We have been documenting the rising influence of the violent extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), in the United Kingdom and in Europe. The work of Faith Matters on highlighting the pernicious and extremist basis of this group can be found here, here and here.

In a recent tweet made on the 2nd of December 2024, the flag of the extremist group was raised at a graduation ceremony in the London Metropolitan University.

The tweet can be found HERE.

What is clear is that the individual in the tweet hoisted the TLP flag in a London University, which should have alarmed officers at the institution. At the very least, safeguarding officers at the University should have identified the flag, which was waived at the graduation ceremony and hauled in the student and referred the matter to Prevent and the counter-extremism programme of the Government.

TLP is a violent Islamist extremist group that has been used as a motivating factor in the murder of people in the U.K and attempted murder of people in France, deemed to be heretics or against Islam. It has also targeted minority groups in Pakistan such as Christians and Ahmadis.

Faith Matters has been speaking on this issue since 2017, and has raised this matter repeatedly with senior civil servants in successive British Governments. Very little has been done on this and surely, now is the time to realise that such violent extremist groups could take hold in our institutions.

Now is the time to act for the safety of U.K nationals and in the defence of our democratic values. Failure to do so verges on the criminally negligent.

Read More: Inspired by blasphemy killer, new Pakistani party eyes 2018 vote

About six weeks ago, a 32 year old doctor in the Sindh province in Pakistan was shot by police. Shah Nawaz was killed by police who suggested that he was resisting arrest after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The blasphemy charge was that he had shared ‘blasphemous’ content on social media.

Nawaz’s family reject this charge and say that he was giving himself up and that he was killed by a member of the local police force on the basis that he had allegedly promoted ‘blasphemous’ content.

This killing came on the heels of another murder on September the 12th 2024, where a 52 year old man  was killed in custody in Balochistan and who was being held on the basis of spurious ‘blasphemy’ charges.

Judiciary Involvement in Blasphemy

We must not forget that these killings and the charges of ‘blasphemy’ come on the back of a range of cases that have mainly involved the beleaguered Christian community in Pakistan, with the most high profile case being that of Asia Bibi.

Following on from Asia Bibi’s case, in May 2020, Aneeqa Ateeq a 26 year old Muslim woman was arrested in May 2020 and charged with circulating ‘blasphemous material’ on her Whatsapp messages. A court in Rawalpindi subsequently found Ateeq guilty and gave her a 20 year jail sentence and ordered her to be ‘hanged by her neck till she is dead”.

In 2021, a Pakistani Christian, Shagufta Kiran, was arrested for posting ‘blasphemous’ content on her Whatsapp messaging app in September 2020. The 40 year old mother of four was recently found guilty and has been sentenced to death.

The list of Christians and Muslims who have been accused of blasphemy continues to rise in Pakistan on the back of the introduction of ‘blasphemy’ as a political tool by the Islamist extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP). Such has been the spread of their narrative that the lives of minorities and those who even question faith, are at risk. The impacts of ‘blasphemy’ are therefore felt by Christian and Ahmadi communities who have borne the brunt of the actions of the state in denying them the most basic of rights.

Faith Matters will continue to highlight these human rights abuses and to highlight the lives of those affected by the ‘blasphemy police’ and extremists in Pakistan who seek to target minorities. Furthermore, the U.K. Government has not done enough in highlighting and challenging the human rights abuses around ‘blasphemy’ that are becoming pervasive in the country. The meekness of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on this matter, is unacceptable.

READ MORE: Two Christians Sought by Police in Pakistan on Blasphemy Charges

Reports to a UK police counter-terrorism hotline have more than doubled since the Hamas attack on Israel.

Police said that between October 7 and 25 the anti-terror hotline received around 1,350 reports, more than twice the number of contacts compared to the same period last year.

The number of reports with information useful to investigators went up by nearly four times to 200.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: “Sadly, history tells us that events overseas can inspire or accelerate acts of violence much closer to home. We are working day and night with our partners to monitor the threat picture.

“We’re acutely aware of the energising effect the conflict could have on those with extremist or terrorist intent.

“With that in mind, our Counter Terrorism Units across the country are reviewing their casework and checking that operational police activity is as effective as it can be to keep people safe.

“Critical to this work is the support of the public. As the increase in the number of reports to Counter Terrorism Policing in the last month shows, there is a real willingness from our communities to tell us about their concerns.

“To those who have contacted police, thank you, your information can have a huge impact on what we do.”

The national counter-terrorism squad that monitors material online has also seen a rise in referrals, with nearly 2,000 made by the public since October 7.

Of these more than 350 have been found to require further investigation to see if the content breaks terrorism laws.

Police are urging members of the public and businesses to remain alert to the risk of possible terrorist activity over Christmas and the New Year.

Mr Taylor added: “The coming months are filled with brilliant events and activities, where people will be coming together to enjoy the festive season.

“Sadly, we have seen before that terrorists can view these as attractive targets.

“Whilst we are working incredibly hard, with our partners, to make sure you can enjoy this time of year safely – our message is simple, stay alert and trust your instincts.

“Whether you’re a business, an event organiser, a local authority or simply heading out with family and friends, if you see something that doesn’t feel right, please report it.

“You won’t be wasting our time and you could save lives.”

Reports of suspicious activity related to terrorism can be made online at gov.uk/ACT or by calling 0800 789 321.

Read more: Thousands of children referred to UK’s counter-terrorism scheme, figures show

A homegrown terrorist considered launching a mass gun attack on the late Queen’s funeral after converting to Islam in prison, a court has heard.

Edward Little, 22, rejected the plan as “too late” and instead decided to target a Christian preacher at Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, the Old Bailey heard.

He discussed his plans including his desire to get hold of a Mac-10 submachine gun and AK-47 assault rifle with extremists in encrypted chats on the Threema messaging platform.

At one point, he wrote: “I don’t think there has been an attack in the UK with guns so a semi-automatic rifle would send a even stronger message.”

On September 18 last year, Little identified the Queen’s funeral – due to be held at Westminster Abbey the following day – as a possible target.

It was suggested that “tyrants of the earth” would be there, to which Little responded: “I was just thinking that but unfortunately it’s too late.”

Days later, on September 23, Little was arrested en route to buy a gun for £5,000 having taken a taxi from Brighton to London.

Little, from Pelham Street, Brighton, pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism and appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday by video-link from HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire.

Opening the facts of the case against him, Duncan Penny KC said: “The defendant is an Islamic extremist who planned to murder the Christian preacher Hatun Tash at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.

“The defendant planned to murder those who were with Hatun Tash, and any police officers or soldiers who were in the area.”

UK-born Little was said to have converted to Islam at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution in Kent and at HMP Deerbolt in County Durham, after he turned 18.

Last summer, he downloaded extremist propaganda including copies of the al-Qaida publication Inspire.

In his chats on Threema, he referred to Hasham Tash as an “evil witch” and said he could shoot her “point blank” and “everyone with her”.

He suggested that with the money he had and his ability to get more weapons he “should strike a bigger target”.

He spoke of wanting to buy a Mac-10 “so I can spray it at them and then use pistol for police”.

But he added that the “problem with the macs is that they are too quick and it runs out very quik”.

Little said he would wear a camera so he could live-stream the attack.

On September 17, Little revealed that he “100%” had a “brother in prison” who would be joining in the “operation”.

He said he would travel to London for reconnaissance and see if it was best to “have us hit separate targets”.

On September 23, Little agreed to pay a taxi driver £300 to take him from Brighton to Lewisham, south London, saying money was no problem.

On his arrest, he was carrying a rucksack with £5,000 in cash, a passport and two mobile phones.

Little declined to answer questions in police interviews but his mood changed when he was shown a YouTube view of the preacher.

He launched himself from his chair across the table at an officer, swinging repeatedly with his fists before being restrained.

He went on to admit assaulting the officer at Newbury Police Station last September 28 and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

At the hearing on Monday, Little also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to a fellow inmate at Belmarsh prison on April 3.

Little attacked the victim with boiling water mixed with sugar and two razor blades for “disrespecting” his religion.

The defendant had been convicted of 14 offences in seven separate cases, including for robbery, having a knife and drug dealing, dating back to 2017.

Mrs Justice McGowan adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed for a report to be prepared on Little’s future risk and for him to be given the opportunity to attend court in person.

Read more: The Queen’s Speech: The Counter-Terrorism Implications

There have been numerous reports in the press lately suggesting that the delays to the publication of the Prevent Review by Sir William Shawcross hinges on whether groups and individuals should be named who have tried to undermine Prevent, taken monies and then been supportive of extremist groups or who have been quietly obstructive of the counter-extremism community based programme.

Whatever the reasons, the delay to the publication of the report gives the impression to those working in this area and to the wider public that the Government is not wholly focused on this area of work, is willing to play politics with such a key part of our collective safety and also somehow scared of calling out individuals and groups.

We are not interested in the debate about whether groups should be called out or not. If individuals or groups do support extremist groups and have received public monies, it is the job of the Government to seek redress or to seek to recoup the public monies in the public interest. That is the job of Government and one would hope that these actions would have been taken quickly.

What is of concern to us, is that a report is being withheld that has national significance, gives some direction to this programme of work and which also provides the public with a sense that the review has been thoroughly intense and looked at all areas of Prevent.

This is why we firmly believe that the Government must publish the review now. It has been delayed for over 4 months and delays simply make the review redundant over time. The time for politicking is over, publish the review.

A father whose two sons died fighting in Syria has been found guilty of encouraging violent jihad in a speech at his local mosque.

Abubaker Deghayes, 53, promoted “jihad by sword” when he addressed worshippers at the Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre.

The defendant, who originally comes from Libya, had denied intending to encourage terrorism in his speech to around 50 people, including children and young adults.

On Wednesday, a jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of the charge.

It can now be reported that two of Deghayes’ sons were killed fighting for Islamists in Syria and he lost a third in a stabbing in the East Sussex city.

Abdul – who had become embroiled with drugs and was murdered by a dealer in 2019 aged 22 – was the twin brother of Abdullah, who was killed fighting in Syria in 2016 aged 18.

Their brother Jaffar, 17, was killed in 2014 while trying to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad’s government.

Amer, another son and former finance student, who also travelled to Syria, is understood to be continuing to fight for the cause.

During his Old Bailey trial, jurors were played a video of Deghayes’ speech at the mosque on Sunday November 1 2020.

In it, he was seen to make a stabbing gesture when talking about jihad.

He told worshippers: “Whose power is more powerful than us? Allah is more powerful than you. You, idiots. You kuffar (non-believers)… The non-believer is an idiot. He’s stupid.”

He went on: “Jihad, jihad, jihad. Jihad is compulsory. Jihad is fighting by sword. That means this jihad is compulsory upon you, not jihad is the word of mouth but jihad will remain compulsory until the Day of Resurrection…”

Prosecutor Ben Lloyd told jurors that the speech was not given “innocently or naively”.

He said: “The prosecution case is clear. By the defendant’s words and gestures he was encouraging people to undertake violent jihad.

“The defendant’s speech demonstrates him to be an Islamic extremist. He is someone who believes in the use of violence in the cause of Islam.

“Or, at the very least, he was reckless in giving his speech as to whether people would be encouraged.”

The defendant, of Saltdean in East Sussex, denied wrongdoing, saying he was explaining the meaning of Jihad by the sword as self-defence.

The gesture he made was a “dance of the blade”, he claimed.

He also referred to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as wearing a face covering now after describing Muslim women as “letter boxes”.

The jury was told nothing about the Deghayes family background.

In 2017, a serious case review identified missed opportunities to prevent Deghayes’ sons from being radicalised before they were killed in Syria.

There was also little understanding of the part religion played in the lives of Abdullah and Jaffar, who were believed to have been with the al Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front when they died, the review added.

The report also contained allegations that their father would wake his children up at 4.30am to study the Koran and would whip them with electrical wire or hand out other punishments if he felt they were not doing this properly.

After the review, their uncle Omar Deghayes – who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and spent five years in Guantanamo Bay – hit out at police, claiming they took “no action whatsoever” while his radicalised young nephews were being racially abused.

Following Deghayes’ conviction, he was granted continued bail ahead of sentencing at the Old Bailey on February 25.

Australia intends to add far-right extremist group The Base and the entirety of the Lebanese group Hezbollah to its list of outlawed terrorist organisations.

Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation has been listed since 2003, but including all Hezbollah entities as terrorist organisations would make being a member of, or supporting, those entities a criminal offense.

“The group continues to threaten terrorist attacks and provides support to terrorist organisations,” Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews said in a statement.

The Base, which originated in the United States, would become only the second far-right group to be designated a terrorist organisation in Australia after the British-based Sonnenkrieg Division was listed in August.

The remaining 25 terrorist organisations on Australia’s list are Muslim groups.

“The Base is a violent, racist, neo-Nazi group known by security agencies to be planning and preparing terrorist attacks,” Mrs Andrews said.

“The Base is currently proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom and is known to have organised paramilitary training camps overseas,” she added.

The bomb used in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday attack was a homemade explosive with ball bearings attached to it and could have caused “significant injury or death”, police have said.

Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died when the taxi he was a passenger in exploded outside the Liverpool Women’s Hospital just before 11am on Sunday.

In an update on Friday, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said: “Although there is much scientific work to do on the device to determine what made it up, we have learned a great deal over the past five days.

“It was made using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it which would have acted as shrapnel.

“Had it detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death.

“We still do not know how or why the device exploded when it did, but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional, and it is a possibility that the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.

“We are spending considerable time seeking to understand the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made.

“This is complicated because purchases have spanned many months and Al Swealmeen has used many aliases.

“We are confident however that in time we will get a full picture of what purchases were made and how, and if anyone else was involved or knew what Al Swealmeen was up to.”

He said there was no link between the incident and the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, which he said involved a different type of device.

Taxi driver David Perry escaped from the explosion with injuries.

Mr Jackson said “significant progress” was being made in the investigation, which includes ongoing searches at addresses in Sutcliffe Street and Rutland Avenue in Liverpool.

He said: “Officers spoke with the brother of Al Swealmeen yesterday evening and this has given us an insight into his early years and an understanding of Al Swealmeen’s life and his recent state of mind which is an important line of investigation.

“We are grateful for members of the public who knew him and have contacted us.”

While an Islamist plot is one line of inquiry, the PA news agency understands investigators are still keeping an open mind and the motivation is still yet to be established.

Police and security services are still thought to be working on the current understanding that the hospital was the intended target.

The asylum seeker, who had converted to Christianity, reportedly arrived in the UK from the Middle East in 2014 and had an application for asylum rejected the following year, but had a fresh appeal ongoing at the time of his death.

Earlier this week, Home Secretary Secretary Priti Patel claimed he had been able to exploit Britain’s “dysfunctional” immigration system by staying in the country.

Police said Al Swealmeen had been renting the property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, since April and was making “relevant purchases” for his bomb from at least that time.

Read more: Liverpool attacker had been buying bomb parts since April

For years, Zebulon Simentov branded himself as the “last Jew of Afghanistan.” He charged reporters for interviews and held court in Kabul’s only remaining synagogue. He left the country last month for Istanbul after the Taliban seized power.

Now it appears he was not the last one.

Simentov’s distant cousin, Tova Moradi, was born and raised in Kabul and lived there until last week. Fearing for their safety, Moradi, her children and nearly two dozen grandchildren fled the country in recent weeks in an escape orchestrated by an Israeli aid group, activists and prominent Jewish philanthropists.

“I loved my country, loved it very much, but had to leave because my children were in danger,” Moradi told The Associated Press from her modest quarters in the Albanian town of Golem, whose beachside resorts have been converted to makeshift homes for some 2,000 Afghan refugees.

Moradi, 83, was one of 10 children born to a Jewish family in Kabul. At the age of 16, she ran away from home and married a Muslim man. She never converted to Islam, maintained some Jewish traditions, and it was no secret that she was Jewish.

“She never denied her Judaism, she just got married in order to save her life as you cannot be safe as a young girl in Afghanistan,” her daughter, Khorshid, told the AP from her home in Canada, where she and three of her siblings moved after the Taliban first seized power in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Despite friction over her decision to marry outside the faith, Moradi stayed in touch with some of her family over the years. Her parents and siblings fled Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1980s. Her parents are buried at Jerusalem’s Har Menuhot cemetery, and many of her surviving siblings and their descendants live in Israel.

But until this week, she had not spoken to some of her sisters in over half a century.

“Yesterday, I saw my sisters, nieces and nephews after around 60 years through a video call. We spoke for hours,” Moradi said. “I was really happy, I saw their children and they met mine.”

“They said ‘it’s like she came back from the grave,’” Khorshid said.

During the first period of Taliban rule, from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion, Moradi tried to maintain a low profile. But she risked her life by hiding Rabbi Isaak Levi, one of the few remaining Afghan Jews, from the Taliban.

Levi and Simentov lived together for years in the decrepit synagogue in Kabul but famously despised one another and fought often. The Taliban usually left them alone, but intervened during one such dispute, arresting them, beating them and confiscating the synagogue’s ancient Torah scroll.

IsraAid CEO Yotam Polizer said the organisation, which has provided relief after disasters such as the Japanese tsunami in 2011 and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, had already extracted the Afghan women’s cycling team and dozens of other Afghans from the country when it heard about Moradi and her family.

He said Afghan diplomats overseas, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office, and Jewish businessmen. worked together to get them out.

Now, Moradi and six of her relatives are in Albania, and another 25 relatives made it to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates earlier this week. They hope to secure passage to Canada to reunite with her children who live there.

Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive.

In their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

In recent days, the new Taliban government issued several decrees rolling back the rights of girls and women.

It told female middle- and high school students that they could not return to school for the time being, while boys in those grades resumed studies this weekend.

Female university students were informed that studies would take place in gender-segregated settings from now on, and that they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code.

Under the US-backed government deposed by the Taliban, university studies had been co-ed, for the most part.

On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

On Sunday, just over a dozen women staged a protest outside the ministry, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life.

“A society in which women are not active is (sic) dead society,” one sign read.

“Why are they (the Taliban) taking our rights?” said one of the protesters, 30-year-old Basira Tawana.

“We are here for our rights and the rights of our daughters.”

The protest lasted for about 10 minutes.

After a short verbal confrontation with a man, the women got into cars and left, as Taliban in two cars observed from nearby.

Over the past months, Taliban fighters had broken up several women’s protests by force.

Elsewhere in the city, interim Kabul mayor Hamdullah Namony gave his first news conference since being appointed by the Taliban.

He said that before the Taliban takeover last month, just under one-third of close to 3,000 city employees were women, and that they had worked in all departments.

Mr Namony said on Sunday the female employees have been ordered to stay home, pending a further decision.

He said exceptions were made for women who could not be replaced by men, including some in the design and engineering departments and the attendants of public toilets for women.

Mr Namony did not say how many female employees were forced to stay home.

“There are some areas that men can’t do it, we have to ask our female staff to fulfil their duties, there is no alternative for it,” he said.

Mr Namony also said the new government has begun removing security barriers in Kabul, a city that has endured frequent bombing and shooting attacks over the years.

Such barriers, erected near ministries, embassies and private homes of politicians and warlords, had been commonplace in Kabul for years.

The mayor said private citizens would be charged for the work of taking down the barriers.

While he said most barriers had been removed, reporters touring the city noted that barriers outside most government installations and embassies had been left in place.

The Taliban have tried to present themselves as guarantors of security, in hopes that this will win them support from a public still widely suspicious of their intentions.

Under the previous government, a rise in crime had been a major concern for ordinary Afghans.

Perhaps the toughest challenge faced by the new Taliban rulers is the accelerated economic downturn.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was plagued by major problems, including large-scale poverty, drought and heavy reliance on foreign aid for the state budget.

In a sign of growing desperation, street markets have sprung up in Kabul where residents are selling their belongings.

Some of the sellers are Afghans hoping to leave the country, while others are forced to offer their meagre belongings in hopes of getting money for the next meal.

“Our people need help, they need jobs, they need immediate help, they are not selling their household belongings for choice here,” said Kabul resident Zahid Ismail Khan, who was watching the activity in one of the impromptu markets.

“For a short-term people might try to find a way to live, but they would have no other choice to turn to begging in a longer term,” he said.