‘Soldier of Allah’: Accused Killer of the British Soldier Who Was Hacked to Death Says He ‘Loves’ Al Qaeda

One of the two men accused of hacking to death British soldier Lee Rigby said in court he “loves” Al Qaeda and referred to its fighters as his “brothers in Islam.”

Michael Adebolajo said during his murder trial on Monday that he is a “soldier of Allah” in the “army of Allah.”

"I'm a soldier of Allah and I understand that some people might not recognize this because we do not wear fatigues and we do not go to the Brecon Beacons and train and this sort of thing. But we are still soldiers in the sight of Allah as a mujahid [fighter],” Adebolajo said, according to Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

Asked if he regretted killing Rigby, he said: “I will never regret obeying the command of Allah. That is all I can say. I'm a mujahid, I'm a soldier, I'm doing what Allah commands me to do. I can't do anything else."

Adebolajo, 28, said of Al Qaeda: “I love them, they're my brothers. I have never met them. I consider them my brothers in Islam.”

"I'm a soldier of Allah," Michael Adebolajo told a London court on Monday (Image source: ITV, May 2013)

He is accused, along with defendant Michael Adebowale, 22, of running Rigby over with a car then hacking him to death in the street in the Woolwich area of London on May 22.

Though the suspects deny the murder charge, Adebolajo told jurors in the London Central Criminal Court about the hours leading up to the killing and explained that while he wasn’t sure Rigby was a soldier, he had been hoping to kill a military man.

“[B]efore we started out on that day and the night previous to that I started worshiping Allah and begging him that ... we strike a soldier and a soldier only," he said on the witness stand.

The Associated Press reported that Adebolajo offered details about his move toward radical Islam, “saying his parents were Christian and he used to read from the Bible, but he became frustrated and converted to Islam during his time at university.”

“He said he had tried to travel to Somalia so that he could live under Sharia law, but was detained by Kenyan troops before he could get there. He also said that he had taken part in anti-war demonstrations, but felt that they were not effective,” the AP reported.

He repeated his previously-expressed position that Rigby was killed due to British government policy, in particular its involvement the Iraq war.

“I was keen that the reason for the death of this man is not misunderstood. I wanted people to understand that this is only happening for one reason, foreign policy,” he said according to the Telegraph.

Adebolajo, the father of six children, said he should be handed over to Al Qaeda, freed or killed.

“As an enemy soldier, I believe I should be ransomed to my mujahid brothers … or I should be set free, or I should be killed,” he said.

As TheBlaze reported last week, Adebolajo, said during a June police interview that was played in court that he and his co-defendant modeled the brutal method of execution on how “animals” are killed in Islam.

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