British most high-profile preacher, who is facing jail after being found guilty of supporting Islamic State (IS), wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque, the Independent reported on Thursday.
According to court proceedings, Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots across the world, had wanted Sharia law to be imposed in Britain, adding that under the system, the monarchy would be abolished and “idols” such as Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square in central London would be torn down.
The 49-year-old was convicted at London’s Old Bailey court of using online lectures and messages to encourage support for the banned group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. Notorious in Britain where the tabloids denounce him as a hate preacher, he is also well-known abroad, making regular TV appearances in the wake of attacks by militants to blame Western foreign policy for targeting Muslims.
Choudary and his co-defendant, Mohammed Rahman, 33, told their supporters to obey Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the IS leader, who is also known as a caliph, and travel to Syria to support IS or “the caliphate.” The two were convicted in July but details of the trial, including the verdict, could not be reported till now.
Choudary and Rahman face up to 10 years in jail for inviting support for a proscribed organisation. They will be sentenced on September 6 at the Old Bailey.
In a video entitled, Khalifah Vs The World, the court heard Choudary speak about the bathing habits of the Queen. “You know, even now if you go to the toilets, you know, the public toilets the lavatories here in England there’s tracing paper just rub it around and leave the toilet. Honestly, faecal matter everywhere in the public arena,” he said in the footage.
The preacher went on to say, “It’s not just me saying that, there are surveys that say that there is more faecal matter on the typewriter than there is in the toilet in the city of London. Why? Because people don’t clean themselves. They say oh look these Muslims clean themselves, of course we do… I once gave a talk and I said Queen Elizabeth used to have once bath a year. I gave this talk in a church and there was a woman there at the front, an elderly lady, and she kind of shrieked at me. ‘That’s a lie, she had two baths a year,” she said.
“Two baths a year okay, fair enough, twice as much, still doesn’t make it a lot, does it, a year? Doesn’t make it that clean,” he added. Choudary, however, told the court that he was referring to Elizabeth I and not the current monarch. He further told the jurors he would deliberately “bait” mainstream media to secure a platform to get across his message of spreading Islam worldwide.