Anjem Choudary's supporters chant 'Allahu Akbar' as the hate preacher is jailed for five and a half years - just HALF the maximum sentence he faced
Preacher Anjem Choudary has been jailed for five and a half years for pledging allegiance to ISIS and urging his supporters to join the terror group.
The British-born cleric was found guilty of encouraging support for the bloodthirsty group in a series of incendiary lectures on YouTube.
His supporters shouted 'Allahu Akbar', meaning 'God is great', in the Old Bailey courtroom as his sentence was announced today.
Choudary's lawyer told the court he expects to spend most of his prison sentence in solitary confinement due to fears over him radicalising other inmates. (Daily Mail)
udge Mr Justice Holroyde said the pair had influence over impressionable people at a crucial time when Muslims were looking for guidance on how to respond to the rise of ISIS.
He told Choudary: 'You did nothing to condemn any aspect of what ISIS was doing at the time. In that way you indirectly encouraged violent terrorist activity.'
Despite his ideas spawning a generation of home-grown terrorists and enraging the British public, Choudary had previously thwarted authorities by managing to stay on the right side of the law.
But a pledge of allegiance posted online provided a turning point for police who swooped to arrest Choudary and his deputy Mohammed Mizanur Rahman.
Rahman, who was described as a 'hothead' by the judge, was also given a sentence of five years and six months today. The maximum possible jail term they could have faced was 10 years.
Both men will be entitled to automatic release after serving half of their sentences.
Their trial heard Choudary swore an oath of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an East London pub after the so-called 'caliphate' was declared in the Middle East.
He and his deputy then pressed upon Muslims their supposed obligation to 'make hijrah', meaning to travel to ISIS-occupied lands, the court heard.
Choudary, now 49, rose to notoriety as the mouthpiece of Omar Bakri Mohammed - a Syrian extremist who founded the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun (ALM).
Choudary courted publicity by voicing controversial views on Sharia law, while building up a following of thousands through social media, demonstrations and lectures around the world.
n one speech in March 2013, Choudary, from Ilford, north-east London, set out his ambitions for the Muslim faith to 'dominate the whole world'.
He said: 'Next time when your child is at school and the teacher says, "What do you want when you grow up? What is your ambition?", they should say, "To dominate the whole world by Islam, including Britain - that is my ambition".'
His supporters included Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the murderers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, and suspected ISIS executioner Siddhartha Dhar.
Shortly after the announcement of the caliphate, Choudary held a meeting with his closest aides at a curry house in Mile End Road in east London to discuss it.
Before accepting it was legitimate, he also consulted his 'spiritual guide', Bakri Mohammed, currently in jail in Lebanon, and Mohammed Fachry, the head of ALM in Indonesia.
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