IN A nondescript kitchen in a London suburb, a woman known as Umm L makes a very clear demand.
“I wanted to talk to you,” she says to an undercover reporter posing as a woman called Aisha as soon as she entered the building.
“I don’t know you … none of us know you. We’ve had people coming here before women who’ve ended up being people spying on us … recording things.”
“Do you mind if I go through your bag?”
Aisha stalls, fumbles, pleads with the woman to trust her but she is having none of it.
“You’re a spy. That’s why you won’t let me look inside your bag … you’re a spy aren’t you?”
The heart-stopping moment was caught on hidden camera by Aisha during the 12 months she spent undercover posing as a woman with extremist sympathies in a bid to infiltrate the inner sanctum of Islamic State supporters operating in London.
After befriending the women on Twitter she is eventually invited to their roadshow where they hand out propaganda to passers-by on a suburban street. That leads to admittance to a secretive study group attended by more than 20 women and children where they spew racial hatred and praise the jihadists for their support of the brutal terror group.
The footage was filmed as part of a Chanel 4 documentary called ISIS: The British Women Supporters Unveiled and reveals what goes on inside IS meetings in the UK capital for the first time.
It features three women including Umm Saalihah, a mother in her 30s, thought to be known as Jamila who is believed to live at the same address as a well-known extremist and suspected member of banned terror organisation Al Muhajiroun.
She is captured on camera speaking at a local-government funded centre in London about her admiration for jihadis that leave for Syria.
“I know one brother on Facebook I remember who left for Sham [Syria] and he put it, and one thing he said was, he kept saying Allah forgive me, may Allah forgive me, all the excuses I’ve made all these years, may Allah forgive me now I see why, this is the life in jihad is nothing like the life in the dunya [world].”
She also attacked western countries for not putting “boots on the ground” in the Middle East, saying “what can you do to a person who looks down in the barrel of a gun and sees paradise after that what can you do, the world is his oyster.”
One of the sessions was held at a centre that received funding from local government.Source:Supplied
Another woman known online as Umm L, but thought to be called Rubana is also thought to live with a leading member of a banned organisation and have been in charge of the female wing of al Muhajiroun at one point. She is shown calling for people to reject democracy and the rule of law in favour of Allah.
“It’s hard, when you hear these things it’s very difficult, not to feel down, not to feel depressed, not to feel saddened. Allah says in the Koran do not be down, do not be depressed for you are superior, you are the best if you are believers. Allah will make you superior to these enemies, if you are believers. Allah he makes it a condition of our iman [faith] not to become depressed about it, but rather to do something about it,” she said.
A third woman who uses the Twitter handle Umm Usmaan is met on the streets and says she works as a career adviser. None of those featured in the program responded to requests for comment.
The startling footage was captured two months before the brutal attacks on Paris in November and is potentially proof crimes are already being committed in the UK, according to the Crown’s former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal.
He said the women’s words are “extremely dangerous” and the law makes no distinction between saying things online, in a closed room or a large audience. Comments from Umm L are particularly troubling as they take place in front of children.
“She does more than support them, she’s saying that the so-called Islamic State is the Caliphate, and by supporting them, she is potentially committing a criminal offence. It’s more than worrying, it’s extremely dangerous when you’re having that conversation. There are young people in the room, there are children in the room, there are women and we’ve got several examples of women who’ve taken their whole families, to Syria and Iraq,” he said.
The film was commissioned by Dispatches editor and Channel 4’s deputy head of news and current affairs Daniel Pearl who said it was testament to the perseverance of the team.
“It provides crucial new insight into this network of women who play such a pivotal role in furthering the cause of Isis here in the UK,” he said.
Henry Jackson society counter-terrorism expert Hanna Stuart said the striking shows how the women form the “ideological backdrop” for violence.
“I would certainly consider them extremist and I think it is very dangerous because it is supportive of the worldview of Islamic State,” she said.
“The sorts of beliefs, like the rejection of democracy, the need to — or the religious duty to live under Sharia law, these are ostensibly nonviolent ideas. What’s dangerous is that if you hold those views and then seek to act in order to achieve them that can entail acts of violence and acts of terrorism.”
“The fact that there are women, young girls and children is particularly worrying in terms of what these children are being taught to believe about their own state versus one of the most brutal terrorist organisations.”
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