In the earlier footage, Qureshi can be seen speaking through a microphone at the the pan-Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir movement rally.
He says: 'When we see the example of our brothers and sisters fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies.
'When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel, we know where the solution is and where the victory lies.
'We know that it is incumbent upon all of us, to support the Jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West.
'Allahu Akhbar! Allahu Akhbar! (God is great, God is great!)'
Qureshi stands alone on a stage in the 54 second clip, shot at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2006.
London School of Economics graduate Qureshi worked for CAGE at the time of his passionate speech, then known as CAGE Prisoners.
The organisation claims to 'strive for a world free from oppression and injustice', 'working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror.'
However, the video footage, posted on YouTube, now raises questions about Qureshi, who alongside former control order detainee Cerie Bullivant tried to pin the blame for Mohammed Emwazi's radicalisation on the British Government.
Earlier today Qureshi was branded an ISIS sympathiser as he appeared to launch a defence of Emwazi and his barbaric crimes.
He said: 'When are we going to finally learn that when we treat people as if they're outsiders, they are going to feel like outsiders and they will look for belonging elsewhere.'
He also revealed that he'd been in regular contact with Emwazi before he left for Syria.
And in a second video, in which Qureshi is quizzed by Juliane Assange on his view of Sharia law, in particularl stoning, he said: 'I agree with Islamic concepts of how we practice our punishments.'
Asked if he believes in the use of the death penalty, he added: 'From an Islamic perspective, yes. As long as all the due process elements are met.'
In the wake of Emwazi's unmasking as the world's most wanted man, CAGE yesterday released a statement entitled 'Jihadi John: 'Radicalised' By Britain'.
The release stated that Emwazi 'desperately wanted to use the system to change his situation, but the system ultimately rejected him,' a view later echoed on CAGE's press conference, which was broadcast live on both BBC and Sky News.
Qureshi then used the statement to criticise the British security services, arguing that counter-terror measures turned young Muslims into extremists.
Haras Rafiq, managing director of the anti-radicalisation think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, told Newsweek that CAGE's accusation that Britain was to blame for Emwazi's radicalisation was 'rubbish'.
He said: 'It is not anybody else's fault. It's not the British or Kuwaitis fault. It is his fault and the people who radicalised him. He is a cold-hearted killer.'
'If you look at [CAGE's] raison d'être, they are there to defend these kind of people. There has been evidence that these guys are sympathetic to this type of ideology.'
Qureshi criticised the British security services, arguing that counter-terror measures turned young Muslims into extremists
In posts made on Twitter, Quilliam co-founder and chairman Maajid Nawaz, also blasted CAGE, hinting that Qureshi was a supporter of controversial speaker, Haitham Haddad.
Emails releases by CAGE today revealed how MI5 repeatedly tried to recruit Mohammed Emwazi as an informant and put him on a terror watchlist to stop him leaving Britain.
Emwazi is believed to have become known to the security services in 2009 when he was accused of trying to fight with Somali terror group Al-Shabaab in east Africa.
The British citizen, who was born in Kuwait and moved to the UK aged six, flew to Tanzania with two friends after he graduated from the University of Westminster claiming he was going on safari.
But he was arrested as soon as he touched down in capital Dar es Salaam and deported by Tanzanian's officials.
He flew back to Britain via Amsterdam and told a friend MI5 were waiting for him at Schiphol Airport and tried to recruit him to share information on extremists, Emwazi told a confidant.
Emwazi claimed that an MI5 agent called Nick accused him of trying to go to Somalia to fight for Al Shabaab and said: 'Listen Mohammed: You've got the whole world in front of you; you're 21 years old; you just finished Uni - why don't you work for us?'.
The Jihadi John suspect turned down the offer and claims he was told: 'You're going to have a lot of trouble ...you're going to be known...you're going to be followed...life will be harder for you.'
Emwazi claimed in emails to Qureshi that he was repeatedly approached by the security services over the course of the following year but he said he refused to co-operate and denied he had any links to terrorism.
Hostages who have survived being held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq have said that Jihadi John is a man 'obsessed' with Somalia and would make them watch Al-Shabaab videos while in captivity.
In June 2010 counter-terrorism officers, linked to the security services and Scotland Yard, allegedly arrested him as he tried to fly to Kuwait. He was fingerprinted and searched, it was said, and put on a terror watchlist preventing him from leaving Britain.
In an email to Mr Qureshi he said: 'I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London. A person imprisoned & controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace & country, Kuwait'.
Another friend said that Emwazi later tried to travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012 but again stopped from leaving.
He was 'desperate' to leave Britain and 'was ready to exhaust every single kind of avenue within the machinery of the state to bring a change for his personal situation', Mr Qureshi said.
Mr Qureshi said he last heard from him that year and said the Jihadi John supect believed 'actions were taken to criminalize him and he had no way to do something against these actions'.
Soon afterwards he vanished and is believed to have travelled to Syria, where he may now be ISIS' figurehead.
If Emwazi's account of his contact with MI5 is accurate, his case has a parallels with that of Lee Rigby's murderer Michael Adebolajo, who was jailed for life in 2013.
His trial heard that just three months before the appalling murder in Woolwich, MI5 was trying to recruit Michael Adebolajo as an informant.
He had been on their radar for ten years and in 2010 was even arrested with fellow Al Qaeda followers in Kenya.
Adebolajo complained of being 'harassed' by MI5 agents before the killing and it later it emerged that they had failed to watch him carefully enough before he murdered Drummer Rigby with the help of his friend Michael Adebowale.
A representative from CAGE was not immediately available for comment when requested.
- Daily Mail
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