Harry's Place

Here’s a leaflet being handed out at Queen Mary, University of London.

The leaflet advertises a talk by two speakers, Shaiful Amin and Jihad Kader. It is not clear from the leaflet what they were doing in Syria. It is possible that they went out merely as observers, or to aid one of the Syrian groups which are fighting for a free, democratic and pluralist future for Syria.

Another former student, Shajul Islam, who had also volunteered in Syria,  for a jihadist group, is presently awaiting trial for his part in the kidnapping of journalists. Islam attended Barts, which is part of Queen Mary.

Back in 2007, Asim Qureshi of the pro-Al Qaeda group Cage Prisoners told Queen Mary students that they had both the Islamic duty and the legal right to fight jihad abroad.

Queen Mary has a particularly bad reputation for Islamist extremism. Earlier this year, Islamist thugs disrupted a secularist meeting, filming and threatening members of the audience.

UPDATE

Here is a photograph of Shaiful Amin, in Syria. He is engaged in distributing aid.

The photograph shows that the organiser of this initiative was Human Aid and its partner, İHH İnsani Yardım Vakfı.

İHH is the organisation which chartered the Mavi Marmara. It has also been accused by the Free Syrian Army of gun running to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood:

There is evidence to suggest that IHH, the Islamic charity that helped organise the 2010 flotilla to Gaza, has been involved in gun-running to Syria on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Free Syrian Army commanders have told The Times that a boat containing weapons that docked in Syria this week was registered to members of the IHH, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Samar Srewel, an FSA activist who had helped to organise the consignment, told The Times: “It was clear from that second what was happening. The Muslim Brotherhood, through its ties in Turkey, was seizing control of this ship and the cargo. This is what they do. They buy influence with their money and guns.”