A convicted terrorist who once called for British soldiers to be slaughtered is using TikTok to reach and radicalise teenagers from a three-bedroom council flat in north London, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 43, was formerly a close associate of hate preacher Anjem Choudary. In 2007, he was jailed for four years after calling for British troops to return from Iraq in body bags and declaring: “We want to see their blood running in the streets of Baghdad.”
Rahman was convicted again in 2016 alongside Choudary after pledging allegiance to Islamic State. Both men received five-and-a-half-year sentences. Choudary, who was later convicted of directing the proscribed terrorist organisation al-Muhajiroun, is now serving a life sentence.
Since his release, Rahman has been given heavily subsidised accommodation in a property valued at about £300,000, close to several primary schools in north London.
The father of four has previously described Britain as part of an “axis of evil” with the US and Israel, branded Muslim police officers “greedy sinners” and urged Muslims not to vote. He is now using his Enfield home to broadcast what security experts have described as “highly toxic” anti-British messages to impressionable young people on TikTok.
Rahman, an accountant who also operates a consultancy focused on cultural education, writes books under the name Abu Baraa. Several of his titles have recently been removed from Waterstones and TikTok’s online shop, although they remain available through Amazon.
One of those books, What Is Known From Islam By Necessity, includes passages urging readers to train for jihad, saying women should not leave their homes without their husbands’ permission and describing Jews as “disbelievers” destined for “hellfire”.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 43, is living in a three-bedroom council flat in north London despite his terrorism convictions
Rahman was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in 2016 alongside hate preacher Anjem Choudary after pledging allegiance to Islamic State
The former prisoner has appeared in videos praising Islamist militants, including Boko Haram, the jihadist organisation based in north-eastern Nigeria
The book draws on lectures by Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammad, a self-styled radical cleric whose teachings have been linked to the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by two radicalised Islamists in 2013.
It claims that violent struggle against non-believers is a duty for every able-bodied Muslim, justifying that position by arguing that Muslim homelands are under occupation.
One chapter instructs readers to prepare for combat, claiming that learning to shoot and drive vehicles for a holy war is a religious obligation.
The book also sets out how religious donations should be spent, insisting that funds should support fighting non-believers rather than schools or places of worship.
A second title, The Muslim Teachers Handbook, is promoted as a guide to Islamic education for children as young as four.
It describes Jews and Christians as “corrupted”, calls diplomatic relations with Israel blasphemous and encourages children to pursue “jihad of the sword”.
Security specialists told the Daily Mail that Rahman poses a “national security threat” because of his promotion of radical Islamist beliefs to vulnerable young people.
A longtime associate of Choudary, described as Britain’s most prolific Islamist terror radicaliser, Rahman is also an internet specialist who created private online chatrooms for the preacher’s supporters.
Last Friday, Rahman was seen leaving his flat to attend afternoon prayers at a local mosque.
Dressed in a white Adidas shirt, an off-white jacket and navy jogging bottoms, he carried a bin bag, took a phone call and then drove away.
When questioned about his books and his links to terrorism, Rahman accused Daily Mail reporters of being “extremists” and denied that he was one himself.
He also sought to minimise the offences of imprisoned Islamic extremists, claiming that some had been jailed merely for “reading magazines and holding placards”.
Rahman was first arrested in 2007 after being filmed using a loudspeaker at a rally and calling for British troops to be killed in Iraq.
He said: “We want to see their blood running in the streets of Baghdad.
“We want to see the Mujahideen shoot down their planes the way we shoot down birds. We want to see their tanks burn in the way we burn their flags.”
Some of Rahman’s TikTok videos cover less contentious subjects, including whether donkey meat is halal
Rahman was seen leaving his flat last Friday on his way to a local mosque for afternoon prayers
He was imprisoned in 2016 and released in 2018. While in custody, he received £1,300 in compensation after complaining about being strip-searched at Belmarsh prison.
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After his release, the former al-Muhajiroun member began using TikTok to share his views with thousands of followers.
TikTok later banned his accounts and seller shop after media inquiries highlighted his use of the platform to promote radical ideology, sell extremist books and encourage British Muslims not to vote.
Rahman responded by promising to open another account, saying the ban “is not going to stop me”.
In a video posted last month and aimed at a young audience, Rahman discussed “The Truth About Terrorism Convictions” and appeared to downplay the seriousness of terrorism offences.
He claimed that between 99 per cent and almost 100 per cent of people convicted of terrorism offences had cases that “have nothing to do with violence”, adding: “I can’t think of a single terrorism case that involves a person who has killed another person.
“I said this to a bunch of journalists. Initially, they all started laughing and saying, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, show me, tell me?’
“One said, ‘What about Michael Adebolajo [who was found guilty of murdering Lee Rigby]?’
“I said, ‘He is not convicted of terrorism, he was convicted of murder.’
“The people convicted of terrorism, they are convicted of reading a magazine, the majority of them; others for protesting, hundreds were arrested in the protests against the genocide in Gaza, men, women, the elderly people, grey-haired, the disabled, because they put a placard up, saying ‘from the river to the sea’, something like that.
“That’s terrorism – you understand.”
In another video posted last month, Rahman attacked Muslims who choose to join the police.
Responding to an associate who said a friend was “obsessed with joining the Met Police”, he said: “Sometimes people’s greed and their hunger for money leads them to make compromises.
“And those compromises, sometimes they can make you a sinner, and sometimes they make you kafir [non-believer or infidel].
“If you are in a state where you don’t care what you do as long as you get the money then that’s what’s going to happen.”
In a separate video titled False Narratives Of Islam Are Nothing New: War On Terror Post September 11th, Rahman criticised Britain’s role in the War on Terror.
He said: “To borrow a term from [George] Bush there was this ‘axis of evil’, this triangle of three major players, America, Britain and Israel.
“These are the ones that have the most to benefit from keeping Islamophobia alive.
“They claim we are jealous of their way of life and that is why we are attacking them. It hasn’t anything to do with the genocides that they are committing, the wars that they are doing, it is all to do with ideology.
“It is failed war propaganda that [has] failed over time.”
He went on to claim that most people convicted of terrorism offences in the UK were simply “curious teenagers” who had “downloaded a magazine” before being “labelled a terrorist”.
Rahman, right, pictured with hate preacher Anjem Choudary in a photograph released by police in 2016
Other videos focus on comparatively less controversial issues, including whether donkey meat can be considered halal.
Professor Anthony Glees, a security expert at the University of Buckingham, told the Daily Mail: “He represents a serious national security threat. Many will be surprised that he is not locked up again.
“Here you’ve got somebody who glorifies Islamist tenets and appeals in particular to a highly vulnerable younger age group and seems to me to be grooming them into the Islamist fold, and yet feels entirely safe flogging his books at Waterstones.”
He added: “His mission is to sweet-talk impressionable Muslims into committing acts of violence against non-Muslims by insisting that Islamist jihadists are not terrorists or killers.
“It’s highly toxic nonsense. Yet Rahman exploits a barmy logic that can all too easily appeal to the TikTok generation.
“Let us hope the counter-terror cops act to stop Rahman now before it is too late.”