Two ISIS extremists referred to an imam as “Voldemort” who was practicing “black magic” before planning his murder, according to an ongoing public inquiry. Jamal Uddin, the 71-year-old father of seven, was fatally struck with a hammer in February 2016 by Mohammed Kadir, who was deemed as “high risk” by the police. Kadir had made extremist posts on social media months before the murder. He planned the killing with former Manchester United steward Mohammed Syeedy, who was convicted of murder and jailed for life. Syeedy drove Kadir to and from the scene of the attack, and Sayadul Hussain was convicted of helping Kadir flee the country.
The men were opposed to Mr. Uddin’s practice of Ruqyah, a form of exorcism that some regard as “black magic,” according to Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry. He said this was a “high degree of significance” in understanding the murder. The men sometimes referred to Mr. Uddin as “Voldemort,” a reference to the villain in the Harry Potter novels. In August 2015, six months before the murder, police became aware of extremist posts on Facebook by Kadir.
The men were believed to be supporters of the Islamic State militant group, and they stole items linked to Mr. Uddin’s practice of Ruqyah from the Jalalia Mosque in Rochdale. Kadir and Syeedy also planned to report Mr. Uddin to the Border Force as he was in the UK illegally. However, the inquiry heard that on 23 December 2015, Mr. Uddin was photographed with Simon Danczuk, the then-MP for Rochdale, at the door of Jalalia Mosque. A phone exchange between the two plotters and others stated: “Oh dear. Voldemort is never going to be busted by the immigration service now.”
By October 2015, Kadir was assessed as a person who was of high risk and significant concern, and later someone who posed a risk of acting on his extremist Islamist views. The inquiry was expected to last three days, and its report was set to be published next summer. Some of the evidence would be heard in closed sessions to protect national security, but the inquiry’s chairman said he was “astute to the need to expose as much of the evidence as we can to the public gaze.
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