Man who murdered Glasgow shopkeeper for ‘disrespecting Islam’ calls for beheadings in prison YouTube video

I don’t usually post from the Independent, but this time they have the most accessible report on this.

A man who murdered a Glasgow shopkeeper for “disrespecting Islam” has released messages from prison calling on supporters to behead other “insulters”.

Tanveer Ahmed, 32, admitted stabbing Asad Shah to death in his shop because he felt his victim was “disrespecting the prophet Mohamed” with his beliefs as an Ahmadi Muslim. Now, he is encouraging others to do the same in extremist audio messages that appear to have been recorded and released after he was jailed for life.

In Ahmed’s most recent speech, uploaded to YouTube earlier this month, he celebrates sending Mr Shah “to hell with the help of Allah, the prophet, angels and saints”. “I have the honour of sending him to the hell forever,” he says in Urdu, giving the date as 7 September.

The message then calls on listeners to repeat a chant vowing to “offer their lives and souls”, ending: “There’s only one punishment for insulters: cut off their heads, cut off their heads, cut off their heads.”

It was one of five messages, uploaded to the same YouTube account in May, June, August and most recently on 7 September. They are believed to have been recorded on a mobile phone, possibly during a call made by Ahmed from Barlinnie Prison.

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said he could not comment on individual cases. “We work closely with Police Scotland to detect and prevent crime,” he added. “We make overt recordings of phone calls made in prison.”

Police Scotland have also launched an investigation into Ahmed’s audio messages, which could constitute hate speech or incitement.

The videos have generated fresh alarm in the UK’s Ahmadi Muslim community, following a Facebook page praising the murder of Mr Shah and leaflets calling for Ahmadis to convert or be killed distributed in London.

Ahmed was unrepentant in court, releasing a statement through a lawyer accusing Mr Shah of “disrespecting the messenger of Islam, the prophet Mohamed”, adding: “If I had not done this others would and there would have been more killing and violence in the world.”

But he was given leave to appeal his minimum sentence on Thursday, with judges at a hearing in Edinburgh ruling that the murderer’s lawyers can make a case for the term to be reduced.