Facebook friends with a ‘British jihadi’
A man who claims to have been friends with one of the ‘Isis Britons’, Abdul Raqib Amin, tells Channel 4 News that he was “obsessed with jihad”.
Abdul Raqib Amin has been identified as one of the three British Muslims featured in a promotional film for Isis, encouraging British Muslims to fight in Iraq.
Channel 4 News spoke to a man who studied at Aberdeen university, and says that he met Mr Amin during his time there.
The man, who wants to remain anonymous, claims that Mr Amin was obsessed with jihad, and mistook him for a potential kindred spirit because of his long beard.
“I saw him in a mosque one time, and me and my friend – we just moved to Aberdeen looking for a flat. We were looking around, then someone suggest that we go to the mosque and ask there.”
In the mosque he claims he saw Mr Amin gathered with some friends.
You need to have big muscles for jihad A man who says that he knew Mr Amin describes what he said in the gym
“They asked about our names and they wrote them down for some reason,” he said. “Then I told my friend we should tell the police about that because I don’t trust these guys. He said, ‘no it’s fine, we just don’t come back to this mosque any more’.”
Strict views
The man added: “He would talk about jihad, and we should be good Muslim, and we should go for jihad, but I was like ‘what type of jihad you talk about?'”
“He asked me sometimes to pray for him, I said, ‘come on, I’m not [a] very strict Muslim’.
“I had big long beard so he thought I’m very extremist Muslim. He asked me to pray for him and ask God to help him, but I said, ‘come on man, I’m not very strict Muslim, you have to ask me that?’
“I used to go to gym, I saw him one time actually. And he asked me ‘yeah, you need to have big muscles for jihad too’.
“Especially I remember one time, some guys they had a dinner for Ramadan. And he used to be there, and he used to tell us about a lot of things like jihad, and we should be good Muslim and we shouldn’t go out a lot – I used to go out.
“So he said, ‘no… you shouldn’t do that, this is forbidden’ and a lot of things like that.”
Facebook friends
Mr Amin was brought up in Aberdeen after moving from Bangladesh and his family reportedly left the Scottish city about two years ago.
He was identified as “Brother Abu Bara’ al Hindi” in the video which called for UK Muslims to join Isis in Iraq.
The man claimed the two were friends on Facebook for a time, and said he posted comments on Mr Amin’s page objecting to what he was advocating.
These people are killing, this is not jihad The man claims he made disapproving comments on Mr Amin’s Facebook page
He said Mr Amin painted a picture of fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya as being carried out by the same group.
“He was putting this picture, and I was saying: ‘so you’re part of them, and I’m so disappointed of you because I’m really not happy that I knew that you were part of them’.
“‘These people are killing, this is not jihad, the real jihad you should go to fight in Palestine if you want, to go somewhere else, but this is not the real jihad. You are killing innocent people there’.
“He didn’t want to explain a lot, because I think he didn’t trust me that time. I think he still doesn’t trust me, especially after I wrote what I wrote on his Facebook.”
Abdul Raqib Amin is said to be the third Briton in the video for the Isis group along with 20-year-olds Nasser Muthana and Reyaad Khan, who are both from Cardiff.
Ahmed, the father of Nasser Muthana, believes his other son, 17-year-old Aseel, is also in the Middle East and said they were both “brainwashed” in the UK.