An alleged Islamist terror recruiter and extremist preacher from Germany has been allowed to settle in Leicester, England, according to reports.
Brahim Belkaid, 41, was given leave to remain in the United Kingdom by the authorities after returning to Europe from Syria, according to The Times, and has been in preaching his brand of radical Islam on street stalls in the East Midlands city.
The German government accuses Belkaid of leading an oranisation called Die Wahre Religion — “the true religion” — which was proscribed in November 2016 after being linked to the radicalisation of as many as 140 people who volunteered to fight with terror groups linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
The Germans investigated him and another suspected extremist as recently as February 2018, accusing him of using Syrian aid convoys as a front to support Jabhat al-Nusra, a radical Islamic terror group which served as an al-Qaeda franchise until recently.
Reports suggest Belkaid’s visa was approved while Prime Minister Theresa May was head of the Home Office under David Cameron, around the same time as notorious hook-handed bomb-maker Abu Hamza was finally extradited after a series of exorbitantly expensive battles in the British and European courts.
The Times claims to have seen photographs of Belkaid handing out Qu’rans from his Leicester street stalls and proselytising an uncompromising Salafist strain of Sunni Islam.
The newspaper also describes a post on his Facebook page which shows bullets and a sword blade with the slogan “Jihad: the only solution”, alongside other posts which appear to promote American Islamist Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda leader said to have plotted a number of terror attacks.
“Extremism has no place in the UK. The Home Secretary has the power to exclude non-British nationals from the UK if he believes they represent a serious threat,” said a Home Office spokesman in response to the reports about Belkaid — a rather vague statement which does not actually say whether Belkaid qualifies as a “serious threat” or is being considered for exclusion.