Mohiussunnath Chowdhury: How jihadi used signed copy of Tommy Robinson book and far-right websites to justify terror attack plans

Terrorist claimed English Defence League founder ‘understands jihadi doctrine’ when questioned in court 

Lizzie Dearden
Security Correspondent
Monday 10 February 2020 16:55 GMT
Man who plotted attacks at tourism hotspots convicted of terrorism offences

A jihadi who planned new terror attacks after slashing police officers with a sword outside Buckingham Place had a signed copy of a book by Tommy Robinson, it can be revealed.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury took the “collectors’ edition” of Mohammed’s Koran – Why Muslims Kill for Islam to his local mosque in Luton and showed it to men he believed to be fellow jihadis.

“I got a new book – it’s the Quran decoded,” he wrote on the Telegram encrypted messaging app.

“The Quran is encrypted, and if you read it in chronological order you will find that the majority of the peaceful verses have been cancelled out by the later verses commanding violence.”

The book, co-authored by Robinson and Peter McLoughlin, was one of a host of far-right sources that Chowdhury used alongside Islamist propaganda to justify his plans.

Chowdhury had been acquitted of terror offences over the 2017 Buckingham Palace sword attack and freed from prison.

Prosecutors said that, within months, he was preparing to commit terror attacks on potential targets including a gay pride parade, Madame Tussauds and a London tourist bus.

Unaware that his home and car had been bugged, and that his new-found jihadi friends were undercover police officers, Chowdhury started training with a practice sword and knife, enrolling on a shooting training course and trying to get hold of a gun.

His sister, Sneha Chowdhury, told police her brother bought the “signed collectors’ edition” of Robinson’s book online for £39.95 but did not explain why.

When questioned on the purchase in court, Chowdhury claimed that the English Defence League (EDL) founder “understands jihadi doctrine”.

He told the jury that he started looking at anti-Islam sources after gorging on jihadi propaganda including Isis videos and speeches by al-Qaeda linked ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki.

“I learned enough about jihad,” Chowdhury said. “I felt like I should learn the other side of it, you know?”

He described “learning” from the Jihad Watch website, and called director Robert Spencer an “American scholar”, adding: “I thought it was very interesting.”

The conspiracy blog claims Muslims are trying to “destroy western societies and impose Islamic law”, and seeks to prove that violent jihad is mandated by the Quran.

Woolwich Crown Court heard that Chowdhury had read and screenshotted numerous articles, including a list of Quran verses about fighting.

Mohiussunnath Chowdhury started posting material indicating his extremist mindset on Instagram shortly after his release from prison in December 2018

He also relied on videos by a Christian preacher who claimed to “explain jihad” and vehicle attacks by presenting Islam as inherently violent.

Chowdhury described American David Wood as a “hardcore enemy of Allah” to undercover police but added: “He does a better job of explaining Islam than most speakers in the west.”

He repeatedly shared Mr Wood’s videos with the officers, instructing them to watch them and describing the passage on vehicle attacks as a “really good breakdown of options”.

In Telegram chats, Chowdhury claimed that despite mocking Islam, Mr Wood was “more truthful than the majority of Islamic speakers”.

He told the jury that he found the videos while “looking for the truth” of religious doctrine, adding: “Mr Wood uses the references and proves this is the truth about Islam … it’s taboo, it’s like forbidden knowledge.”

Chowdhury also used parts of a book by late Canadian Christian missionary Don Richardson that claimed that Islamic schools were “breeding grounds for potential terrorists” and that Muslim children were being “brainwashed”.

He identified the jihadi preacher Awlaki, who was killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen, as a key inspiration, as well as formerly UK-based extremist cleric Sheikh Faisal.

Chowdhury posted Instagram pictures from Isis’s Dabiq propaganda magazine and watched some of the group’s gory videos, including those showing executions and gay men being thrown from buildings.

He admitted in court that he had not always been a practising Muslim and felt that if he had died in the 2017 Buckingham Palace attack “I would be cleared of my guilty conscience, I would be sinless”.

The trial heard that he pushed away Muslim friends he had grown up with because of his increasingly extreme beliefs, and argued with those who challenged him.

“I am removing them one by one from myself if they do not accept Islam’s teaching about kuffar [disbelivers] and if they refuse to choose sides,” he told undercover police officers in an online chat. “No fence-sitting anymore, all our relationships must be for sake of Allah.”

An Instagram video posted by Mohiussunnath Chowdhury showing a replica airsoft Glock pistol

Chowdhury accused friends who did not share his mindset hypocrites, telling the officers: “These are Muslim friends that are telling me I should study with a scholar and that Islam means peace, that they really believe in the pacifism lol.”

The trial painted a picture of a lonely and isolated man, who was seeking purpose and fraternity beyond his job at a Luton peri-peri chicken shop.

Chowdhury said he had confided in the undercover police officers because he wanted their friendship and claimed he found it “hard to adjust” after being freed from prison.

He told the jury that he felt he was overweight and wanted to “look better” so he could find a wife and marry.

Last February, he posted a cartoon of a Muslim family holding a baby on Instagram with the caption: “Make dua [prayers] for me that Allah grants me a wife and son soon inshallah [God willing].”

But in the months leading up to his arrest, Chowdhury did not meet a prospective partner and his strongest relationship remained with his sister.

Chowdhury affectionately called her “shrimp” and the pair practised fighting with wooden swords and stabbing techniques together.

Days before his arrest, he told Sneha she was going to do “another attack” and said he was serious when she suggested he was just upset.

PC Ian Midgley carrying a sword after disarming Mohiussunnath Chowdhury outside Buckingham Palace on 25 August 2017

But when interviewed by police, she denied knowing her brother was planning an attack, or discussing his religious beliefs, associates or online purchases.

“Me and my brother are just weird, we miaow at each other and stuff,” she said. “It’s not normal.”

Sneha told officers their family life was dysfunctional, with their mother suffering from manic depression and spending time in a mental health unit.

She described her brother as “really childish” and suggested he routinely “picks up and drops” hobbies such as practice sword fighting and air weapons.

But she admitted: “When he wants to do something he goes full force into it.”

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