A Muslim councillor from Birmingham has revealed that he considered leaving the city due to a series of threats levied at him for agreeing to testify in court to see a known terrorist’s son convicted for posting numerous abusive texts.
Cllr Majjid Mahmood was threatened by the terrorist after twenty-year-old Humza Ali was convicted. The cllr revealed that he has fears for his and his family’s safety, saying it was “the most difficult period of my life,” and that he considered fleeing Birmingham.
Pictures were spread online that depicted Humza playing paintball with notorious ISIS sympathisers. The Cllr told Birmingham Crown Court how Humza threw abusive and trolling messages at him, for which he was convicted.
Humza obtained Mahmood’s contact details and challenged him to step down from the council, arguing that Western democracy and Islam were incompatible. He began to get increasingly frenetic as the Cllr argued against him, becoming more and more abusive. Some of his messages included “Keep out of Muslim areas” and even “Watch out. You non-believer. Rot in hell you pig/swine.”
The Hodge Hill Labour councillor was then approached in the street by Humza’s father, Shahid Ali. Mahmood said:
“He came up to me, accosted me and threatened me and said “I’ll sort you out, afterwards.” We had a standoff, eye to eye, I thought he might go for me, but he walked off.”
Shahid was jailed for terror offences in 2009 for suppling camping equipment and mobile phones to Taliban insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The police have warned the Cllr to limit public appearances and have also given him extra security for this month’s City Council and Council Cabinet meetings.
