John Steele
London Telegraph
Saturday, January 6, 2007

A British Muslim was facing jail last night after being found guilty of soliciting murder when he called for the death of Americans and Danes during a demonstration in London last year against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Umran Javed, 27, was described to the jury at the Old Bailey as one of the leaders of the demonstration outside the Danish embassy against the publication of the cartoons, first in Denmark and then across Europe. He urged the crowd to bomb Denmark and the United States.

Javed, an unemployed university-educated website designer, from Washwood, Birmingham, was recorded on video by the police and arrested later.

As the jury delivered its verdict yesterday, family and friends of Javed, a married father of one, screamed: "Allahu Akbar [God is Great], curse the judge, curse the court, curse the jury."

Last night, Anjem Choudary, 39, who had previously been fined £500 for organising the protest without police permission condemned the trial as "politically motivated".

However, David Perry QC, prosecuting, said Javed's words were plainly criminal.

"If you shout out, 'Bomb, bomb Denmark; bomb, bomb USA', there is no doubt about what you intend your audience to understand," he said.

"The prosecution case is that the defendant was clearly encouraging people to commit murder — terrorist killing. This was not simply a demonstration about cartoons. It was a recruitment for terror."

Javed was remanded for sentencing in April.

He is the second of four men committed for trial at the Old Bailey following the demonstration.

The first was convicted of inciting racial hatred but awaits a retrial on a soliciting to murder charge.

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