Anjem Choudary

The son of market trader, his parents were Punjabi Muslims who migrated to what became Pakistan from East Punjab during the Partition of India in 1947.

He attended Mulgrave Primary School, in Woolwich.

Anjem Choudary (, aka Abu Luqman; born 18 January 1967) is a Pakistani-British Islamist and a social and political activist who has been described as "the face" of militant Islamism or the "best known" Islamic extremist in Britain.

Anjem Choudary was born in Welling, Bexley in South East London on 18 January 1967 to Pakistani Muslim parents.

He switched to law at the University of Southampton and spent his final year as a legal student (1990–1991) at Guildford, before moving to London to teach ESL.

He found work at a legal firm and completed his legal qualifications to become a lawyer.

In the early 1990s, he worked in his spare time as an organizer for preacher/scholar Omar Bakri Muhammad, who also supported the reestablishment of the Sunni caliphate.

In 1996, Choudary, with Omar Bakri Muhammad, helped form the Islamist al-Muhajiroun organisation in Britain.

The group organised several anti-Western demonstrations, including a banned protest march in London for which Choudary was summoned to appear in court.

In 1996, Choudary married Rubana Akhtar (or Akhgar), who had recently joined al-Muhajiroun, which he led at the time.

She later became the group's head of women.

The couple have four children.

He enrolled as a medical student at Barts Medical School.

While attending university, he was reputed to have indulged in drink and drugs.

Choudary's first organization, Al-Muhajiroun, was established in Britain in 1996 and banned in 2010.

On 7 November 1999, The Sunday Telegraph reported that Muslims were receiving weapons training at secret locations in Britain.

Most of those who trained at these centres would then fight for Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front in Chechnya, while others would fight in such places as Kosovo, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir.

The report identified Anjem Choudary as a key figure in recruiting for these training centres.

Two years later he was convicted under the Terrorism Act 2000 of inviting support for a proscribed organisation, namely the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

He was subsequently subject to sanctions by both the U.S. State Department and the U.N. Security Council freezing his assets.

He has been denounced by mainstream Muslim groups and heavily criticised in the UK media.

Among the controversial causes espoused and statements made by Choudary and the group include implementation of Sharia throughout the UK, "Europe, and the wider world"; the conversion of famous British landmarks (Buckingham Palace, Nelson's Column) into palaces for a caliph, minarets, and mosques; praise for those responsible for the 11 September 2001 and 7 July 2005 attacks; calling for the execution of the Pope for criticizing the Islamic prophet Muhammad; and declaring that Muslims reject the concepts of freedom of expression, democracy, and human rights.

Choudary became the chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers, but was removed from the roll of solicitors (the official register of legal practitioners) in 2002.

In 2002, following a bazaar organised by al-Muhajiroun (advertised by leaflet and word of mouth), Choudary gave a talk on education in Slough.

His lecture outlined his ideas for a parallel system of Islamic education in the UK and included elements of the group's ideology.

In the same year, although they were refused a permit by the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, on 25 August the group held a rally in London.

Choudary was summonsed to Bow Street Magistrates' Court in January 2003, on charges which included "exhibiting a notice, advertisement or any other written or pictorial matter", "using apparatus for the amplification of sound", "making a public speech or address" and "organising an assembly".

In 2003 or 2004, he organised an Islamic-themed camping trip, at which Bakri lectured, on the 54 acre grounds of the Jameah Islamiyah School in East Sussex.

Choudary was present at the launch of its intended successor, Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, and after that he helped form Al Ghurabaa, which was banned in July 2006.

The UK government banned Al-Muhajiroun in 2010 and Choudary subsequently founded or helped found a series of organizations considered by many to be Al-Muhajiroun under new names —such as Al Guraba', Islam4UK, Sharia4UK, Sharia4Belgium.

Choudary then became the spokesman for Islam4UK until it was proscribed in 2010.

(While some sources refer to the Al Guraba', Islam4UK, etc., as successors of Al-Muhajiroun, others describe them as "other names the organisation [Al-Muhajiroun] goes by" to circumvent the ban on the original group.)

Choudary embraced Islamism and, with the Islamist militant leader Omar Bakri Muhammed, co-founded al-Muhajiroun, a Salafi organisation.

The two men had met at a local mosque, where Bakri was giving a tafsir (an interpretation of the Qur'an).

After staying "just within the law" for many years (according to police), in summer of 2014 Choudary pledged allegiance to the Islamic State's "caliphate", and its "caliph" (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) by Skype.

Responding to claims that he was a "party animal" who joined his friends in "getting stoned", in 2014 Choudary commented "I admit that I wasn't always practising... I committed many mistakes in my life."

Members of his group have been accused of being linked to between 25 and 40% of terrorist events in Britain up to 2015 (according to various researchers, journalists and others),

and of inspiring more than 100 foreign fighters to fight in jihad (according to the UK government).

Following his conviction for inviting support for a proscribed organisation on 6 September 2016, Choudary was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, and released automatically on licence in October 2018 with restrictions on speaking in public or to the media.

On 18 July 2021, Choudary's ban on speaking in public was lifted after his licence ended, and as of October 2021 he has reportedly resumed his online campaigns.