An extremist group banned in more than a dozen countries has launched a recruitment drive in an inner-city neighbourhood that is linked to more homegrown terrorists than anywhere else in the UK, The Times has learnt.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose purpose is to re-establish the caliphate in the Middle East with Sharia law, has relocated to the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, which has been home to several convicted terrorists, including the UK’s first al-Qaeda inspired terrorist.
Campaign materials for its youth roadshow, launched in July, make no mention of the group’s name and do not feature its usual logo of the Islamic state flag. They instead aim to present the group, which two prime ministers considered banning, as an innocuous community organisation.
However, the same centre that hosted the youth campaign’s promotional barbecue has been holding official meetings of the group including one in May at which a speaker complained of a “Zionist stench” in the Middle East, a phrase that a former reviewer of terrorist legislation said could constitute criminal hate speech. [The Times (£)] Read more
