Shakil Chapra (born 1973), better known by his kunya Abu Haleema, is a British Muslim radical activist and extremist preacher. In 2014, he had his passport seized by the British authorities to prevent him leaving the country. In 2015, he was arrested and released on bail. According to the ''London Evening Standard'', he is an associate of

Anjem Choudary Anjem Choudary (, aka Abu Luqman; born 18 January 1967) is a Pakistani-British Islamist and a social and political activist who has been described as "the face" of militant Islamism or the "best known" Islamic extremist in Britain. Members ...

Background

Abu Haleema was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i immigrants and grew up in

South Kilburn South Kilburn is a large housing estate in Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent. Typical of brutalist 60's designs of public housing in the United Kingdom it is characterised by high-density housing in low-rise flats and 11 concrete tower blo ...

.''The Jihadis Next Door'',

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, 19 January 2016 He works part-time as a bus driver. His name, Abu Haleema (أبو حليمة), means Father of Haleema. Haleema is the name of his daughter.

Passport seized

In April 2014, Abu Haleema's home in London was raided by the police, who seized his passport and left a letter from the Home Office explaining that they believed that Haleema intended to travel to Syria to engage in terrorism-related activities. Haleema denied the claim, saying: "They believe I'm involved in terrorism-related activity, which is not true, and that I may have been thinking of going to Syria to fight, which is completely not true." In January 2015, Abu Haleema was one of around 400 people who had their

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

accounts closed, reportedly on the orders of the British security services and the CIA.

Arrest

In April 2015, Abu Haleema was arrested in London by officers from the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Counter Terrorism Command Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) or SO15 is a Specialist Operations branch within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Counter Terrorism Command was established as a result of the merging of the Anti-Terrorist Branch (SO13) and Special Bran ...

on suspicion of "encouragement of terrorism contrary to Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006".Radical London preacher Abu Haleema banned from promoting his views online.
Martin Bentham & Colin Cortbus, ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', 26 May 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015. Haleema was later released on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

on condition that he did not use

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

to promote his views. He has not been convicted of any offence.

Activism

Abu Haleema is active in social media such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

which he uses to spread his views. In January 2016, ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' reported that Abu Haleema was attempting to build a support base in Sydney and Melbourne by criticizing moderate Muslim figures in Australia.British extremist Abu Haleema turns to Australia.
Rachel Olding, ''The Sydney Morning Herald New South Wales'', 21 January 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.

References

External links

Abu Haleema - Hope Not Hate

Padraig Reidy: We cannot choose which free speech we will defend and which we will not.
Living people English people of Pakistani descent English Islamists British Muslim activists Bus drivers People from Kilburn, London 1973 births {{islam-bio-stub