A British imam voiced support for Islamic State and told children at his mosque that martyrdom was the “supreme success” and better than anything they would achieve at school or college, a court heard. Kamran Hussain, 40, allegedly made a series of radical sermons over four months last year encouraging terrorism and supporting IS in Syria.
The Friday lunchtime speeches at the charity-funded mosque in Tunstall High Street, Stoke on Trent, were in front of around 40 worshippers, often including children aged under 15, jurors heard.He was arrested after an undercover law enforcement officer secretly recorded sermons from June last year.
On September 2 last year, Hussain talked about martyrdom to a congregation of nine children and 35 adults.
Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC said:
“Mr Hussain told his audience that martyrdom was the supreme success and was greater than any other success, such as school or college.”
Martyrs had nothing to fear when “you go in front of Allah with the bullet wounds and the sword wounds and you are raised in that situation with the blood still coming from your body”, Hussain allegedly said.
He continued on the same theme on September 16 last year and criticised the Prevent programme, aimed at identifying and intervening when young people are at risk of radicalisation, jurors heard.
