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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

UK supermarket clerk converts to Islam, gets bomb-making instructions, tries to join jihadis, blames Brexit

Mar 5, 2017 9:25 am By Robert Spencer

His lawyer said that “he wanted to leave the UK to live a humble, simple life, in a Muslim community. He discussed going to Somalia. He considered going to Bosnia, and he considered the Philippines. He wanted to live in a community under Sharia law with what he saw as an idyllic way of life.”

Stonings, beheadings, amputations, oppression of women, non-Muslims, gays — really, who wouldn’t find that idyllic?

“After Brexit there were divisions in his community in Nottingham, he was concerned about the way ordinary people were reacting to ordinary Muslims. So with that background he was looking for a different way of life.”

He had bomb-making instructions and combat gear, and he tried to join a jihad group. An “ordinary Muslim.”

Do British authorities have any intention of studying why so many converts to Islam get the crazy idea that their new religion requires them to commit treason and mass murder? Why, of course not. That would be “Islamophobic.” Did anyone in Ryan Counsell’s circle of relatives, friends, coworkers, or acquaintances try to prevent him from converting to Islam? Why, certainly not. That would have been “racist.”

“Convicted terrorist who attempted to leave UK to join jihadists blames Brexit,” by Rachael Pells, Independent, March 4, 2017:

A convicted terrorist who left his wife and young family to fight in the Philippines has blamed Brexit for his behaviour.

Ryan Counsell, 28, said he wished to escape the UK political climate and seek an “idyllic life” under Sharia law.

He was in the final stages of planning his trip to fight with terrorist group Abu Sayyaf when he was arrested last July, and later sentenced to eight years in prison.

Speaking to Woolwich Crown Court, Counsell, who worked at an Asda supermarket in Nottingham, claimed there had been increased tension within the local Muslim community after the Brexit vote, sparking his decision to leave.

He was convicted last month on three counts of possessing documents with terrorist material, and one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.

During his four-week trial, a jury head how Counsell spent almost £900 on military-style boots, camouflage clothing, Kevlar boxer shorts and a cheek pag to be attached to the stock of a rifle “to engage in combat”.

Counsell had also booked a return ticket from London to Manila an a connecting flight to Zamboanga, 20 miles from Basilan where Isis allegiance groups are situated….

His barrister John Kearney said Counsell was “a bit odd” but not violent or an extremist.

Mr Kearney said: “He wanted to leave the UK to live a humble, simple life, in a Muslim community. He discussed going to Somalia. He considered going to Bosnia, and he considered the Philippines.

“He wanted to live in a community under Sharia law with what he saw as an idyllic way of life.”

“After Brexit there were divisions in his community in Nottingham, he was concerned about the way ordinary people were reacting to ordinary Muslims. So with that background he was looking for a different way of life….

Conducting a search of Counsell’s home last year, police found military and camping equipment and a ‘wealth of Islamic extremist material’, including copies of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, Isis magazine Dabiq, and lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential extremist preacher.

Bomb-making instructions were also discovered at the property, along with a document of practical advice for travelling to join Isis and videos showing hostage decapitations.

“The defendant had a profound and enduring interest in extremist Islam, jihad and the propaganda of Islamic State and other terrorist organisations,” said Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds….

Counsell, of Russell Road, Hyson Green, Nottingham, was sentenced to eight years in jail for preparing acts of terrorism, and 18 months served concurrently for possessing a document containing terrorist information.

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Filed Under: converts to Islam, Featured, Philippines, United Kingdom Tagged With: Ryan Counsell


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 9:39 am

    It was foolish for the UK to rescind the Sedition Act in 2009, because they surely need it now MORE THAN EVER. The UK government should RE-INSTATE the Sedition Act and use it to try and convict JIHADISTS.

    Wiki: “The last prosecution for sedition in the United Kingdom was in 1972, when three people were charged with seditious conspiracy and uttering seditious words for attempting to recruit people to travel to Northern Ireland to fight in support of Republicans. The seditious conspiracy charge was dropped, but the men received suspended sentences for uttering seditious words and for offences against the Public Order Act.”

    • Lee says

      Mar 5, 2017 at 8:01 pm

      The current governing class in the UK would apply the Sedition Act to those who told the truth about Islam or complained about the Muslim rape of underage white girls in places like Rotherham.

  2. FYI says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 9:54 am

    “Convert to islam and you can do what you like.Even murder.
    allah is OK with it.
    The koran is OK with it”.
    This seems to be the mindset of many converts to islam.

    But Almighty God isn’t OK with any kind of evil,especially murder.
    God’s Sixth Commandment forbidding murder does not simply cease to exist when a fool converts to islam or just because the koran sanctions murder(It does:all over the koran,murder is sanctioned by allah).
    If you convert to islam from Christianity or Judaism then please do not expect salvation or mercy.
    You will not get it.You can not fool the True God.

    the islamic allah of the koran is NOT Almighty God of the Bible.
    allah in fact is in opposition to God.Who benefits most from murder and mayhem for instance?
    The adversary of Almighty God.And what is the most cunning way for the adversary of Almighty God to hide himself?As a counterfeit god……allah.Think about that.

    The convert to islam abandons Almighty God for a counterfeit god allah.
    The reason Almighty God allows for the adversary allah to operate in creation has to do with free will.
    We are given a choice:Almighty God or the god allah.The genuine versus the counterfeit.

    Choose ALMIGHTY GOD
    Obey His Commandments.

    Or

    Choose allah
    a god who does not even follow God’s commandments and even encourages others to break them.
    Especially Murder.

    If you abandon Almighty God for the counterfeit god allah,you will very likely lose your soul…
    Remember that you cannot fool Almighty God.

    • Jeanette says

      Mar 6, 2017 at 10:51 am

      Allah is Satan; his fake “religion” was easily put over on ignorant pervert Mohammed by telling him he would have unlimited access to little girls. Islam is Satan’s slap in God’s face.

      Drop this nasty piece of work into an ISIS camp from about 10,000 feet. If he loves bombs so much, let him BE one.

  3. mortimer says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 9:57 am

    EGREGIOUS CONTRADICTION ALERT!

    EVIDENCE: “During his four-week trial, a jury head how Counsell spent almost £900 on military-style boots, camouflage clothing, Kevlar boxer shorts and a cheek pag to be attached to the stock of a rifle “to engage in combat”…” Counsell had also booked a return ticket from London to Manila and a connecting flight to Zamboanga, 20 miles from Basilan where Isis allegiance groups are situated”…!!! Hmmm…

    SPIN FROM LAWYER: “His barrister John Kearney said Counsell was “a bit odd” but not violent or an extremist.”

    “N’ot violent” … Oh, really? … that’s why he needed 1,000 pounds worth of combat clothing.

    • ElderlyZionist says

      Mar 5, 2017 at 2:28 pm

      ‘Kevlar boxer shorts’. There’s a real mall commando. I suppose the Kevlar boxer shorts were to protect his cammo trousers when he soiled himself in combat. Still, he’s a potentially dangerous loon, even though he’s also a ludicrous posing fool.

      • kuriakose says

        Mar 6, 2017 at 3:23 am

        More to protect his penis I guess. Will need that for the endless rape of innocent women as sanctioned by their deranged prophet as well as the unending sex with the houris.

  4. mortimer says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 9:58 am

    His lawyer claimed that Counsell was ‘not violent’. Oh, really?

    That’s why Counsell required 1,000 pounds worth of combat clothing, including bullet-proof Kevlar.

  5. Shmooviyet says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 10:18 am

    Yep– Brexit was the last straw which just drove him to start his death & destuction gear collection. Can’t blame the guy for wanting the different, non-British, ‘ordinary muslim life’ he was pursuing!
    The barrister’s ‘defense’ didn’t help the suicidally stupid notion that these individuals have a place in a civilized world.

    Apparently those increasingly ‘phobic ordinary Nottingham citizens were on to something.

    • Shmooviyet says

      Mar 5, 2017 at 10:22 am

      Pardon– “death and destRuction”.

  6. Crusades Were Right! says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 10:31 am

    Islam:

    A “religion” that makes cut-throats, thieves, rapists, paedophiles and slave-traders feel good about themselves.

    Ban it!

    • Jeanette says

      Mar 6, 2017 at 10:54 am

      I know the word “cult” is overused, but a few minutes’ research into what qualifies a group as a cult reveals that Islam DOES meet all the qualifiers, including the one that most cults do not meet – human sacrifice.

      After all, if Satanists kill someone while calling to Satan to witness it, we instantly call it “human sacrifice,” but when Muslims kill someone while calling to Allah to witness it, we let them off the hook by NOT calling it “human sacrifice,”

      Westerners are committing suicide by letting Muslims off the hook, and by allowing Islam to continue to use the cover of being a “religion.”

  7. Crusades Were Right! says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 10:39 am

    Chummy’s barrister: “…he was concerned about the way ordinary people were reacting to ordinary Muslims”

    I suspect that’s code for: “It’s a pity YOU aren’t an ‘ordinary’ Muslim (i.e. a couple of shades darker); then I could have played the racism card!”

  8. abad says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 11:31 am

    “He wanted to live in a community under Sharia law with what he saw as an idyllic way of life.”

    In that case I recommend that he buy a one-way plane ticket to Palmyra and live in the Islamic Idyllic Paradise of Syria(TM pending)

    • Jeanette says

      Mar 6, 2017 at 10:55 am

      I think we should drop him there from about 10,000 feet.

  9. ermom says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 2:23 pm

    Right, KEVLAR BOXER SHORTS are a real requirement for PEACE. Sarcasm intended.

  10. Angemon says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 2:55 pm

    During his four-week trial, a jury head how Counsell spent almost £900 on military-style boots, camouflage clothing, Kevlar boxer shorts and a cheek pag to be attached to the stock of a rifle “to engage in combat”.

    What, you don’t have any of those in your home? How can you have a calm, quiet life without it? /sarc. off

  11. Phil Copson says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 3:47 pm

    Ermm – didn’t he already have a “humble, simple life” working in an Asda supermarket in Nottingham ? If that’s all he ever wanted out of life, I’d say he was “living the dream”…..

    I expect that what his solicitor really meant to say was that: “My client is a dim-witted fantasist with delusions of adequacy.”

    His punishment should be to be sent to Iraq – (where they probably have an entirely different use for pathetic white Englishmen from the one he was expecting…) – and not allowed back. Ever.

    (Though, if it weren’t for him, I could have gone my whole life without ever suspecting the existence of such a thing as “Kevlar shorts”….Who knew that such things existed ? or that there were customers ? )

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 5, 2017 at 10:23 pm

      (Though, if it weren’t for him, I could have gone my whole life without ever suspecting the existence of such a thing as “Kevlar shorts”….Who knew that such things existed ? or that there were customers ? )
      …………..

      I know how you feel, Phil…

  12. John A. Marre says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 4:07 pm

    Anyone who converts loses his citizenship ipso facto. Swearing allegiance to a foreign power that wants to replace your government with a theocratic dictatorship is the same as giving up one’s citizenship.

  13. gravenimage says

    Mar 5, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    UK supermarket clerk converts to Islam, gets bomb-making instructions, tries to join jihadis, blames Brexit
    ………………………..

    What do you even say re this insanity? Do many Brits actually buy this obvious bs anymore?

    • Jeanette says

      Mar 6, 2017 at 10:57 am

      It’s not the average Brit that is the problem; just as it is here, it’s the elites with the power to flood their country with Muslims that are the problem.

      I’m sure the Brits are fed up with their streets smelling like urine and their women afraid to go many places.

  14. Spike1033 says

    Mar 6, 2017 at 12:22 am

    Went out this morning and got soaked. I blame BREXIT.

  15. LilyDarcey says

    Mar 6, 2017 at 3:51 pm

    Came from broken and very dysfunctional home, where his own parents were so focused on their own narcissistic selves, they were not capable of giving this oddball of society the moral compass, discipline, love and respect he needed to function normally in society. He was desperately looking for acceptance and the emotional support etc. he lacked in childhood. I can think of many actors and some other prominent figures who had the same upbringing and converted to Islam. I have yet to see anyone who is normal and sane convert to Islam.

  16. dumbledoresarmy says

    Mar 6, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    Funny how often this happens.

    Someone from *any* kind of infidel background – nominal Christian, or HIndu, or Buddhist, or Jewish (yes, even Jewish! – there was one such, in NYC), or non-religious – converts to Islam, or, to put it differently, joins the Allah Gang aka Mohammedan Mob.

    And all of a sudden they start taking an interest in weaponry and/ or the concocting of bombs.

    There was another British convert to Islam, some years ago, who was discovered to have an explosive vest hanging up in his wardrobe, and some – highly unstable – home-made explosive stored in a biscuit-tin in his kitchen.

    Aaaah, gotta have in the home those sacred objects necessary for the practice of Islam!

    Someone converts to Buddhism, you’ll find a Buddha statue and some candles.

    Someone converts to Christianity, you’ll find (depending on which tradition they’ve embraced) an Icon in the liiving room, or a little cross and a Sacred Heart picture and some rosary beads, or a Bible and a bunch of i-tune files of worship songs. And maybe they start wearing a cross pendant.

    A nominal Jew returns to full observance, or a Gentile goes through the slow and arduous process of conversion, and they start making challah and lighting Sabbath candles and studying Torah; and you find a prayer-shawl hung up in the cupboard.

    But… convert to Islam… the odds are good that the person will start stockpiling lethal weaponry and making plans for mass murder.

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