Suspect in British soldier murder kisses Koran after being charged

Michael Adebalajo kissed the Koran yesterday after he was charged with the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich and the attempted murder of two police officers.

The 28-year-old told Westminster Magistrates’ Court he wanted to be known as Mujahid Abu Hamza and not by his given name when he appeared for the short hearing. Flanked by two police detectives, Adebolajo, dressed in a white T-shirt and white shorts, initially objected to being required to stand when answering questions.

“May I ask why?” he said repeatedly. Mr Adebolajo, who was shot on the street in Woolwich 20 minutes after the brutal slaying of the British army soldier, had his left arm in a plaster cast.

Meanwhile, British prime minister David Cameron brought experts together in Downing Street to discuss the threat posed by British-born Islamic terrorists.

“Those who carried out this callous and abhorrent crime sought to justify their actions by an extremist ideology that perverts and warps Islam to create a culture of victimhood and justify violence,” he told MPs.

Radicalisation
Saying that some "tough questions" need to be asked, Mr Cameron went on: "It is as if for some young people there is a conveyor belt to radicalisation that has poisoned their minds with sick and perverted ideas."

The ability of extremist Islamic preachers to convert youth into terrorists must be dismantled “at every stage”, he said, “in schools, colleges, universities, on the internet, in our prisons – wherever it is taking place”.

'Poisonous ideology'
More foreign preachers have been banned from entering Britain since 2011 than ever before, Mr Cameron said, while nearly 7,000 postings on the internet have been removed, or blocked. "The responsibility for this horrific murder lies with those that committed it. But we should do all we can to tackle the poisonous ideology that is perverting young minds," he added.

Charity laws will have to be investigated to see if they have been exploited by extremists, while madrasahs that teach the Koran may need closer inspection, he told the Commons.

Woolwich, he said, had been “a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies acts of terror and I welcome, too, the spontaneous condemnation of this attack from mosques and Muslim community organisations right across our country.”

The investigation by the Commons’ intelligence and security committee into Woolwich and what MI5 knew about the suspects and when and whether anything could have been done to stop them, will be completed by the end of the year, Mr Cameron said.