Irishman dreams of flying “Black Flag of Islam” over Irish Parliament

From the Irish Times:



Irishman Khalid Kelly – who dreams of seeing the ‘black flag of Islam’ over the Dáil – has returned from Pakistan to set up a group called Islam for Ireland, writes MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent

IT IS seven years since Khalid Kelly, Liberties altar boy turned Muslim convert turned radical blowhard, prompted heckling and jeers from a Late Late Show audience. Back then Kelly, dressed in black and grey robes and accompanied by a fellow member of British-based organisation al-Muhajiroun, defended the 9/11 attacks and claimed one day the world would be ruled by sharia law.

Kelly became something of a poster boy for al-Muhajiroun and its founder, the controversial Syrian-born cleric Omar Bakri, and his association with the movement continued throughout the several reincarnations that followed its disbanding in 2004.

Bakri and his followers developed a schtick that blended jihadist rhetoric with virulent anti-Semitism and homophobia. They revelled in the notoriety and acres of press coverage generated by their inflammatory pronouncements.

Kelly regularly featured in breathless tabloid reports. He popped up on CNN to argue that the 2005 London transport bombings were justified because of Tony Blair’s foreign policy.

Then suddenly the man some media outlets referred to as “the famous Irish Muslim convert” dropped off the radar. Rumours he had pitched up in Pakistan proved correct when a reporter for a British newspaper interviewed him there last November. Under the headline “Irishman wants to kill for Islam”, Kelly boasted of undergoing weapons training in Pakistan’s tribal badlands.