Prominent Muslim Cleric: Collect Gov't Welfare as a 'Jihad Seeker's Allowance

Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary speaks to a group of demonstrators protesting a film apparently made in the US that they say insults the Islamic faith as they demonstrate outside the US embassy in central London on September 14, 2012. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

A prominent Muslim cleric in the United Kingdom reportedly urged a group of fellow Muslims to collect government benefits as a "jihad seeker's allowance," saying non-Muslims who work 9-5 jobs will end up "committing suicide" at the end of their lives when they realize it wasn't worth anything.

Sun News secretly filmed the man's remarks at three different meetings where he said, among other things, that it is natural for Muslims to take money from the kuffar (derogatory term for non-believer), that Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama are the devil, and that Islam is taking over Europe.

He explained the benefits of not working (all subsequent emphasis added):

“You find people are busy working the whole of their life. They wake up at 7 o’clock. They go to work at 9 o’clock. They work for eight, nine hours a day. They come home at 7 o’clock, watch EastEnders, sleep, and they do that for 40 years of their life. That is called slavery.

"And at the end of their life they realize their pension isn’t going to pay out anything, the mortgage isn’t going to pay out anything. Basically they are going to lose everything, commit suicide. What kind of a life is that, honestly? That is the life of kuffar (non-believer)...

“People will say, ‘Ah, but you are not working’.  But the normal situation is for you to take money from the kuffar. So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance. You need to get support.”

Sun News has more on how Choudary described the western way of life:

He gloated that the 9/11 terror attacks “shook the enemy” and claimed white supremacists wished they had the “fortitude” to fly planes into buildings. He went on to proclaim: “You must hate in your heart — Cameron, Obama, all that they worship.

“Democracy, freedom, secularism, the parliament, all the MPs and the Presidents, all the kuffar’s ideas, everything the people worship, we have to believe that they are bad and we have got to reject them.

“Reject them with our tongue. Reject them with our heart. In our heart have hatred towards them.”

Here's complete video of one of Choudary's speeches (skip to 23:45 for an explanation of how Allah believes Westerners are worse than "animals," and 31:30 for the "jihad seeker's allowance" remark):

On Islam taking over Europe, Choudary reportedly declared:

“Now we are taking over Birmingham and populating it...Brussels is 30 per cent, 40 per cent Muslim and Amsterdam. Bradford is 17 per cent Muslim.

“These people are like a tsunami going across Europe. And over here we’re just relaxing, taking over Bradford brother. The reality is changing.”

Though Choudary has a history of making inflammatory remarks, he now claims he was joking about the "jihad seeker's allowance" phrase after major news organizations like the Daily Mail picked up the story.

"Hate preacher pocketing £25,000 a year in benefits calls on fanatics to live off the state," the Daily Mail wrote.

But Choudary claims: “Many people in the Muslim community are on Jobseeker’s Allowance and welfare benefits. As a joke I may say something about Jihad Seeker’s Allowance. Clearly it is not a Jihad Seeker’s Allowance."