The Power Of Influence - Teacher Planned To Raise 'Army' Of Jihadi Children

A teacher in Islamic schools in the UK was radicalizing his students, preparing them to assist him in massive terror attacks on 30 targets across London.

Umar Haque, 25, planned to raise an "army" of jihadi children, The Telegraph reported.

Haque was employed at two schools and a mosque in East London. "And he tried -- and he did, we believe -- radicalize vulnerable children from the ages of 11 to 14," said Commander Dean Hayden, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

"His plan was to create an army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London."

Haque had access to 250 children, 100 of whom he tried to radicalize by showing them extremist videos, which included beheadings. The children were told that they would meet a similar fate if they told anyone about what they were being taught.

Haque planned to prepare the children for martyrdom when they were older. He planned to teach them how to drive, presumably to carry out vehicular suicide operations at iconic sites in London like Big Ben and Heathrow Airport.

No one reported his activities. When police tried to investigate, they were met with a "wall of silence" from the schools, said Hayden, which has made the investigation all the more difficult.

The children, for their part "were paralyzed with fear ... He threatened them that if they were to talk to teachers, parents or to allude to anybody outside of that classroom of what was going on, that they would meet a similar fate. It doesn't appear that any of those children raised the alarm bell of what was going on."

One child spoke to the police. On a video of his testimony, the child said, "He is teaching us terrorism, like how to fight," he said. "If you fight for the sake of Allah, on Judgment Day, when you get judged for your good deeds and bad deeds, fighting is good.

"He wants a group of 300 men. He's training us now so by the time I'm in Year 10 [age 15] we will be physically strong enough to fight."

One of the schools Haque worked at, the Lantern of Knowledge Secondary School, received excellent reports from Ofsted, the governmental agency that regulates educational institutions in the UK. Inspectors reported that the school exhibited a "strong sense of community, harmony and respect."

Authorities originally became suspicious of Haque in April 2016 when he was stopped at Heathrow trying to board a plane to Turkey. At this point, his passport was taken away, but he still continued working at the Lantern of Knowledge school until the following September. 

On January 24, 2017, he was caught driving without insurance. It was at this point that police started digging deeper into his activities.

Thirty-five children are now under care of long-term support from social services under programs that involve the police, local authorities and the Home Office.

Originally published at Clarion Project - reposted with permission.