SAJID Mahomed Badat spent almost a year studying at The College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance in Blackburn. The 24-year-old man had planned to become an alim — an Islamic preacher — before his arrest yesterday.
| Now he can be a jailbird... |
It is also reported that Badat has never held down a full-time job and was living on benefits of £43.25 a week.
He had been under intense surveillance for the past few months before his arrest yesterday, following the tip-off to police about his boast. In Gloucester yesterday a neighbour of Badat’s said: "He had been to Pakistan for about five years and when he came back he was always telling others at the mosque that he was now part of al Qaida."
| "But don't tell nobody. It's a secret!" |
The College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance on Moss Street, at the centre of the terrorism probe, is both a day and boarding school used for religious and secular education. Also known as Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda, it has around 124 boys as day pupils and 101 boys as full boarders, ranging in age from 11 to 19 years. In opened in 1994 and is run as a registered charity.
| "Yasss... We're a legitimate charity. We provide free heavy weapons training for the underprivileged..." |
The centre is highly-regarded by the Muslim community and people come from all over Britain to study there.
The college site will soon become one of the most imposing sights on the Greenbank/Little Harwood/Whitebirk landscape. A huge worship hall is being built next to the college.
| Wonder which prince is paying for it? |
The four-storey building will be used as a mosque and Islamic indoctrination education centre. The ground floor will be used for worship and the other floors for teaching. Extension plans were approved two years ago by Blackburn with Darwen Council but an application to use the call to prayers at the new mosque was rejected.
| Somehow the Darwin Council approving this mess seems appropriate... |
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