Reid's heckler held in terror probe

Reid's heckler held in terror probe

LONDON

The radical Muslim who barracked the Home Secretary John Reid last year was arrested over a speech in which he allegedly praised the July 7 bombers.

Abu Izzadeen, a 31-year-old Islamic convert, was held on Thursday morning in an east London street by officers from Scotland Yard's counter terrorism unit.

He was arrested for allegedly encouraging terrorism - which is now an offence following new anti-terror legislation last year.

The allegations are understood to relate to a speech he gave in Birmingham last year ahead of the first anniversary of the July 7 London bombings.

In the speech, at the council-owned Small Heath Youth and Community Centre in Birmingham, Izzadeen reportedly praised the 7/7 bombers and mocked the victims of terrorism. Clips of the speech were broadcast on the internet.

Izzadeen, who was born Trevor Brooks into a Christian-Jamaican family in Hackney, has already been investigated for controversial comments he made in a BBC Newsnight interview about the July 7 attacks.

Muslim leaders expressed outrage over his arrest and asked why it had come now, more than seven months after the Birmingham speech.
The outspoken Islamic figure Anjem Choudhury claimed Muslims in Britain were now the subject of a ""witch hunt" by the authorities.

Izzadeen hit the headlines in September last year when he heckled John Reid as he addressed a 30-strong group of Muslims in Leyton, east London.

He accused Mr Reid of being "an enemy of Islam" and a "tyrant" after the Home Secretary called for Muslim parents to look out for the signs of brain-washing in their children in the fight against terrorism. His arrest today is not related to that incident.