Terrorism and free speech: Britain’s Choudary shows difficulties of stemming proselytizing

The British Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary was convicted last week after 20 years of radicalizing young people and urging them to engage in terrorism. His case demonstrates how difficult it is to convict someone like Choudary even in Great Britain where free speech is not as staunch as it is in the U.S. Here it would be difficult to prosecute such a person as Choudary who was careful not to provide terrorists with guns, money or bomb-making equipment. It is difficult to imprison anyone for their speech unless they making “true” threats or saying things that would precipitously lead to lawless actions. (The Federalist, August 23, 2016, by M.G. Oprea)

An ex-lawyer, Choudary had influenced followers to become masked executioners and in one case to kill a British soldier on a London street and was convicted of encouraging followers to support ISIS. (NBC News, August 20, 2016, by Duncan Gardham and Alastair Jamieson)