MEMBERS of the Ahmaddiya Muslim community say they fear “copycat” extremist killings following Asad Shah’s murder.
Leaders from the community’s mosque in Glasgow made the comments after Tanveer Ahmed was sentenced yesterday to at least 27 years in jail.
Following the sentencing the Scottish Government announced it is to review the law covering religiously aggravated crimes.
The Crown Office decided the circumstances of the killing in March did not meet the “statutory test for an offence to be aggravated by religious prejudice” but Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, has now written to the Justice Secretary as he believes the case highlighted a “potential gap” in legislation.
Read more: Taxi driver who murdered Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah jailed for a minimum of 27 years
If charged with an offence aggravated by religious prejudice, Ahmed could have faced a longer minimum sentence.
Ahmed, a 32-year-old Uber taxi driver, travelled to Glasgow from Yorkshire to murder the shopkeeper in his Shawlands business because he said Mr Shah was claiming he was a prophet.
Ahmed shouted “praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one prophet” and raised a clenched fist in defiance as he was led from the dock. Dozens of supporters replied to him with the same message from the public benches.
But Ahmed Owusu-Konadu, a senior member of the Ahmaddiya community in Scotland condemned the apparent support for Ahmed, and urged the police to be vigilant against extremist copycats.
Mr Owusu-Konadu said: “We may start seeing situations like what we see in Pakistan and other countries where it becomes a copycat. One person starts, they hail him and it becomes something others would want to do.
“We are hoping this sentencing will act as a deterrent and that the justice system and intelligence system will be alert and have a grip on such people.”
“This is their own self-made ideologies. It has nothing to do with Islam. It is quite sad people would travel such a distance to hail him. This is where we expect the British system to rise up and uphold the law.”
Community leaders have expressed condolences to the family of Mr Shah, many of whom have now fled Scotland following the 40-year-old’s murder in March. Imam Daud Ahmad Qureshi said: “Difference of opinion and faith is a different thing. Nobody has the right to take someone’s life over a difference of opinion and faith.
“This is not just against the Ahmadis. The extremists have no religion, they are against the whole of humanity. Today it is an Ahmadi Muslim, tomorrow it will be someone else.”
Last month Athar Shah, the brother of the murdered shopkeeper, described Ahmed as a “monster” who “took away a person who was peaceful, who wanted unity in the world”.
Athar, who witnessed the horrific stabbing of his brother on March 24, explained the murder had “split the family apart”.
He added: “It’s unimaginable what has happened to my brother. The family don’t feel safe any more living here in Scotland. Some members of the family have left Scotland, or are in the process of leaving. It shouldn’t have come to this.”
Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty, local policing commander for Greater Glasgow Division, said the force will “work with our communities to eradicate such behaviour, to ensure no individual, group or community feels isolated, marginalised or threatened”.
He added: “I hope the sentencing will reassure the community in Glasgow’s south side, as well as across Scotland, that acts of violence such as this are unacceptable. Religious intolerance in any form is not tolerated in our society.
Humza Yousaf, SNP MSP for Pollok, said the killing had sent “shockwaves” throughout the Muslim community. He added: “As a Muslim I was taught to respect other people’s beliefs regardless of what faith they are. This murder was carried out to cause division between communities.”
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