Islamic militant jailed for bid to recruit fighters

Pakistani-born British citizen Munir Farooqi, 54, was at the centre of a plot to radicalise and persuade vulnerable young men to “fight, kill and die” in a jihad in Afghanistan, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Farooqi, of Victoria Terrace, Longsight, Manchester, and two others were captured in a police sting when two undercover anti-terrorism police officers infiltrated his group.

Farooqi bragged to the officers how he had fought with the Taliban and told them they could become “martyrs” for the jihad cause. He also found “amusement” in the sight of the flag draped coffins of fallen allied troops returning from Afghanistan, the court heard.

Yesterday Farooqi was given four life sentences and told he must serve a minimum of nine years.

He was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism, three counts of soliciting to murder and one count of dissemination of terrorist publications.

Passing sentence Mr Justice Richard Henriques said: “You are in my judgment a very dangerous man, an extremist, a fundamentalist with a determination to fight abroad.”

The judge said Farooqi had used his experiences fighting with the Taliban as a “tool of recruitment” to run the “Manchester recruitment centre” from Islamic bookstalls in the city.

His operation was, “sophisticated, ruthless and well honed,” the judge said, with the sole purpose to deliver home-grown fighters willing to “fight, kill and die” abroad. “Their victims would be allied forces, including British soldiers,” Mr Justice Henriques added.

“You found the images of coffins draped in American flags a source of great amusement.

“As a residents of this country you owe allegiance to the Crown, that appears to have escaped your attention.”

The father-of-three was running a Dawah, Islamic, book stall on Longsight market in Manchester with the help of co-defendants Matthew Newton, 29, and Israr Malik, 23. Farooqi held a vast collection of extremist books, DVDs and CDs on radical and violent Islam.

He had turned the family home in Longsight into a “production centre” for propaganda.

In October 2008 the book stall was approached separately by two men, known only as Ray and Simon, who pretended to be potential recruits.

In fact the two were undercover police from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, wearing secret recording devices as they were “groomed” and “brainwashed”.

British Muslim convert Newton, a former estate agent, and petty crook, Malik, both became involved in the plan.

Malik was himself a typical target for recruitment; he had been jailed and his life was in a mess but was radicalised while in the Young Offenders Institute Lancaster Farms, by Farooqi who gave him Islamist literature to read while on visits.

Malik, 23, of Bowden Avenue, Fallowfield, Manchester, was said to be a “victim of indoctrination”.

He became a “highly radicalised, true disciple” of his mentor, telling Farooqi he was willing to die for the cause.

Malik was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism and two counts of soliciting to murder. He was given an Indeterminate Sentence and must serve a minimum of five years,

Newton, a 29-year-old former British Army recruit, also held a deep misplaced loyalty to Farooqi after converting to Islam and was deeply anti-Semitic.

Newton, of Stockport Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism and two counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and jailed or six years.