Moment NHS doctor who runs British wing of Islamist extremist group that led ‘jihad’ chant at anti-Israel rally labels Hamas terrorists ‘freedom fighters resisting occupation …
Published: 23:48, 11 December 2023 | Updated: 01:36, 12 December 2023
The head of the UK sect of an extremist Islamist group who led a ‘jihad’ chant at an anti-Israel rally month month has labelled Hamas[2] terrorists ‘freedom fighters’ in an explosive interview with Piers Morgan[3].
Abdul Wahid – real name Dr Wahid Asif Shaida – is an NHS[4] doctor and the head of the British wing[5] of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamic fundamentalist group that calls for the worldwide implementation of sharia law under an Islamic caliphate.
Dr Shaida has denied that his group is extremist – but previously labelled the October 7 attacks on Israel[6] that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, a ‘very welcome punch on the nose’.
In a heated debate with Piers Morgan on his TalkTV[7] show Uncensored, Dr Shaida refused to acknowledge that Hamas indiscriminately slaughtered civilians – and labelled them a ‘resistance organisation’.
And as he claimed that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’, an incredulous Morgan replied: ‘Bull****’.
Dr Wahid Asif Shaida (right), also known as Abdul Wahid, told Piers Morgan that he believed Hamas were ‘freedom fighters’
An incredulous Morgan labelled the idea that Hamas were ‘freedom fighters’ as ‘bull****’
Dr Wahid Asif Shaida, aka Abdul Wahid, is the head of the UK arm of an Islamic fundamentalist group with followers worldwide
Protesters supporting the Hizb ut-Tahrir group in Britain holding a protest outside the Egyptian embassy in November.
Supporting the group is not a criminal offence under UK law
The doctor, a privately educated mentor and trainer for newly qualified doctors at his surgery in the London suburb of Harrow, said: ‘I will defend the right of the Palestinians to resist an occupation.
‘(What happened on October 7) is a resistance. Resistance is a right in Islam, it’s a right in international law, a right that Churchill said in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, he wrote in that book it is a primary right of men to kill and die for the land they live in.’
He then tried to describe the slaughter of civilians on October 7 as ‘appalling’, ‘if’ it had happened, before acknowledging that they had been killed by people he described as ‘resisting occupation.’
He added: ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,’ prompting Morgan’s curt one-word response.
The broadcaster’s probing questioning led Dr Shaida to admit that he considers homosexuality a ‘sin’ – and that he supports the return of sharia law in predominantly Muslim countries.
As the doctor sought to clarify his answers, Morgan wrapped up: ‘All I’ve done is ask you straightforward questions. You’ve revealed your beliefs in the answers.’
Dr Shaida was unmasked in a Mail on Sunday investigation[8] earlier this year as the man who spoke out at an anti-Israel rally organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in October.
Taking to a small stage with a microphone, he told a baying crowd who chanted for ‘jihad’: ‘Victory is coming and everyone has to choose a side.
Whose side are you going to be on?’
One speaker shouted at supporters: ‘What is the solution to liberate people in the concentration camp called Palestine?’ They chanted back: ‘Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!’
Unlike Hamas and other extremist groups such as Hezbollah, Hizb ut-Tahrir is not a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and expressing support for the group is not a criminal offence.
Dr Shaida has spent more than 20 years practising as a family doctor under his real name, with few realising his support for an extremist Islamist group
Smoke rises from the scene of Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza on December 11 amid ongoing fighting between the IDF and Hamas
Israel has fended off calls from international observers to wind up its operations in the Gaza Strip, insisting that it must continue to defend itself against Hamas
Palestinian rescue workers shift rubble following an air strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip on December 11
A woman cries as she collects the body of a Palestinian killed in an air strike in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip
Razan Ashram, a Palestinian woman, holds her husband’s shoes during his funeral at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis
A Palestinian child shelters inside a tent in Khan Younis. Estimates suggest that 85 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced by Israel’s relentless shelling
Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, says that the group is not banned under the same laws that ban support for Hamas because the legislation covers support for terrorist acts, rather than for extremist beliefs.
He told Sky News in October: ‘People were really upset…about some of the actions at a protest of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was one of the smaller protests.
‘Hizb ut-Tahrir are a banned organisation across most of the Muslim world, they are banned in Germany.
Our counter terrorism proscription powers don’t allow that.
‘So there are many examples of ways that we could be different, that’s for Parliament to do, meanwhile I’ve got thousands of officers working damn hard to enforce the letter of the law.’
He added: ‘The balance of free speech versus this is for Parliament to decide.’
However, the government is now considering finding a way to ban support for the group, making it a criminal offence.
Home Secretary James Cleverly is considering whether to impose the ban[9], which would be the first proscription of a British Islamist group in 17 years.
A well-placed source told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Proscription is being looked at, but another aspect being looked at is whether the law should be changed so that people cannot hold protests like that again.’
Nearly 85 per cent of Palestinians have been driven from their homes amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks – broken only by a week-long ceasefire last month.
Israel has pushed back on international calls[10] to wrap up its ceaseless military offensive inside the occupied territory, despite requests from leading Arab states and the United Nations secretary-general to do so.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, told the AP news agency on Monday: ‘We are going to defend ourselves.
I am fighting for Israel’s future.’
More than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in the two months of air strikes and ground operations that followed the Hamas incursion, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
It claims two thirds of the dead are women and children.
A study published by an Israeli newspaper suggests that 61% of those killed in Israeli air strikes that purport to target Hamas are civilians.
The IDF claims to have killed 7,000 Hamas terrorists since the October 7 attacks, though its claims have not been independently verified.
References
- ^ Jon Brady (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Hamas (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Piers Morgan (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ NHS (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ head of the British wing (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Israel (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ TalkTV (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ unmasked in a Mail on Sunday investigation (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ considering whether to impose the ban (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ pushed back on international calls (www.dailymail.co.uk)