Update on the Roshonara Choudhry Sentencing

Further to yesterday's post about the Muslim fanatic who stabbed Labour MP Stephen Timms during a constituency surgery, the Daily Mail has an article containing further information on the disruption Musim "protesters" attempted to bring to the proceedings.

Apparently, several Muslim men were ejected from the public gallery after swearing at the judge, threatening members of the jury, and shouting "curse the British", "British go to hell", "curse the judge" and "Allahuakbar".

What beggars belief is that they weren't arrested for contempt of court or attempting to pervert the course of justice, but allowed to continue their "protest" outside, as the picture below demonstrates.

I'm fairly sure that under any other circumstances, those causing the disruption would have at least spent the rest of the day in the cells; threatening the jury is quite clearly an attempt to directly influence the outcome of the case, and to get away with doing it in an open court is an absolute disgrace.

It goes back to the point I was making yesterday; we need to worry a bit less about what sort of videos are available on YouTube, and simply stop mollycoddling these people when they step out of line. It's time to stop posturing and start acting, to show people such as these that they can't act with impunity.

Interestingly, several articles about the case dwell on how "intelligent" Choudhry is, how she was the top of her class, etc etc, until she had the misfortune to be "radicalised" by watching some videos.

The subtext seems to be; "look how lucky we were to have someone like her, until this catastrophe occurred. It's not mass immigration that's a problem, but a few radical sermons which can be accessed online too easily."

I'm not convinced we were all that lucky, however; here is a transcript of her police interview, from the Mail article linked above:

Choudhry: I was the top student.

Question: Was you? OK and what did they say when you pulled out?

Choudhry: They didn’t want me to pull out.

Question: Tell me what happened today.

Choudhry: I stabbed Stephen Timms.

Question: You stabbed Stephen Timms?

Choudhry: Yep. I’ve been learning more about Islam.

Question: Where have you been learning that?

Choudhry: Internet.

Question: What websites you been looking at?

Choudhry: I’ve been listening to lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki.

Question: Who’s he?

Choudhry: He’s an Islamic scholar. He lives in Yemen.

Question: And where have you been listening to these lectures?

Choudhry: I downloaded it off of the internet … explaining stories from the Koran and explaining about jihad.

Question:  Has that contributed to your decision to leave King’s?

Choudhry: Yes.

Question: And where was the link there then?

Choudhry: I thought that I should have loyalty to my Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine and so I should leave King’s and that would show my loyalty to them.

Question:  So when did you decide: ‘From what I’ve learnt, I’m now gonna go and stab Stephen Timms?’

Choudhry: A couple of weeks ago. It’s three weeks ago, four weeks ago.

Question: How do you feel now about what you’ve done today?

Choudhry: I feel like I did what I’d planned to do.

Question: Tell me your thoughts about what you’ve done.

Choudhry: I feel like I’ve ruined the rest of my life. I feel like it’s worth it because millions of Iraqis are suffering and I should do what I can to help them and not just be inactive and do nothing while they suffer.

Question: I just want to go over a little bit how your thought has gone from getting to religion to wanting some form of vengeance.

Choudhry: Because as Muslims we’re all brothers and sisters and we should all look out for each other and we shouldn’t sit back and do nothing while others suffer. We shouldn’t allow the people who oppress us to get away with it and to think that they can do whatever they want to us and we’re just gonna lie down and take it.

Question: Where did you learn that from?

Choudhry: From listening to his lectures.

Question: How did you feel about what you was about to do?

Choudhry: I was a bit nervous about what I was gonna do but I felt like it had to be done and it’s the right thing to do.

Question: What, what did you think about getting killed then?

Choudhry: I wanted to die.

Question: Why?

Choudhry: I wanted to be a martyr.

Question: Why’s that then?

Choudhry: ‘Cos, erm, that’s the best way to die.

Question: Who told you that?

Choudhry: Islamic teaching.

Question: Where did you learn that?

Choudhry: It’s in the Koran and I learnt it from listening to lectures.

Question: What lectures?

Choudhry: By Anwar al-Awlaki.

Question: Why did you pick an MP to carry out this attack?

Choudhry: Because he was directly involved with the declaration of war, so he’d directly committed a crime.

Question: What do you think about what you’ve done?

Choudhry: I’ve fulfilled my obligation, my Islamic duty to stand up for the people of lraq and to punish someone who wanted to make war with them.

Hmm. As the old saying goes - with friends like her...